A Classy Conservative Response to Obama’s Win
By Jesse Singal - Nov 5th, 2008 at 12:57 pmCredit where it’s due–Yuval Levin on The Corner:
[T]his campaign has had a positive side that went beyond political strategy. I think our country made a serious mistake in its choice of a leader today, which is something democracies do very frequently. But we also showed that we can make our judgments—right or wrong—without the taint of racism that used to burden America’s big decisions. That’s a very real silver lining in what for some of us is a very dark cloud of an election. We looked at two men of different races and we judged them as two men, not two races. Obama did not win because he was black, and was not set back because he was black. It’s another reason to love our country. We have shown ourselves that we are better than we used to be in at least one important way. We didn’t need to elect Barack Obama to show ourselves that; we needed only to treat him as we would any candidate in his position. And I think that’s all we did. I only wish that in judging these two men as men we had judged them correctly.
Now we will have to work to avert (and failing that, to reverse) the mistakes our president-elect and his co-partisans seem inclined make in office. Let us pray they don’t make them, of course. But if they do then let us be ready; and let us be ready also to govern again when the time comes, as it will. We will hasten its coming by preparing and by showing the country we’re ready. None of it will be easy, but America is worth it.
God bless our country, and our new president-elect too.
This is what political disagreement should look like: “I think he’s the wrong guy.” Not, “I think he’s a terrorist,” or “I don’t know where his loyalties lie,” or “I’m not sure what his real religion is.”
Of course, Levin’s prose here is a major, major exception to the tone of The Corner throughout the campaign. It’ll be fun watching this blog and others defend the asinine statements and predictions they’ve made about what an Obama presidency will entail.
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