Hello Everyone, it’s Emily from KUT Radio in Austin, Texas, where WHYS will be broadcasting from in 10 days time. I’m a bit sleepy from working through 24 hours covering our nation’s big night, but wanted to update you on how the election went down in Austin. (Take a look at Emily’s photos from election night in Austin on WHYS’ Flickr stream) As you know, Austin is a liberal city in a generally conservative state. So when Senator Barack Obama, the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate, was declared the victor in our long, long presidential race of 2008, the streets of Austin erupted. Everywhere. People spilled out from their homes, from their “election night watch parties” (a long tradition in the U.S.A) from their cars and even bars to celebrate. The police closed down 6th street – Austin’s entertainment district – and let revelers, well, revel. There were horns honking, stereos blasting, and a general sense of delirious mayhem here. People laughed, cried, danced and prayed.
For Obama supporters and non-supporters alike, part of the joy was due in part, I suspect, to the relief that the campaigning is finally over. It’s been two years! Now, the general sentiment from voters we spoke to was, with the election behind us, perhaps we can get on to real work. First off, Austinites told us they want to settle the sour economy. That appeared to have been the defining issue of the race since the bad economic news began piling up back in September. But education and teacher compensation were big topics here. Bonds to build roads and build schools were also passed in Central Texas counties outside Austin.
Many foreigners define Obama’s victory in terms of race. I think that for some U.S. voters, Obama’s African American heritage was a consideration. But I truly believe that defining this election on his race willfully misreads and diminishes a huge portion of the American people’s psyche. Obama supporters responded to his message of “change” and his calls to move power away from Washington and back to the grassroots. The desire for change among Austin democrats has been at an almost desperate pitch for years. Many still felt anger about the 2000 presidential election. Strangers on the street would bond over their concerns about the war in Iraq, America’s image abroad, their dislike of the Bush Administration’s environmental, social and energy policies, all of which were echoed by their U.S. Representative to Congress Lloyd Doggett.
And yet, despite the politics, Austin benefited from the go-go 2000′s. Business and populations boomed, construction soared, life was good for many.
Of course, now the economy’s slowing, the election’s over and there’s work to be done. What do you think the United State’s priorities should be under the next administration?
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Hi Emily: I’d like to pick up on the race aspect first. Frankly, I feel that Obama’s so-called “Blackness” was the object of much silly media overkill. Headlines such as “Is This the Biggest Moment in Modern Black History?” seemed to me to be entirely beside the point, if not ludicrous. Very few of the responses I’ve seen indicated that the man on the street gives a hoot about race these days. And I think the stress on race may even have had a mischievous influence. The media don’t seem to have grasped yet that race consciousness is just plain boring to the average joe, and irksome when emphasised.
My hope, as a non-American, is that the Pres. Elect will begin by patching up international US relationships, so that the West can again present a unified and civilized face to the rest of the world. Would also be good is the US would sign on to many globally important initiatives to counter global warming and heedless resource extraction.
Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran are top priorities that need to be re-addressed in a creative way; the militarism of the past 8 years must be greatly diminished. US relations with Russia need to be revised, especially after the Georgian debacle where the Bush crowd rushed in like fools, and the media swallowed their lies hook, line and sinker.
A new global economic policy also needs to be formulated. I mean this in a wider sense than only the commodities and financial aspects; I mean the whole model of the global oikumene needs to be addressed.
These are to me the important starting points. A great help in getting global cooperation would be to see a friendly and intelligent face from the US instead of the arrogant and brash policies we’ve become accustomed to.
RE “” What do you think the United State’s priorities should be under the next administration? “”
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——— Be nice if they could prove to be more than democrats and republicans.
Not that I’m holding my breath. The past 16 yrs has seen every permutation of balance of power and we’re back to 1992, except for the additional 10 trillion in national debt, bankrupt wall street and main street, 2 unresolved war fronts, 20 million illegal immigrants, and many more manmade and environmental threats lapping at our door steps.
Obviously the first thing that needs to be done is some serious unification of the united states!!!
This country needs a stable, economically and environmentally sustainable economy. America has long had the luxury of being able to waste resources as no other country on earth did. This is no longer an option as we are running out of resources and other countries are showing resistance to our plundering their resources. We need to learn to live within our means. We need to improve education and that means better teacher training, as in math teachers who know math not how to dumb down a concept that is already painfully simple, social studies teachers who know history, not just the propaganda and tripe that is served up in school text books.