Culturite

We wouldn’t ordinarily quote an external source in its entirety, however, given this unprecedent moment in American history, we thought that it would be worthwhile to republish the full text of President-Elect Barack Obama’s victory speech, delivered November 4, 2008 in Chicago.

For more information, please see NowPublic’s extensive coverage of the US Election.

(as prepared for delivery)

Election Night

Tuesday, November 4th, 2008

Chicago, Illinois

If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.

It’s the answer told by lines that stretched around schools and churches in numbers this nation has never seen; by people who waited three hours and four hours, many for the very first time in their lives, because they believed that this time must be different; that their voice could be that difference.  

It’s the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Latino, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled – Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been a collection of Red States and Blue States: we are, and always will be, the United States of America.

It’s the answer that led those who have been told for so long by so many to be cynical, and fearful, and doubtful of what we can achieve to put their hands on the arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day.

It’s been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this day, in this election, at this defining moment, change has come to America. 

I just received a very gracious call from Senator McCain.  He fought long and hard in this campaign, and he’s fought even longer and harder for the country he loves.  He has endured sacrifices for America that most of us cannot begin to imagine, and we are better off for the service rendered by this brave and selfless leader.  I congratulate him and Governor Palin for all they have achieved, and I look forward to working with them to renew this nation’s promise in the months ahead.

I want to thank my partner in this journey, a man who campaigned from his heart and spoke for the men and women he grew up with on the streets of Scranton and rode with on that train home to Delaware, the Vice President-elect of the United States, Joe Biden. 

I would not be standing here tonight without the unyielding support of my best friend for the last sixteen years, the rock of our family and the love of my life, our nation’s next First Lady, Michelle Obama.  Sasha and Malia, I love you both so much, and you have earned the new puppy that’s coming with us to the White House.  And while she’s no longer with us, I know my grandmother is watching, along with the family that made me who I am.  I miss them tonight, and know that my debt to them is beyond measure.

To my campaign manager David Plouffe, my chief strategist David Axelrod, and the best campaign team ever assembled in the history of politics – you made this happen, and I am forever grateful for what you’ve sacrificed to get it done.

But above all, I will never forget who this victory truly belongs to – it belongs to you.

I was never the likeliest candidate for this office.  We didn’t start with much money or many endorsements.  Our campaign was not hatched in the halls of Washington – it began in the backyards of Des Moines and the living rooms of Concord and the front porches of Charleston. 

It was built by working men and women who dug into what little savings they had to give five dollars and ten dollars and twenty dollars to this cause.  It grew strength from the young people who rejected the myth of their generation’s apathy; who left their homes and their families for jobs that offered little pay and less sleep; from the not-so-young people who braved the bitter cold and scorching heat to knock on the doors of perfect strangers; from the millions of Americans who volunteered, and organized, and proved that more than two centuries later, a government of the people, by the people and for the people has not perished from this Earth.  This is your victory.   

I know you didn’t do this just to win an election and I know you didn’t do it for me.  You did it because you understand the enormity of the task that lies ahead.  For even as we celebrate tonight, we know the challenges that tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetime – two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century.  Even as we stand here tonight, we know there are brave Americans waking up in the deserts of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan to risk their lives for us.  There are mothers and fathers who will lie awake after their children fall asleep and wonder how they’ll make the mortgage, or pay their doctor’s bills, or save enough for college.  There is new energy to harness and new jobs to be created; new schools to build and threats to meet and alliances to repair.

The road ahead will be long.  Our climb will be steep.  We may not get there in one year or even one term, but America – I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there.  I promise you – we as a people will get there. 

There will be setbacks and false starts.  There are many who won’t agree with every decision or policy I make as President, and we know that government can’t solve every problem.  But I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face.  I will listen to you, especially when we disagree.  And above all, I will ask you join in the work of remaking this nation the only way it’s been done in America for two-hundred and twenty-one years – block by block, brick by brick, calloused hand by calloused hand. 

What began twenty-one months ago in the depths of winter must not end on this autumn night. This victory alone is not the change we seek – it is only the chance for us to make that change.  And that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were.  It cannot happen without you.

So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism; of service and responsibility where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves, but each other.  Let us remember that if this financial crisis taught us anything, it’s that we cannot have a thriving Wall Street while Main Street suffers – in this country, we rise or fall as one nation; as one people.

Let us resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long.  Let us remember that it was a man from this state who first carried the banner of the Republican Party to the White House – a party founded on the values of self-reliance, individual liberty, and national unity.  Those are values we all share, and while the Democratic Party has won a great victory tonight, we do so with a measure of humility and determination to heal the divides that have held back our progress.  As Lincoln said to a nation far more divided than ours, “We are not enemies, but friends…though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection.”  And to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn – I may not have won your vote, but I hear your voices, I need your help, and I will be your President too. 

And to all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of our world – our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared, and a new dawn of American leadership is at hand.  To those who would tear this world down – we will defeat you.  To those who seek peace and security – we support you.  And to all those who have wondered if America’s beacon still burns as bright – tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from our the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity, and unyielding hope.  

For that is the true genius of America – that America can change.  Our union can be perfected.  And what we have already achieved gives us hope for what we can and must achieve tomorrow. 

This election had many firsts and many stories that will be told for generations.  But one that’s on my mind tonight is about a woman who cast her ballot in Atlanta.  She’s a lot like the millions of others who stood in line to make their voice heard in this election except for one thing – Ann Nixon Cooper is 106 years old. 

She was born just a generation past slavery; a time when there were no cars on the road or planes in the sky; when someone like her couldn’t vote for two reasons – because she was a woman and because of the color of her skin.

And tonight, I think about all that she’s seen throughout her century in America – the heartache and the hope; the struggle and the progress; the times we were told that we can’t, and the people who pressed on with that American creed:  Yes we can. 

At a time when women’s voices were silenced and their hopes dismissed, she lived to see them stand up and speak out and reach for the ballot.  Yes we can. 

When there was despair in the dust bowl and depression across the land, she saw a nation conquer fear itself with a New Deal, new jobs and a new sense of common purpose.  Yes we can. 

When the bombs fell on our harbor and tyranny threatened the world, she was there to witness a generation rise to greatness and a democracy was saved.  Yes we can. 

She was there for the buses in Montgomery, the hoses in Birmingham, a bridge in Selma, and a preacher from Atlanta who told a people that “We Shall Overcome.”  Yes we can. 

A man touched down on the moon, a wall came down in Berlin, a world was connected by our own science and imagination.  And this year, in this election, she touched her finger to a screen, and cast her vote, because after 106 years in America, through the best of times and the darkest of hours, she knows how America can change.  Yes we can. 

America, we have come so far.  We have seen so much.  But there is so much more to do.  So tonight, let us ask ourselves – if our children should live to see the next century; if my daughters should be so lucky to live as long as Ann Nixon Cooper, what change will they see?  What progress will we have made? 

This is our chance to answer that call.  This is our moment.  This is our time – to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace; to reclaim the American Dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth – that out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope, and where we are met with cynicism, and doubt, and those who tell us that we can’t, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people:

Yes We Can.  Thank you, God bless you, and may God Bless the United States of America.

NowPublic

Tags: Politics | Chicago | Barack Obama | United States | World | Obama | Grant Park | US Election | President Obama | obama victory speech | obama president elect | victory speech

Proposition 8 poll results are in and California has voted to ban same-sex marriage.

In perhaps the highest profile of several ballot initiatives voted on during Tuesday’s historic U.S. election, Proposition 8 has passed and will overturn same-sex marriage rights previously granted to California couples.

Despite a huge publicity campaign to preserve same-sex marriage rights in the state, including $100,000 donations from Hollywood heavyweights such as Brad Pitt and Steven Spielberg, celebrity backing from Ellen DeGeneres and NFL legend Steve Young,  corporate support from Google and another $100,000 from Apple to fight Proposition 8, opponents of the initiative were unsuccessful in their bid to strike it down.

Total spending on the initiative — both in support of, and against, it — reached a staggering $74 million, “making it the most expensive social-issues campaign in U.S. history and the most expensive campaign this year outside the race for the White House.” 

NowPublic will be updating this story throughout the day. For more information and live updates to this story please check out NowPublic’s Scan on Proposition 8.

Please let us know your thoughts on this issue by posting your comments below.

In an election otherwise full of liberal triumphs, the gay rights movement suffered a stunning defeat as California voters approved a ban on same-sex marriages that overrides a recent court decision legalizing them.

The constitutional amendment – widely seen as the most momentous of the nation’s 153 ballot measures – will limit marriage to heterosexual couples, the first time such a vote has taken place in a state where gay unions are legal.

Gay-rights activists had a rough election elsewhere as well. Ban-gay-marriage amendments were approved in Arizona and Florida, and Arkansas voters approved a measure banning unmarried couples from serving as adoptive or foster parents. Supporters made clear that gays and lesbians were their main target.

In California, with 95 percent of precincts reporting Wednesday, the ban had 5,125,752 votes, or 52 percent, while there were 4,725,313 votes, or 48 percent, opposed.

Similar bans had prevailed in 27 states before Tuesday’s elections, but none were in California’s situation – with about 18,000 gay couples married since a state Supreme Court ruling in May. The state attorney general, Jerry Brown, has said those marriages will remain valid, although legal challenges are possible.

Same-sex couples in San Diego had rushed to get married before results of the vote on Prop 8 were in, fearing that the legality of their union could be overturned.

Officials have declared that the ban will be enforced immediately.

Many of the newlyweds speculated that the debate over same-sex marriage would continue, regardless of the outcome over Proposition 8.

They predicted that if the measure failed, opponents of gay marriage would attempt another state ballot initiative in a couple of years. And if it passed, many worried their status as married couples would face a legal challenge. The marriage ban, if approved, will be enforced starting today, officials have said.

Elsewhere in the United States, similar ballot initiatives to limit same-sex marriage rights in marriage and adoption were uniformly approved in Arizona, Florida, and Arkansas.

Arizona’s Proposition 102, the gay marriage amendment, passed handily. [...]

Florida’s terribly worded gay marriage ban passed too! With the necessary 60% and everything! This amendment also fucks over every non-married cohabitatng couple as well, and seems to even outlaw civil unions. Sorry, gays, no hospital visits for you!

Similar great news for bigoted morons in Arkansas, where the measure forbidding gays and ummarried people from adopting or fostering children passed with flying colors.

At this cataclysmic moment in American political history, it is deeply disappointing to note the incredible disparity between the American population’s national decision to elect a socially progressive African-American President — and the divisively conservative decisions being made simultaneously, at a state level, to impede that very potential for significant social progress.

Needless to say, a great many people share in this disappointment.

Yes, it is heart-breaking: it is always hard to be in a tiny minority whose rights and dignity are removed by a majority. It’s a brutal rebuke to the state supreme court, and enshrinement in California’s constitution that gay couples are now second-class citizens and second class human beings. Massively funded by the Mormon church, a religious majority finally managed to put gay people in the back of the bus in the biggest state of the union. The refusal of Schwarzenegger to really oppose the measure and Obama’s luke-warm opposition didn’t help. And cruelly, a very hefty black turnout, as feared, was one of the factors that defeated us, according to the exit poll. Today this is one of the solaces to a hard right and a Republican party that sees gay people as the least real of Americans.

America, you’ve got a long way to go yet.

NowPublic

Tags: California | Culture | Gay Marriage | United States | US Election | Prop 8 | Proposition 8 | ban gay marriage | california gay marriage ban | california prop 8 poll results

UPDATE: Barack Obama has been elected President of the United States.

Not surprisingly, the top term on Twitter has quickly become “President Obama“.

But also getting traction are hot topics such as “President-Elect” and, simply, “Congratulations“.

For more on this topic please check out Digital Politics: Social Media Mania and the US Election

PREVIOUSLY — As the US Election results begin to roll in, Twitter’s legions of ‘tweeps’ are offering up rapid-fire, election-related, 140 character messages by the thousands-per-minute — and some popular tweet terms are beginning to surface.

Not surprisingly, both McCain and Obama supporters are hailing the prospective victory of their respective candidates and using the popular “For the Win” web-slang ‘FTW‘ in their posts.

Check the relative popularity of “Obama FTW” vs. “McCain FTW” to see who’s winning that meme-war.

But Obama supporters are going a step further in their fervency by rampantly and emphatically wishing everyone a “Happy Obama Day” on November 4, 2008 — indicating their confidence in an Obama victory.

Other pro-Barack Twitter users have adopted an even more concise declaration of support, using the simple and effective “GoBama” — often paired with an enthusiastic exclamation mark.

The non-partisan hash tag #votereport has also proven immensely popular throughout the day, as Twitter users update their status with their vote, in order for the site to track voting patterns in real-time at Twitter Vote Report.

For more on the impact of social media on the 2008 Election, check out NowPublic’s previous coverage:

Social Media Mania and the US Election: the Best Links & Resources

Voting in the US election 2008; from twitter

NowPublic

Tags: Culture | Politics | internet | World | Web | McCain | meme | twitter | election2008 | US Election | gobama | votereport | happy obama day | obama ftw | mccain ftw