lokifan_import

I’ve resisted the urge to post about the American presidential elections, because I don’t think it’s good for foreigners to pontificate about government elections unless they have something particularly important to say, for whatever reason. But I cannot resist the urge to post now, because I’ve been so tense and watching and waiting to find out, thinking of how black candidates’ votes never match the polls and how we hoped so hard the last two times, and our hopes were dashed. My first exposure to politics was as a precocious ten-year-old being brought down by Bush’s election! And now the most liberal politician in the Senate has been elected President of the United States.

Wow.

Just – guys, do you realise what this means? I was talking on MSN with

lavillanueva (and yes, if you have it, please do add me!) and while we talked I was having an epiphany about just how much this really means.

My parents were lifelong Labour members who stayed up all night in May 1997 to watch Blair be elected by a landslide. Messianic liberal politicians, therefore, tend to draw out my cynical side. But this last day, watching his speeches... And now. The more I think about it, the more I see that this actually will change the world.

Guantanamo Bay is history! And so is waterboarding, and extraordinary rendition, and all those repulsive, hypocritical, morally bankrupt behaviours that made me feel ill and helpless and furious, that havedestroyed the health and lives of innocents. “The US actually won’t torture”, in

lavillanueva’s words, words that made me stop and blink and physically shiver at this change. The US won’t torture. The black hole prisons will be shut down, extraordinary rendition and waterboarding will fucking stop. At long last, after the emotive speeches and the pundits screaming and Amnesty International decrying my country and the most powerful country in the world – it looks like we’re actually going to win.

And Obama believes in renewable energy. With luck, we can save Bangladesh from the floodwaters.

Brown desperately needs support, and most of Britain seems besotted with Obama. Instead of having Bush’s poodle, we might actually get a Prime Minister who’s not so beholden – but is trying to impress a liberal Democrat. (And I like Liberal Democrats. *hearts Vincent Cable*)

Basically, progressive Europeans like me, with lots of opinions about everybody’s domestic politics as well as their own, will be pleased to see America’s influence, instead of depressed. American diplomats can actually do their jobs – and will be allowed to do their jobs.

Oh my God, you guys.

LET’S PARTY!