So finally he has done it. America sees its first African-American President. It was a tough choice for a conservative belt. If you want democrats, you either take the first woman President or the first African-American one. I am glad they showed some intellect and voted Obama.
My take on this whole election and the post-election euphoria is that people saw a true leader. At least one that seemed remotely honest and didn't come with that "political manipulation" image. Someone that truly mobilized people and motivated them to get up and take charge if they wanted to change their lives. Youth. I really believe that for the United States to have a Black President, the young and not-so-conservative Americans had to do it, not those conservative very mid-west type people.
When you see the parties after the election results and the enthusiasm of people and the real hope they exude that this will change the course of a failing country, it almost feels like a super-charged game that has been won by the under-dogs.
When did we see such an election in India last? I don't know. With every election, its the same mundane stuff that happens. You vote, you don't vote, people get elected, people don't get elected, life goes on as usual. The only people that celebrate are political party workers and it feels like nobody's business.
Really now, not taking the time to vote or being too lazy to vote is one thing. Not having anyone to vote for is another. If we had a charismatic leader who got us charged about the future of the country being better, who showed an honesty of purpose, who showed that he/she is really interested in doing something good for the country, why wouldn't we vote? And why wouldn't we celebrate his/her victory? But alas, for us, often times the only choice is to vote for the lesser of two evils.
So what I think is that we need a political leader who can generate the same euphoria that, lets say, Sachin Tendulkar used to generate some years ago when he came onto field. I am sure just as people would take any amount of pain to go watch him live, so would they go and vote. And then we will celebrate just like we celebrate a victory over Aussies ;)
When will we have our own Obama?
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
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5 comments:
Good post! Could empathize totally. Specially coming from TN where the only choices are KK or JJ. Both are evil. :)
Do you think Palin is free now ? ;)
Last few weeks over here, I felt that surge of attending an Obama meeting and I truly felt bad about not having the right to vote. Yesterday's result and Obama's speech made me cry and I have never felt this excited about any election in India and I don't think I ever will.
@Laksh -- I totally know what you mean, I used to wonder how the people in TN must be feeling having to vote for either JJ or KK, its like devil and dungeon ;)
@Betaal ji -- Of course Palin is free now. Now even Alaska knows how great she is ;)
@Kishan -- Never say never :) Or ever for that matter. Election was like some high-charged game at the end of which everyone is bound to be emotional one way or another. I am sure with enough youth stirring now, we can also hope to have some such thing in the near future in India as well. One leader, one leader is all it takes, I've oft repeated this in my blogs.
sorry but could not find your mail id, so had to post this as a comment. well, i read your blogger profile and i must say that i have not heard any of those names mentioned there. but would like to know more about you, so would the six degrees of separation do :)sogrid
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