OPINION: No Time to Celebrate Obama Win

By Broadside Opinion Columnist Arthur Gailes

The fireworks have stopped, the dust has settled, and Barack Obama is the president-elect. For those of us who supported Obama, it’s tempting to celebrate and declare the mission accomplished. For those who did not vote for him, it’s just as tempting to sit back and wait to attack on Obama’s first mistake. If any of us fall victim to that impulse, all that we have fought for this election will be lost.

Make no mistake, we haven’t accomplished anything. As thrilled as I am that Obama is going to be the president, I’ll be more thrilled if he becomes a good one. He has all the resources: a senate and congressional majority, huge popularity abroad and a mandate from the public to change the way things are being run. It’s Obama’s responsibility to handle the first two, and I’ve got a reasonable amount of faith that he will.

But we have to pressure Obama. We have to stay politically aware and alert, and ready to protest when he missteps or the senate tries to lead him in the wrong direction. By doing this, we send a clear message to all of his constituents that he can’t afford to put the American people second on his list of priorities. By staying on Obama, we actually make his job easier because we constantly remind the entire political sector that he has a mandate from the people.

We do this by staying informed and staying active. It’s easy to keep in touch with politics during an election year because it’s so prolific that we’re constantly bombarded with campaign ads, news headlines and obnoxious friends who are obsessed with their candidate. But we have to pay attention to what goes on when politicians don’t think we’re watching so that we’re aware of their real positions and actions when the next election year comes.

Voting isn’t the only way we can stay active, either.

Because of the Internet, there are so many new and innovate ways to make our voices heard. Start a blog. Mail your congressman. Join a Web site that polices politicians and new organizations. Become that annoying friend, and be the resource your social group looks to for political news. We all have the power to impact the future of this country, and it doesn’t take a lot of effort to make a change. If Obama’s win has taught us anything, it’s that the true power of this country lies in its individuals.

Make no mistake, the Democratic Party is, at best, the lesser of two evils. They’re not here to help us; they’re here to gain power. They’ve gotten their position by letting the Republicans back themselves into a corner with their own policy blunders.

Where Republicans benefit only the rich by limiting how much those rich have to pay into the government, the Democrats sell out to the power majority by giving them government assistance. This bailout plan, even with the positive changes that the Democrats made to it, is nothing less than evidence of that. If we don’t stay aware, alert and active, we’ll let them give more and more money back to people who don’t need it.

At the same time, we need to put pressure on the Republican Party to police the expenses of the Democrats. While the Republicans lost seats this election, they kept enough to filibuster any bill that the Democrats propose. The Republicans have the most to gain from being the responsible party here, as it will help them gain back some of the center that they’ve alienated over the past eight years. If Republicans can return to being true conservatives, being responsible without being obstructionist, they can begin to erode at the Democratic majority.

Above all, we need to realize that even the best of politicians has to be pushed in the right direction. Otherwise, they’ll be pushed by the people they interact with on a daily bases to go in a direction that helps the few and hurts the many. We have to remember that being politically active cannot stop on Election Day. Our parents have failed to stay politically active, and it has resulted in a political arena that has been largely unchallenged until the blunders of our current president woke us up. We can’t afford to fall asleep again.