Liberty's sword has a double edge

We had about 30 people over at Treat Street for the November 4 results. By the time I arrived home at about 6:30, they'd just called Pennsylvania, and I did a little jig as I walked across the threshold. I'll admit that well into the summer, well into October, even well into Election Day, I was unconvinced we'd pull it off. The New York Times recently had a piece about people with frayed nerves and terrible sleep patterns due to the election and the economy, and I felt they were writing about me. Like that terrible beast slouching towards Bethlehem, the world looked like it was coming apart in just a few short weeks, moving inexorably from one crisis to the next. And somehow Sarah Pailn embodied the attitude that I thought would undo us all - the unblinking, unwavering certitude, the absolute faith in values that didn't require any connection with empirical evidence. It's that conservative optimism that suggests that everything will be great with the world provided that everyone simply adopt the views of the extreme Right. It had made me tired.

So we drank wine and watched TV and checked Indiana and Ohio and Virginia county by county. Our friend Jani told my wife that if she'd seemed out of sorts in the past 8 years it was because she hadn't been herself with Bush in office. It seems a tall claim, but I think I know what she meant. My own animus was like a bank account, compounding interest over the years, then doubling again in November 2004.

Then they called Ohio and the math said it was over. We all got quite jolly and picked up the pace on the wine and champagne. Then just a few minutes after the polls closed on the West Coast, the call was made all across the media. Exultate! Tiger Woods' fist pumps! Tears! Hugs! I ran out to my car and honked the horn for a few minutes.

McCain gave the best speech of his venal campaign. Obama just another in his expanding collection of greatest hits. We cheered some more. I was watching my wife's home state of Indiana as the numbers went from bleak to iffy to too close to call. Taking Indiana was the twist of the blade I needed.

As the evening wound down, attention turned to Prop 8. The news didn't look good, but I guess the bitter comes with the sweet. And even the elation of the results has to be tempered with the burdens yet to come. Eight years of Bush, Cheney, Rove, Gonzales, Rumsfeld,the Stanford girl Condi Rice - there is much to be repaired, and little else we can accomplish before the mountainous ash-heap of the global economy is somehow addressed.

Kelly and I slept pretty well Tuesday night, but this is hardly a result - it's just an opportunity.
And to my friends and to all people who can't marry as I have - that's also an opportunity to keep striving to move us forward too. Congratulations to Senators Obama and Biden. Serve us well.