Very well said! And I couldn't agree with you more!
I hope my vote here in Ohio counts for something! For the betterment of our country! For the "regular folk"! For HOPE!
Sweet, patriotic, poetic.
Awesome.
As a "Coastal" who resides deep in steel country (Pittsburgh, PA) it's been a crazy ride these past months. Hopefully this battleground will go for hope too! (I can't possibly imagine PA votes red... please, oh please.....)
Those sentiments are one of the many reasons why I was so excited to vote today. We need hope, not fear in this country. I'm in Virginia and can't wait to see which way we go. It's going to be exciting to watch.
After a large gulp of my mocha, I shout...
AAAA-MEN-AH...
HAL-LEH-LUJAH!!!
I assume you have visited http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/
Seems like you'd get and enjoy it.
Amen.
Voted this morning in our tiny little town in the middle of nowhere. I know I'm not in the majority here, being the latte type in all but my vote counts just the same.
Limber up that box wine!
Couldn't have said it better myself. I voted in Washington state where it's not a battleground and sways elite, but is still important to let our voices be heard.
Loved the Lincoln quote, one of my favorite presidents.
AMEN!
When I early-voted last week here in Florida, I felt a sense of being part of history which I have never felt before in my life.
Such hope I have.
Such hope.
Great post. You have the thoughts, you have the words. I enjoy reading you.
If BO doesn't find a place for people like you in his new government it will be a travesty.
I think everyone in Europe under the age of fifty is holding their breath.
That was a fantastic post! I am in Obama Land so it's easy to forget that everyone does not agree with me -thanks for the gentle yet fair reminder. I will be at the election night rally in Chicago tonight and can't wait to hopefully be a part of history (though I am cautiously optimistic)!
It felt really good to vote this morning in a competitive swing state.
It has been awhile since a politician really, truly inspired me to hope. I just pray that the next four years do not disappoint.
This is one of my favorite posts that you have ever written.
Everyone in Canada under *and* over 50 is holding breath, too.
I think one of the most disturbing, devisive news stories I saw this morning was on the Today Show. Matt Lauer did a piece on 'what it means' if Obama wins or does not win. If he wins the election, it apparently means that we have triumphed over racism. If he loses, it means that white America will not vote for a biracial man.---What racist bullcrap either way! Hopefully, voters are deciding on the platforms of the candidates and not on the color of their skin. (On the flip side, does the Today Show's line of reasoning tell us that if McCain loses, it is because those who didn't vote for him are sexist because they don't want a woman in high office? I don't think Today would own up to that one. They would likely say it was due to platform, lack of experience, unusual regional dialect, pregnant daughter, etc.) Sorry, Mattie--can't have it both ways.
Just came out of Lurk-Land to say thank you...we all need reminders like these. I'm writing from true-blue Portland, OR, and couldn't be more sick and tired of these divisive culture wars that serve none of us.
There are intelligent, thoughtful, voting-for-Obama people out there who go to Wal-Mart and eat tuna cassarole out of necessity, not desire. It's insulting to insinuate that people who do these things (yes, including me) are in a lower echelon than anyone else. Hell, I even went to college! I lived in Texas and didn’t vote for Bush either time! Shocking yes?
The engineers in my family insist that high-end wine in a box would taste better from the box (air tight seals)than the bottle (in a blind taste test)but that it's the basic prejudice/snobbery of drinking wine-in-a-box that keeps it from high end wine from being packaged that way. Not sure if this is true as it's all theoretical MIT geek talk and neither one of them drinks!
Thanks for the Lincoln quote. Really.
Holding our breath in Scotland too, and obsessively checking the BBC website...
Tell 'em brother!
I watched as an elderly Latina woman was turned away at the polls because she didn't know she had to register before being allowed to vote.
I watched as a 60+ year old man who registered to vote for the first time in his life was turned away because in our state convicted felons are never again allowed to vote despite the intentions of the 14th Ammendment.
I waited an hour this morning for the honor of casting my ballot. And I voted for Obama. I have a sliver of hope that Tennessee could turn blue and I wait with baited breath to find out how my state votes.
I am not a latte-kinda-guy. I drink as good of coffee as I can afford shipped from the east coast in the manner that God intended me to: strong and black! I could be considered among the ranks of the "I won't judge you... wink wink" Elites.
Wow. As always, Dutch, spot on and poignant. Lincoln's words mean more in this election than most realize.
As a "coastal elitist" who never left the Midwest (NW Indiana to Chicago to Cleveland), I've come to terms with my rustbelt roots and even embrace them, as I live in Cleveland proper and shop at Target in the shadow of a steel mill.
The last time I felt this inspired was election night of 1992, watching Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea on the porch of the governor's mansion and wished I could drive to the celebration.
Now with children, I wish I could drive them to Grant Park to celebrate their future. Then again, given I'm a mom, I'm not doing anything to disrupt the precious sleep schedule.
from your mouth, jim...
i've never been so excited and anxious to vote, ever...i heard even my polls are an hour+ wait- unheard of here!!!
word.
although I'm voting in Oakland, so my super liberal blue vote means almost nothing...except when I exuberantly cast my NO ON PROP 8 vote.
I tried three times to write something about this post that didn't make me sound like a sycophantic nutcase, but failed. I'll just say I'm glad I got to read this today.
And please let it be a landslide!
I feel the same anxiety for the next 4 years coming that I've felt for the past 8 no matter who wins.
I've found this entire campaign, from both candidates, to be the most divisive I've ever witnessed. And maybe it's not so much the candidates as it is the entire campaign industry which surrounds the candidates.
I feel like I have to choose who will do the least amount of damage in the next few years. I don't feel hope and I don't feel like my country is coming first. Mostly, I just feel like I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop once someone takes office.
You nailed it. Both the SF thing (and why you left -- pretty much same thing for me), and the country-wide division and blending.
I voted mid-morning in my tiny township located in central PA, where the flames of the Culture Wars have been fanned in unrelenting fashion the past nine months, and the line was out the door! This was my first in-person voting experience, but my mom was shocked at the number of people. I was #414 at 10 am and proudly cast my ballot for Obama/Biden. I'm fairly certain 85% of the other people were diehard Republican Regular Folks, but everyone was in a great mood. Regardless of our divided opinions, it was so nice to see people shaking hands enthusiastically and turning out in droves to participate in democracy. Whatever the outcome, tomorrow we're going to wake up to a new start that this country is badly in need of.
Besides a big hurrah for the general tenor of this post, I'd like to add that "my family began treating me like a pet squirrel who'd taught himself to speak," is a phrase that will stick with me.
Thank you Jim.
"I watched as an elderly Latina woman was turned away at the polls because she didn't know she had to register before being allowed to vote.
I watched as a 60+ year old man who registered to vote for the first time in his life was turned away because in our state convicted felons are never again allowed to vote despite the intentions of the 14th Ammendment."
I watched a young 18-something girl get turned away from voting because she hadn't registered. I'm also a semi-convicted felon who votes (deferred adjudication) and my husband IS a CONVICTED FELON who votes.
Ignorance is no excuse for the law.
I used to live in Virginia and now live in upstate New York. People are just as passionate up here about Obama as if we were in a swing state. My sister, who is voting in Virginia, said she feels a real shift down there. Granted, she is in a college town, but a college town in the mountains.
I can feel something shift in this country. Even if Obama doesn't win, he made an impact on the people of this country that cannot be erased. I believe in Barack Obama's message with all my heart.
I stood line for three hours today, in the middle of test week. On a normal test-week day, I would be studying those three hours. I stood in line for three hours today to vote for Barack Obama in a state so red it looks like it's bleeding. Because I have to believe that he can win, even if it's not here. Because I have to believe that things can get better. Because I do.
Hear, hear!
In swing state Missouri, we have felt the division and also the hope. May the hope prevail!
Curious--what was your precinct like today? Ours was an hour wait this morning, and my parents waited two in North Rosedale Park. I knew the only way Obama could lose Michigan is if Detroit stayed home, and we are sure not, at least not on the northwest side!
I packed a massive "busy" bag with food, books, paper & pens, etc. plopped the kids in the wagon and walked over to the precinct at 1:45 thinking I was in for a two-hour wait (my neighbors trying to vote before work had to wait two hours). instead I walked right up to the polling place, showed my ID and voted. another nearby polling place had no line, but one a block away (in a part of the neighborhood with section 8 housing where a lot of my neighbors claim the crime comes from) there was a line with 200-300 people in it.
I would have voted much faster if I had just checked the straight ticket rather than going line by line so I could vote for the green party candidate over Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick. No one in that family will ever get my vote.
This is exactly what I needed to read to stop my obsessive trolling of news sites.
Incidentally, The Splendid Table fully endorses several brands of boxed wine -- and you can't get more coastal elite than that. After my husband heard the episode where they compared several boxed wines, he stopped mocking his dad and stocked the fridge with two boxes. We couldn't fit food in there for months. Hopefully your post won't inspire him to do it again. 
Amen.
YAY!!!! Great post, thanks for getting right to the heart of the matter.
Amen.
Beautifully done. Thanks for the uplifting read, something nice to distract me while I sit here nervous, hopeful, anxious.
Am getting ready to uncork my wine, but it's Charles Shaw, which I think is the only thing lower than boxed. Yum, cheap.
Hear, hear! I hope I never hear about "red states" vs. "blue states" ever again. Let's be friends instead.
I was nearly disenfranchised today because of a clerical error, which I have spent the last 3 months trying to fix. The people at the polls tried to force me into voting by provisional ballot, but I refused and made a huge scene. In the end I was able to vote by absentee ballot, but I had to fight for it, even though I was legally registered. The whole story is on my blog, but I'm just terrified to think of how many others are turned away, and don't raise holy hell like my husband and I did. What about those who don't know their rights, or don't know the non-universal, ever-changing rules? Obama fills me with hope, but our election system fills me with dread.
This wannabe-elitist-cultural snob getting ready to birth her first baby in the pseudo backwoods of northeast Ohio while wishing she lived in Oregon or Canada thanks you for your poignant words -- and for reminding her why she chose to set up roots in her home state.
Beautifully put.
Thanks for thinking this way, thanks for saying this. I agree 100%, but I'm too wrought up over all of this to be able to quite put it into such frank terms tonight.
Very well said. I used to live in NY, and was WAY too conservative to be a NY Democrat. Now I live BACK in Texas, where I was born and raised, and I'm WAY too 'liberal elitist' to be a TX Conservative. Can I tell you how much I HATE 'red state/blue state?' Ugh.
Amen, brother. Couldn't have said it better.
Great post. And thank god the streets of america are too crowded with angels right now.
angels: 1, fear: 0. nicely done, america.
congratulations America!
i've been watching with baited breath all the way down here in Australia.
I'm a lurker who reads your posts but hasn't yet commented. I thought this post was absolutely fantastic, so I outed myself.
You guys did it. And way over here in Australia I've just watched your president-elect speak and felt tears welling in my eyes, and there's a veritable tidal wave of hope that's hitting even our faraway shores. Thankyou.
Many, many congratulations!!! We just heard the good news on the radio, seriously, even here in Germany we sat on hot coals during the election! I just hope that the formerly strong american-european bond will be repaired again...
LOVED your post btw
Another Australian who is waving, thumbs-upping and yelling THANKS, YOU GUYS!!!!!! :-D
And thanks Jim for another gorgeous post.
Long time lurker...first time poster.
FYI this udon noodle eating, black rim bespectacled, calexico indulgent, havarti convert reader just wishes to inform y'all that the divey pubs of left-leaning-pinko-commie Newtown, Sydney, Australia were all ablaze this evening. Champagne aflowing. This magnificent event has been widely celebrated by the Australian people.
Ecstatic.
I'm blue sitting in a red state, who just happened to see it my way last night for the first time in 40 years. I grew up in an era when JFK was god, and his presidency and life shaped my political leanings. I'm not saying our soon-to-be president is god, but listening to his speech last night, I cried tears of joy because I felt hope for our country, and I was thankful that I was able to be here to see a man who I believe will be one of the world's greatest leaders win this election. Amen.
Well said.
As a former Coastal Elite who is now a card-carrying Regular Folk in NC, I really enjoyed this. Thanks!
Thanks for the good post-election read. I've never heard that particular Lincoln quotation. So timeless.
This post is one of my favorites...
Amen is right. Born and bred and now back in Missouri (after living on both coasts and in Chicago), I am ecstatic about this election but frustrated by the constant condescension from my people, the so-called liberal elite. Isolating yourself in pockets of the like-minded does not seem like virtue to me, however much I can understand the choice. I think we elected a president who can preach to the whole country, not just to the choir. That seems almost revolutionary.
As a Canadian who moved to the South (NC) 14 years ago, it was a great election for me and the first time I ever voted. Because I'm a mother now, and wanted my 5 1/2 month old to know at even this tender age that it's not just a responsibility, it's a privilege.
And I am TOTALLY an agnostic, latte-loving suburban mom who shops at Wal-Mart but also likes to go out for sushi now and then. But I don't like the sushi to be too wild or crazy or have weird legs sticking out of it. Spicy Tuna for me, please. With a side of Wal-Mart Doritos and a sweet tea.
beautiful! if there were an award for prescience, you should get it... very interesting that you and the president-elect referred to the same phrase in lincoln's speech.
I was feeling kinda mavericky (a new fav word) so I voted for Obama! My neighbors are generally horrified to have a blatant Democrat on our street in the Dallas 'burbs (called Clinton Dr.). You betcha!
So did you write Obama's speech last night? I'm glad to see he stole that quote right out from under you.
Brilliant writing. I am so happy at this outcome. Never have I had such hope for this country.
See, it all works out!
Reporting live from a red county, as yet to be determined what color state: NC. Supposing i fall somewhere in between the latte-elitist to tuna casserole spectrum. I had to counter the utterance of the N word at my 4th annual halloween bash, yet met several Obama voters. My students, some are "depressed" a the outcome. I smile. Those who don't know I'm waiting on a phone call from a black baby maybe are confused....why am I so passionate about it? Last niught they were talking on the news about how he did it and pointed to money and organization. Ok that's the nuts and pragmatic bolts, but could it be that he actually inspired us again?
Well, this is a tad late, but as a Coastal Elite living in the middle of Flyover Country (Wisconsin!), I totally identify with everything you said. Except that I live in Madison, which is the Berkeley of the Midwest (doncha know).
Either way, however, people from Madison and much of the midwest look down on us "coasties", no matter how liberal they are. There's divisiveness everywhere, but I hope it begins to change.
Beautiful post...well at least the end...LOL
I too have been to San Fran many times and seen just such sites. My 85 yr old grandma was not as amused as I however!
I personally don't believe there is anything necessarily wrong with living in an area where the majority of people view the world similarly to the way you do. *As long as* you recognize it for what it is -- a sheltered enclave -- AND you have the maturity and decency to look around you and recognize that not all the world is or should be like you. I certainly do understand YOUR desire not to live in an area like San Francisco, however. (or the Dallas suburbs for that matter...)
I also don't agree with stereotyping all San Franciscans as elitist pricks. I find it similar to certain European attitudes regarding all Americans as uneducated, gun-toting imbeciles. From reading your posts I get the impression that your time in San Francisco was spent within a very narrow hipster social group, which you understandably grew existentially weary of. That does not mean your experience of San Francisco *is* San Francisco.
Despite how it may appear, I really do love your posts. But I am continually surprised at the guilt and anxiety you seem to feel regarding the fact that you are not "Regular Folk". You should feel proud about the lifestyle you have chosen to lead. There is nothing wrong with it.
Hope you don't mind a little criticism. Just adding a small bit of balance to the other 70 or so comments here.
Great post - and great day. I cried through his speech, I cried when I got up in the morning and off and on all day yesterday and again today. I am so happy. Not because I think it's all going to be fixed, but because he'd for real and we all (or most of us anyway) finally stood up and said no to fear, to lies, to division. At least now I can have some hope that things might actually get better. It's been a long time coming.
Great post but this I simply do not get:
"At some point, though, I realized that I did not want to live the rest of my life in a paradise where nearly everyone agreed with me."
Wha???
WHY????
You are talking about San Francisco. I cannot comprehend this thinking.
Where I live is not paradise but I lived in the place where no one agreed with me and I'm never going back there. Never, never, never. I'm stuck on the coasts, although I could live in Texas if push came to shove.
It's like saying "I don't want to be happy."
"At some point, though, I realized that I did not want to live the rest of my life in a paradise where nearly everyone agreed with me."
Congratulations, you've managed to exchange your real world in which nearly everyone agrees with you for an online one in which nearly everyone agrees with you.
Believe it or not, there are those of us, even on the coasts, who do not think Obama represents hope, despite the rhetoric.
great post but I may never forgive you for "consider goiterballs."
MY EYES! OH...GOD...MY EYES!
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