Once You Go Black… (Barack Obama Got Reelected. Meh?)

jamin | November 7, 2012 | 0 Comments

Congratulations, President Obama, on another term!

So, Bronco Bama got reelected. The United States of America decided to give President Barack Hussein Obama II another chance at this whole Leader of the Free World thing. Honestly, my nerves were bad all day long on Election Day (11/6/2012). I knew it would be close. I knew that Obama needed Ohio and Florida to win.

I did not expect that we’d know by 11 p.m. who’d won. I did not expect that Obama didn’t even need Florida and Ohio to win. (Thank God for that because I’m tired of these “Battleground States” deciding elections. You want to act a fool, then you get left behind.) But Obama won Ohio, Romney wouldn’t concede, Karl Rove was having a meltdown on live television, Fox News accepted Obama’s victory, NBC stuck to it, CNN was late with the call, and I suddenly felt relieved.

That’s it, just relief.

I’m relieved because Barack Obama was the better of the two candidates, in my opinion, to lead the United States of America. Romney had no plan but to have a rumored skeletal framework of getting things done and allegedly leaving it up to Congress to fill in the gaps. Yet, the GOP says Obama doesn’t show leadership on everything. Okay, then. I’m relieved because I voted for Obama. I’m relieved because I hope that the Supreme Court won’t go all wacky in the future (assuming that Ginsberg, Breyer, Kennedy, and Scalia retire) doing things like Citizens United (which failed at the polls, thankfully). But, compared to 2008, I’m just relieved.

I don’t know if it’s because I’m tired of the 2012 Election Campaign Season, the hijinks of the GOP Presidential Primary debates, the lies upon lies upon lies that Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan had no qualms about telling, the way that evangelical Christians viewed Mormonism as a cult prior to Romney becoming their guy and even going so far as to claim that Mormonism was part of a Christian denomination instead of a cult (good luck taking that back, y’all!), the outright racist attitudes I was seeing on social media toward the Obama campaign and supporters, the constant barrage of political ads, the negativity of both campaigns, the *screams* – you get what I’m saying.

I joyfully cried in 2008. I expected to cry in 2012. I didn’t and couldn’t even come close to crying. I was just screaming and jumping up and down when I saw Obama clear 270 votes. I screamed more when I saw Virginia come in at the end for him. I didn’t expect that. I guess I’m just tired.

I’m tired of Congressional gridlock. Instead of Mitch McConnell saying he hopes for a better 2nd term, he said the same things, basically, that there was no mandate and he expects to not work with Obama. (Can someone please out this man so he can go gently into that good night? Kentucky will not stand for him to be gay. Believe me.)

I’m tired of Obama not being willing to bend on some things with the GOP. I hope he learns how to give more in his 2nd term to get things done, agendas be damned. Do what’s best for the American people. I hope his planned meeting with Romney isn’t just a photo op, but he genuinely asks Romney what he feels he knows about spurring the economy and getting people back to work (which I don’t really think Romney knows much about – he balanced the Olympics with government money and was a robber baron of failing companies, but you know, whatever).

I hope things get better this time around, but the world is already starting into its double-dip recession and we’ll probably be right there with them. I hope America realizes that we are more than agendas now. I hope that the pundits will shut up more and that saner heads in the GOP prevail and take over the party because the shift they’re on is a path of total destruction if they ever hope to maintain national relevance. I hope that people wake up and start reading more, paying attention to math, science, and educating themselves on all sides of an issue and a candidate instead of just believing what Nate Silver says about a race, or what Matt Drudge says. (How long is the line to have sex with Nate Silver today? I’m just saying, man. He’s got easy access to it for a good little while.)

I hope all of this, but I know in my heart, sadly, that it won’t happen. Can Nate Silver predict that for me? I hate to be pessimistic about this, and I was admittedly a bit pessimistic about Obama’s chances heading into 11/6/2012, but am relieved that I was proven wrong. I pray that Obama leads this country through its problems extremely well enough to overwhelmingly get reelected for a third term (if it were possible), that he realizes he was placed there by God and should do what’s best by Him and the American people, that he works well with Congress, and that the nation does well. I pray that I get relief when I look up in 2014 and 2016 over the state of the country instead of pessimism.

I hope it’s just election fatigue that’s gotten ahold of me. I really do. I’m not overjoyed, but I am relieved. I am hopeful, but not wildly this time. More pragmatically hopeful, I guess.

(I also hope to get seated tickets for the Inauguration this year and some free tickets to a ball where the Obamas will make an appearance. Also, THANK GOD IN HEAVEN ABOVE ON THE GREAT WHITE THRONE WITH SERAPHIM FLYING AROUND THAT THE POLITICAL ADS ARE DONE!)