A new era dawns

This blog fancies itself an expositor of big ideas and, specifically, consideration of American governance informed by sound constitutional principles, so I made the decision not to use this blog for any of my writings during the presidential campaign that just culminated in the election of America's first African-American president, Barack Obama. It would have been too easy to lose the spirit of this blog and slide into the day-to-day myopic vision of campaign politics. That is important and has its place, but not here. Now that the capaign has passed, I do have a few reflective comments I want to make before regular blogging begins over the next few weeks.

I'm not one for trying to read the tea-leaves beforehand, but I can't help but feel that the old Reagan era has run its course and something else has started. I don't know what is being ushered in with Obama's win, but I don't think things will ever be the same in this country's political landscape, and I don't think Republicans will win the presidency again until they reform their message and figure out how to reassemble a new majority coalition. Part of this election was the finishing of what the 2006 congressional elections began -- holding the Republican Party accountable for their failures in governance for much of the past eight years. Consistent defecit spending, years of lax oversight of the housing and credit markets that led to the economic collapse in September, fanciful theories of the unitary executive, and incompetent administration of the Iraq War (the surge saved American defeat there, but not soon enough to turn around popular opinion of President Bush) were simply too much for John McCain to overcome. But it is also true that Barack Obama ran a consistent, disciplined campaign, and he is an inspiring, charismatic leader, the likes of whom American politics has not seen since Ronald Reagan.

I found Obama's acceptance speech Tuesday night moving and inspiring. If he doesn't do what Bush did and run to the narrow, partisan end of his Democratic base, he has the chance of forging a governing coalition of the magnitude that FDR and Reagan built. It's also inspiring to witness the first black President be elected, to see the full promise of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments along with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 finally realized, and to have a chance to finally move beyond the racial divides that have paralyzed large segments of our society for decades centuries.

Of course, a lot has to happen to turn this inspiration and hope into reality, and a highly-charged political atmosphere remains in America. But I share in the sense of hope that Obama's presidency offers. It is now up to him to govern for the entire country and not cater to the liberal policy preferences of the extreme left. It is now up to the country to get behind our new president, supporting him where we can and vigorously debating with him where we can't.

We've said here many times that politics is the art of compromise. If the Obama presidency can bring this lost art back to American politics, then more old wounds than slavery will have been healed in the process of this historic election.