Sore Losers
I was about 35,000 feet somewhere over England, I think, when the US election results came into the plane. It was the dead of night for us, having been flying all day, so the lights were out and most folks were asleep. I was half-conscious when the results scrolled across the seat-back video monitors, so I actually found out Obama won only when a bitter, old white American woman who was much more awake than I saw the news and loudly hissed "Well. This will make the terrorists very happy".
:(
This was, somehow, a completely rude shock to me. There is NO ONE in my circle of close family or friends that I talk politics with who wasn't supporting Obama. My mom would occasionally mention that some more distant relative or family friend was a total McCain-head, but I never actually heard it from them directly. So, for me, the entire election cycle was a pleasant echo chamber of me and mine all just waiting for the Republicans to get knocked out of power, hopefully for at least a generation or two.
So to have my first actual "wow, he actually won" moment come courtesy of a bitter, ill-informed and most probably racist hate-monger as I traveled to my honeymoon in Europe was, well... kinda depressing.
This unpleasantness was exacerbated by the fact that the only Americans the wife and I interacted with overseas were at least a good twenty years older than us and therefore pretty much all anti-Obama. Frankly, I didn't hear much in the way of actual like for McCain, just more of "we don't want the terrorist/socialist/communist/black guy to win" kind of vibes.
Fortunately, some of this ill-feeling was abated by the fact that Europeans were thrilled with our country. I got more "American? OBAMA!!!!"'s the first day there than I thought rational. I mean, to be honest? I couldn't name Greece's Prime Minist... er, President... Premier? Shah? Fuck. I have no idea what kind of official even runs that place, much less what that official's name is at the moment. But I guess when you're American, your country swings a bigger bat in the world, we affect other countries much more than they typically affect us, and therefore who is running our asylum can matter a great deal to non-Americans.
Now, I also firmly believe that Europeans, on a very deep, basic level, despise Americans, period. Just like the goodwill we enjoyed after World War II and the Marshall Plan abated in a few years, just like the post-9/11 "We are with you!" vibe died in about, oh, three days, I'm sure the Frogs and the Dagos and the Dutch and the Krauts will all be back to thinking we're overfed, overpaid, ultra-violent planet rapers of the foulest order who really should be returned to the Mother Country for a good spanking and pillaging within a few months of the Inauguration.
Still, that I had to hear such a high level of disgust with the electoral results from my fellow Americans while we were overseas...
Let's just state that I've already asked my wife to, should I ever show a similar level of venal pissiness combined with mental inflexibility and delusions of grandeur (NONE of these old biddies are rakin' in a quarter mil a year, so their tax complaints are pure bullshit. As for them not liking Obama because he's a Muslim terrorist, let's just give that as much consideration as it's worth: none), I want to be put down like a bad dog. Seriously. Honey, if I get that way three decades hence, I want you to take me to my favorite park, give me my favorite treat and, when I'm lookin' away from you, happily munchin' away and enjoying the view, I want you to put a .38 round into my temple.
It was quite nice to come home and go to a house party full of liberal 20 and 30-somethings after that. The amount of smug vindication I bathed in during that event amongst my peoples more than made up for the dusty crab-asses overseas.
So, suck it, old folks. We won. You lost. Pardon us while we go about repairing the massive damage your generation has done to things around here the last few decades.
