Post Mortem of the 2008 Presidential Elections.

Whew it is finally over and Barack won. The surprise was my reaction when confronted by my non Nigerian or minority acquaintances. When asked if I supported Barack instead of a yes, I asked what made them ask that? I made some commentary to brush away the subject. The honest answer should have been a yes. I never found it necessary to question my support of a white candidate. In 2000 I supported McCain, Gore (tepidly), Dean, Keyes and many others. I never liked or supported Jackson or Sharpton. They lived too much in the past and like the Republicans were one issue candidates. They did not bring any promises of hope or anything meaningful to their candidacy. They did not excite me.

I remember watching family ties in the 80's and young Alex wanted so badly to be a republican. Republicans were intellectuals, educated and successful. I aspired to be a Republican in that mold.

The party today has become a symbol of intolerance, that plays on my fears and has chosen a platform that is heavy on bed room issues and none on pocket book issues. They are quick to tell me what makes the other guy a bad guy, but fail to tell me why they are the good guys.

As an immigrant I share a lot of the conservative and intellectual ideals that once dominated the republican party. With Palin and Joe the Plumber the new flag bearers for the party, I am afraid they lost me for good.

I remember a discussion with a wonderful lady in church the Sunday before the election. She repeated the charges that Obama wanted to redistribute her wealth. Her husband had three jobs and she was upset that her money will be redistributed. I asked her how much New Jersey sent to the federal government in taxes? We settled on an arbitrary number of $3 billion. I asked her if we got all that money back? She said no and I asked what happened to the balance? She said it was sent to other states. With that argument defeated she resorted to drill baby drill. When that gained no traction she told me that Pelosi and Reid hated America. And the Democrats wanted to kill babies.

From what I gathered from our conversation, she had succumbed to the fear mongering.

And I like her, living in a town that is majority Republican with neighbors that I, in my fears failed to trust to tolerate my beliefs, I had succumbed to that same fear.

On election today after I had voted, I saw an older gentleman in a corvette and I said to him, I would be smiling if I drove a car like that. The man happily told me he was going to vote to redistribute his wealth, restoring the faith that I should have had in my neighbors.

America is a huge tent and their is room for everyone of us.