Hoping for a return of the right

First of all, let’s dispel a common myth. America isn't a democracy. People sometimes call the result of thievery, genocide, assimilation, hard work, ingenuity, manifest destiny, and continual progress by that title, but it's simply not the case. Today, more than ever, America remains a democratic republic. Note the fitting juxtaposition of these two words; it’s democratic republic, not republican democracy. Each word belongs on its respective side, and each remains necessary 232 years in.

After Barack Obama and his fellow Democrats mauled several Republican incumbents and challengers alike, talk of the demise of the Republican Party has surfaced. Many Democrats and moderates fresh off the pleasure of having voted George W. Bush's party out of office around the nation take pleasure in hearing such talk of disarray and infighting within the GOP. But, they are foolish for their glee.

America needs the Republican Party as much as it needs Barack Obama and his promised Change. Failed policies need correcting and an economy receding quicker than Joe Biden’s hairline needs stimulating. Republicans, in the form of George W. Bush and, to a lesser degree, John McCain and Sarah Palin, have shown themselves incapable of doing so at the moment. But, let us quickly forget the folly of the one party nation.

Give Democrats too much power and watch what will happen: just as Republicans did after they followed Newt Gingrich to repeated victories in the mid- to late-'90s, Democrats will falter. Despite what you might hear offhandedly from policy advisers and generals, an acceptable dictator does not exist. And that's what we're staring at right now should the Republican Party fail to find new leadership more in touch with American citizens.

The situation is not as dire as many think, however. Yes, there is a vacuum where party leadership once stood, but after losing an election by a substantiative mark that is no surprise. The people have spoken--old Republican thoughts are not good enough in today's world. But that doesn't mean new Republicans won't rise up to take over that vacated mantle of leadership.

Sarah Palin is not the answer; perhaps lesser known, more modern, moderate Republicans are. The fact that they are unknown shouldn't cause one to fret, either. After all, how many participatory Americans knew much about the Alaskan Governor before John McCain hastily pasted her onto his GOP ticket in late August? As it turns out, even Mr. McCain didn't know much about her either.

So, give Republicans a moment to reorganize. Just as they did following Bill Clinton's run to the White House in 1992, they'll be back. Let’s just hope this time they won't lean so far to the right as to fall over.

America needs them.

Barack Obama. Yes.

By Kevin Scheitrum

‘And although it seems heaven sent
We ain’t ready, to see a black President’
Tupac Shakur, Changes (1995)

Is this the dream fulfilled?

Is this the day, the day when our country’s little children – and their little children and their little children – have been judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their characters? When suddenly what wasn’t even considered a possibility becomes a reality? When we turn our backs on what’s come before and look to the future and understand, reminding ourselves of the failures behind us, that we can all make a difference, that we can form, after all, a more perfect union?

He spoke and we listened and in turn, we spoke louder, together and fully. A generation that never had a voice has suddenly bellowed.

How could we have possibly seen this, even four short years ago? Could we have imagined a black man, even in these times, not only winning this election, but defeating a war hero opponent by a landslide?

On this night, we see ourselves atop one of our history’s highest peaks. Of all of the mythologies that galvanize this great continent, few have enjoyed more staying power than the intertwined ideas of the Melting Pot and infinite opportunity, that this country was founded on diversity and possibility, and all it took to ascend indefinitely was a sharp and shrewd mind and a tireless effort.

But before tonight, those allegories have been nothing but words and simple fantasies, tethered to the sad fragments of our past, dark and damning ghosts like Jim Crow, the notion of three-fifths, the bullet inside Martin Luther King, Jr. Over time, the increase of blacks in the workforce and the influx of blacks with college degrees chipped away at racism, while the integration of sports and the importance of blacks in music, from blues to hip-hop sanded more of it away.

But then the Fortune 500 would come out, and as of 2006, blacks occupied only four of the CEO spots. At the end of the same year, median household income for whites stood at $50,673; for blacks, it was $31,969. The stats go on and on, and yes, stats only tell part of the story, but the most glaring message behind these statistics is that, outside of the thin avenues of entertainment and athletics, blacks rose to prominence in so few ways. Terribly few ways.

That mythology of equality, of all men being created equal, had such little resonance under the harsh glare of these facts. Tonight, that idea has roots. Tonight, it is no longer mere floating, hollow words, the preserve of rhetoricians.

We’d be fools to assume that this will change everything. But we’d be missing out on the moment if we don’t think that we just witnessed a moment that will irrevocably change the course of American life.

McCain's aLive in New York

Check out John McCain's appearance on SNL with "Sarah Palin" at his side. The act has an air of defeat, and Senator McCain sounds an awful lot like Bob Dole did after election night in 1996.