generation yes

It's a great day. America gets to be America again. You know, the one we read about in schoolbooks, but sounded like a foreign country? Yes we could, we did, and we must keep on doing.

Last night in D.C. felt like New Year's Eve, with people joyfully whooping from their apartment windows, the streets, in front of the White House. Because, you know, it was. A new year, a new century. A new world.

So many of the pundits last night were blah-blah-blahing, as we waited for Obama to appear, about what a victory this was for the Democrats. Ummm, no. You guys still don't get it. This wasn't about Democrats or Republicans or Independents or Libertarians or Socialists or Marxists, etc., etc. It was about EVERBODY. Obama was elected by all of the above and then some. Diversity is an intrinsic feature of this country and it was great to finally see everybody taking part, owning their bit of democracy and making their voices heard.

This sort of thinking also plays into the whole two-party system argument. Lots of people feel that it is a bad system, too narrow. Maybe. But there are more than two parties. There are always other options, and they appear on all the ballots or can be written in. But this is America, where the World Series, no matter how many crazy division titles are battled out, always ends up as a head-to-head contest. To paraphrase Highlander, there can be only two. Get over it.

There has also been talk of "generations" and how the youth vote played a huge part. Definitely, young folks voting, participating, has had an enormous effect. But that doesn't mean that Gen Y won this election (no offense, kids). We need to stop breaking everything down by age, race, lifestyle, whatever. We all, old, young, black, white, male, female, Hispanic, Italian, Chinese, etc., etc., we, Generation Yes, elected Barack Obama. And we are, hopefully, going to continue to pay attention, participate, and bring America back to its roots.

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