The Election, and Our Next Steps

I’ve received numerous emails from MoveOn.org, the Obama campaign, the Democratic National Committee, and other organizations urging us to capture this moment by making good on the initiatives we have all hoped for, and this is no doubt important work. As a Christian, though, I wonder if maybe this is a time to step back and consider not what our favorite political group would have us do right now, but what God would have us do.

I haven’t posted to Faithful Democrats since the election, because I find myself (1) still in joyful shock about the election of Barack Obama as the 44^th President of the United States, and at the same time (2) feeling that the first piece I write after the election should be momentous, full of the same grand hope and plans for the future we’ve come to expect from our President-elect.

But I don’t have anything incredibly momentous to say that hasn’t already been said a hundred times since November 4. Instead, I want to share a personal reflection that I wrote a few days after the election for my family’s blog, about how the election affected me. Here it is (written Saturday, November 8):

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Last Tuesday was transformative for me. On Tuesday around 6 p.m. — after months of watching the news and a last two or three weeks or so of pure nerves — Jennifer, the boys, Jennifer’s dad Jeff, and two good friends Joan and Grady got together to watch the election results come in. You all probably watched it as well, so I don’t have to tell you what happened, but I will say this: watching Barack Obama get to the point where it looked certain that he couldn’t lose was big (particularly with Ohio in the mix). Watching his electoral vote total climb to 275 — past the winning point — after he took California was huge. But it was a few minutes later, when they called Florida — Florida: the troublesome state of 2000! — for Obama that I broke down and cried. Because that was the moment I knew that the excitement generated over his candidacy was no fluke, was no joke, was no flash-in-the-pan accident. This was real. We had just elected our first black president, our first democrat in eight years (and only our second in over thirty years), and we had done it in an electoral vote landslide.

Most of you who are reading this know that I am very interested in race relations and issues of racial justice. While I worry and wonder if Obama’s presidency will make white people give up on the topic of race (because blacks have now “made it”), I also can’t restrain my excitement. I think about everything I know of the civil rights era, the unbelievable struggles that were endured by people far braver and better than I, and I can’t help thinking about how amazing it is that we are witnessing history. I think about not only Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr., and what they would think of this (even if Malcolm would only scoff and call Obama an “uncle Tom”), but I also think about someone like John Lewis. John Lewis, now a member of the House of Representatives, worked right alongside Martin Luther King in the civil rights movement (I read a lot about him when I read Taylor Branch’s book Parting the Waters). What must he think of this, John Lewis who took beatings at the hands of racist whites, who has spent his whole life fighting on behalf of justice for black people? If I’m excited and nervous and curious, what complex mix of emotions must Lewis be feeling? I see this as the greatest opportunity for true advance in racial reconciliation since the 1960s, not just by virtue of the fact that Barack Obama happens to be black, but because he gets the quagmire of race in the United States. If you haven’t seen or read it, please, please take some time out of your day to read or watch Obama’s speech “A More Perfect Union.” He presents the most nuanced view of race I’ve ever heard from a politician, explaining why — when it comes to race relations in the United States — black people are sometimes angry (and have a right to be) and why white people are sometimes exasperated (and have a right to be). This could be a very, very exciting time in terms of racial justice.

In the midst of my excitement, I also feel a tremendous amount of responsibility. Democrats like me have complained, have whined, have beaten our fists against the wall, and have generally been pretty annoying for eight years. In the five days since Barack Obama has been elected, suddenly we’re the patriots, humming The Star-Spangled Banner and saying how proud we are of this country. Something has shifted, for sure. And now it is time for us to show the world that having Democrats in charge really does make a difference, really does mean that people are treated better, that important issues like education, health care and poverty are addressed, and that the world is not suddenly going to (Socialist) hell in a hand basket. Barack Obama, fifty-some senators and a few hundred representatives are not the only ones responsible for the next four (or eight?!) years — each of us who calls herself or himself a Democrat has a stake in what we did on Tuesday, and a duty to see it out. We may not get this shot for another thirty years. Here’s to it! Or, as my friend Ethan said when I conveyed these thoughts to him on Wednesday, “Let’s get to work!”

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So that’s where I was a few days after the election, but now my further thought has been, “Okay, let’s get to work, but doing what exactly?” I’ve received numerous emails from MoveOn.org, the Obama campaign, the Democratic National Committee, and other organizations urging us to capture this moment by making good on the initiatives we have all hoped for, and this is no doubt important work. As a Christian, though, I wonder if maybe this is a time to step back and consider not what our favorite political group would have us do right now, but what God would have us do. Maybe this is the time for our churches to set an example by ensuring that all of our members have health care. Maybe this is the season to take on the challenge of the Advent Conspiracy for the first time. Maybe this is the moment when we who think of ourselves as progressive Christians start taking a serious part in theological discussions about issues like gay marriage, war, and greed.

These past few weeks have been Barack Obama’s moment, and the next four years hold out great political promise for us. But we are still God’s people, and this is still God’s time. And so I pray: Dear God, may we seize this time with all of our hearts, all of our minds, and all of our souls, and may we strive to be faithful to your call in a changing and exciting world. Amen.