Democracy

"Democracy is the worst form of government except for all those others that have been tried." -- W Churchill

My father every four or eight years would say, "What's happening today is really amazing. In only a handful of places in the world does a government completely change, and there is no fear, no armies on the streets, no dead predecessors. The outgoing guy just hands over to the incoming guy and life goes on." So I'm celebrating today in honor of my dad because, once again, I think he's right.

I think President-elect Obama's been horribly over-hyped. I'm almost going to feel sorry for him when the honeymoon is over and people begin to realize that he isn't a saint. He's just a fairly smart guy with limited political experience who's willingly thrown himself in the deep end. As comedian Chris Rock said, you can't even make fun of the guy. It's like: "Ooh, you're young and virile and you've got a beautiful wife and kids. You're the first African-American president." What else are you going to say? Rock goes on, though, by saying that eventually President Obama will screw up and then the comedians will get on him and the rest of us can take off the rose-colored glasses.

I read in another article that it has taken 44 years since the voting rights act passed for an African-American to become the 44th President. I hear people saying that Martin King's 'dream' is becoming a reality. I thought about that some days ago sitting in a restaurant here in Houston. It was an ethnically diverse group ... to the extreme. There was even a Russian among us. For a period of my life back at least in part of the 60s and certainly in the 50s, that mixing would never have happened. We have come a long way and if electing Senator Obama gets people to admit it, it's a good thing.

And the last bit of my political diatribe: The United States of America does make progress. We move forward. The rest of the world at times hates us because we mess up their comfortable status quo. We don't always move forward in the the right direction, but generally we look ahead. I contrast that with other countries who have dipped their toe into democratic waters, gotten scared and turned back to the safety of a somewhat benign dictator. People who long for socialism to keep them safe at the expense of moving forward.

Thanks, but I'll take the worst form of government over all the others, especially the US version.

Good luck, Barack. You're gonna need it. But your country will face forward with you, like we always do.