The Obligatory Election Results Post

Despite the title of this post, I do have something sincere to say.

Oh well.

Let me tell you how I felt when I heard the news this morning.
I was disappointed, perhaps even stubbornly surprised, and surprised that I was surprised. I had felt a certain hope that somehow McCain would pull it off, although I knew it was a long shot. My immediate reaction was this: brace yourself. I feel a lot like I believe my friend Theric does about Obama. I think he’s opportunistic and, with a supportive congress, potentially dangerous. I was frightened by his statement about judges who adjudicate from personal convictions more than statute. I can’t say that I trust him to take care of our national interest abroad. I also worry about his social and economic policies. To be brutally honest, I’m not even sure he has America’s best interests at heart. Although not all his stated ideas are bad, who knows what he will actually do? In short, there’s not really anything about him as a President-elect that I’m very comfortable with.

Of course, I wasn’t in love with McCain either (economic naivety, constantly undermining his own positions, etc…), but I felt that he would better preserve our country and our families. I think he’s an honorable man, a loyal American, and at least he has a substantive record. That, however, is in the past, and there’s no use mourning it. I was moved by the grace with which the senator from Arizona concluded his tenacious campaign and I was grateful for the simultaneous reaction that mingled with the above described feelings: prayer. It wasn’t pathetic prayer for all of us poor folk who now have to suffer through four years of terrible leadership. It wasn’t assumptive prayer that the devastating decisions President-elect Obama and the Democratic congress are sure to make would be somehow prevented or minimized. It wasn’t faltering or bitter prayer in protest of the wickedness America demonstrated by electing such a man.

No, it was the prayer of acceptance, determination, and hope. Prayer, the first impulse of which is to importune the throne of Deity in behalf of the man we as a country have chosen to put at our head. I told the Lord that I had little or no confidence in Barack Obama, but I had every confidence in God and His ability to guide any man. I asked Him to give the new leader grace beyond his own and the wisdom to make correct choices. It came from a place I did not expect and it came without the suggestion of any other mortal. As I said, I was, and am, grateful for it. Such prayer will remain my hope as I tread with my family and the rest of the country lightly, but boldly through the years to come. I don’t know what to look forward to other than more difficulty than ever in supporting my family and rising above the transient cares of the world to accomplish something heavenly.

Even so, I have an anchor to my soul.

If God’s will was not a factor in this election, the will of the American people was, and I trust the American people. I feel that they may have been hoodwinked, to an extent, by a charismatic politician who has little to offer other than charisma and good public speaking. I think they may have gotten their priorities out of order in an election with so many implications. But when it comes to the issues, Americans still largely choose the right. The apparent impending victory of Proposition 8, in which I take comfort, is evidence of that.

I’m not going to join with the wailers and mourners who declare the end of times as a direct result of Mr. Obama’s presidency. I’m going to press forward with hope for a better future made for myself and my own as a result of our personal exercise of the principles of freedom and agency. And I’m going to pray that our soon-to-be new president – for he is all of ours, whether we like it or not – will be given the respect he deserves, the counsel he lacks, and the grace he, and anyone in his position, so desperately needs.

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~ by afigueira on November 19, 2008.