The Sasquatch Journal

Imagine the Chicago Cubs won the World Series and you were there. But also imagine that the Cubs had never won the World Series in 220 plus years, that a lot of the rest of the league had been biased against the Cubs in the past and had set the league up to make it harder for the Cubs to win. Also imagine that half the people in the world were also Cubs fans and they were all celebrating with you.

That's a little what it felt like Tuesday night in Chicago when Barack Obama won the Presidency. Like you were part of something huge, like you could almost literally hear the wheels of history turning and you'd always remember exactly where you were when it happened.

I spent a little time in Grant Park on Tuesday, and it was an amazing sight. It wasn't just the size of the crowd that was overwhelming, but also the nature of it. Usually at big political rallies, you see the hardcore political junkies, lobbyists, campaign volunteers, etc. But Tuesday, I never would have believed that so many regular people, people that usually don't care about politics - non-activists type people under the age of 35, non-white people, and the working class so jazzed about seeing Obama win. (But yeah, there were a crapload of middle class white people too.)


Everytime a state was announced for Obama there, or the Logan Square bar where I spent much of the rest of the evening, there was pure unadulterated joy expressed in the form of yells and screams and high-fives, just as if Derrek Lee hit a home run to win a World Series game or Kerry Wood struck a batter out in the 9th inning.

I think I've now lived long enough, even though I obviously didn't go through the Civil Rights era, that I can see that the country has come a long way. And myself personally, I've also come a long way from the insular, reflexive person that voted for George W. Bush in 2000 (I didn't vote in 2004 because I was disastisfied with both candidates).

Now, that said...let me play a little devil's advocate. I think it could be safely argued that it's not necessarily a good thing that the city of Chicago is so wildly partisan. I'm not sure if I have met a single McCain voter amongst all the people I've talked to in the past 6 months - at least ones who weren't in the closet.

Part of the polarization is because of the choices we make about where we live. IN general, likeminded liberals/Democrats choose to move to cities and Republicans tend to live in the suburbs or small towns. And even in towns where there are both, we tend to even live in different neighborhoods. The problem with this is that since we're not engaging with people with different viewpoints from ourselves, it breeds extremism.

There's a great book about this by Bill Bishop called "The Big Sort" and I highly recommend it. (He also write a blog on Slate.com).

I've talked to plenty of people in Chicago that said they wouldn't be friends with or even want to converse with a Republican. That's not only closeminded (the very thing liberals claim that conversatives are!) but it's borderline dangerous. We talk a lot about the value of diversity when it comes to different skin colors, sexes and genders and sexual orientations, but we undervalue the importance of interactions with people that think differently or have a different political affliliation. Balance and temperance are good things and that's what true diversity can do.

Then there was my Dad, who called me on Tuesday night lamenting "Obamanation" as he likes to call it, joked that he wanted to move out of the country, and said that the United States was now going to join the EU, and that Obama might be the anti-Christ and that the only good thing about the election was that it would hasten the Second Coming.

My Dad watches Fox News all the time, listens to conservative talk shows and fellowships at churches with the same dearth of different opinions.


We need to think more about how to solve this Blue State-Red State divide, and as much as I like Obama (though I don't agree with him on everything), I don't think he is suddenly going to unite us. That is up to us and the way we choose to live, but I don't think there is an easy solution.

Obama is neither the Messiah nor the Antichrist. Just a good politician with some good ideas.