I Wish I Were a Chicken

On the Westside of Los Angeles, here's a view of what it was like when CNN announced Barack Obama as President Elect of the United States of America.

I was sitting in my friend Bryant's living room. He is the only person I know who is even-tempered enough to make a pot of chili on the day of this historic election. Bryant is also self-assured enough to not take the flake factor of Angelinos personally. While the majority of my friends were anxious, neurotic, sloppy, sleepless messes, Bryant described himself as "anticipatory." While the rest of us had become YouTube and Huffington Post junkies and were emailing each other frantic links at 3:30am with the word "scary" in the subject line, Bryant was calmly gathering information, interpreting date, and analyzing strategies. It is safe to say that Bryant is the Barack Obama of my small circle of friends- except that unlike what we know of Barack Obama, Bryant dressed as Sarah Palin for Halloween- and therefore, Bryant's house is just about the best place to watch the election.

In honor of the biggest economic crises since The Great Depression, he also served bathtub gin and government cheese.

There were signs of change early in the day. It was the first time in 15 years of voting that there had been a line at my polling place. A party guest admitted that this was his very first time voting, and he was in his 30's. I waited an hour and 45 minutes to vote, and was happy about it. I knew only one of my students would be voting for McCain, and that student claimed it was because he wasn't a "socialist."

Mostly we all thought Obama could win, and would. But in Los Angeles, there was still a lot of fear. Liberal Democrats have their own fear to contend with, mostly that perceptions of public opinion and actual public opinion change like how I've heard the weather changes in some other states. But after all, it was both windy and rainy in Los Angeles, could this be a harbinger of change in the rest of the country?

I arrived at Bryant's house at around 7pm (traffic, blah), and allowed my friends to update me on the recent predictions of blue and red states. Ohio... blue. Pennsylvania... blue.

"I told you Pennsylvania wasn't just filled with a bunch of racists," I defended my home state, proudly!

McCain couldn't win at this point. Why were we still so scared?

Then, that blinking noise came up on CNN that suggested another state was about to be called. (Everyone glanced at their iPhones first, to make sure it wasn't an incoming text message). We were all multi-tasking. Communicating with relatives and friends throughout the country, giving each other minute by minute updates, and factoids from the polls.

Obama was at just over 200 electoral votes at the time, and we all expected him to gather a few more right away. Instead "Barack Obama President Elect" flashed across the screen. We all looked at each other, and my girlfriend said, "Seriously?"

"Seriously."

People did it? The polls were accurate? Seriously. The United States really was ready for a change? Was a black man actually going to be the president. Was Barack Obama really the first BLACK PRESIDENT?!?!?! Was Michelle Obama going to be the first First Lady with an actual ass?

"I want to cry, but I can't," my girlfriend said. (Soon, she would, of course).

And then, it sunk in and we all went onto the balcony and started celebrating. Pouring Champagne. Toasting. Screaming. Neighbors coming outside is not a common thing in Los Angeles, and neither are pedestrians, and everyone was in the street screaming, "Oh my god! Oh my god!" And then (as is more typical in Los Angeles), the phone calls and text messages started flooding in, "OMG! OMG! OMG! We did it!"

Seriously? There would be no stealing this election? We didn't have to watch another excruciating manual recount?

And then, shortly after, I noticed that Bryant had stopped watching the television, and taken out his laptop computer. He was starting to gnaw on a hangnail with the intensity he usually reserves for an episode of So You Think You Can Dance, or Project Runway. Bryant was calculating. Strategizing.

And then, it hit me. Proposition 8. California's Ban on Gay Marriage Initiative. What was particularly disturbing about this conflict in California identity was not entirely (as the No on 8 people put it) "unfairness" or "wrongness" of changing the California Constitution to discriminate against Gays and Lesbians. That was both bad and obvious. However, the juxtaposition of Californian values in this election was particularly disturbing. Let's face it, Californians have always been contradictory in their legislation. After all, we have a governor who rides a private jet to Sacramento each day, yet purchases carbon credits to offset his footprint. Our education system went from among the best (and cheapest) in the country to one of the worst in a relatively short period of time, mostly because we hate property taxes. We have a public housing crisis, and hire taxicabs to drop our homeless off at Skid Row.

Sometimes, we're generous about immigration, touting slogans like "Legalize L.A." Other times, we're nearly fascist, threatening to throw illegal immigrants' children out of school entirely, or banning affirmative action in the name of equal rights.

So what was particularly disturbing about this day? California, like always, was a living contradiction.

Barack Obama's candidacy mobilized young voters, diverse voters (racially and socioeconomically). The voters were finally telling us that they were moving beyond race. This climate of hope and change, which is so exciting and promising, reminds me that Americans might have a future. Also (although I know it sounds cold), the racist politics and G.O.P. values may finally be dying out and being replaced with a more modern, global way of approaching the world. However, as Californians voted overwhelming to allow chickens to spread their wings and turn around in their cages (I voted in favor of that too), they also voted to amend the constitution to define marriage as "between one man and one woman." Californians helped elect the first black president, the first president I can recall who actually acknowledged the diverse "real" America in his acceptance speech. Not "real" America, but REAL AMERICA.

Another generation indeed is coming of age. Thankfully. And they are capable of change. They've proven it. They helped elect the first black president. They are capable of viewing the world in complex ways. They are capable of action.

Yes, another generation of voters has already come of age, and is finally displacing the old style of politics.

They believe in change.

They believe in community.

And, they (like the generation of voters before them) is anti-gay.