Crowds gathered in several SL locations to share the vigil on US election returns Tuesday night.
As the night wore on, most venues filled to max capacity.
Here's just a few snapshots from Cafe Wellstone.
3 days ago
Wednesday, 5 November 2008
Crowds Gather in SL to Follow US Election Returns
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2 comments:
Looks like people had fun.
I hope the "hard work" etc and the upward struggle Obama spoke about is that of the rich coming to terms they must share their wealth much more equitably...
Also - tax dodgers across the world (like Rupert Murdoch and Bono) need to be embarrassed - the only way we can "Make Poverty History" is a fair distribution of wealth.
Let's hope Obama fulfils the hopes the poor of America, and the world have placed in him. Another 1997 Blairite type win, and the slow realisation that these people were not on our side here in UK totally dissolussioned those who had worked so hard to oust the wreckless destructive tories.
I don't think "fun" is quite the way to describe the atmosphere during the monitoring of the election returns. It was actually pretty grueling, gut wrenching, and emotionally draining. People were sitting on the edge of their seats, and annoyed at the pontificating pundits injecting filler between the state by state, precinct by precinct reports.
As much as we expected Obama to win, there was also a poignant fear that the Republicans might steal it again...numerous instances of dirty tricks and cheating had already been exposed, and nobody really trusts the electronic voting machines.
There was also the palpable fear of assassination, which has hung over the campaign from the start, and will probably not be relieved any time soon.
I would point out that Murdoch and Bono are not "Americans", heh...but I know what you mean.
As I've stated before, the biggest danger of Obama's victory is that it may lead to disillusionment and cynicism, when he is not able to deliver substantial enough changes, fast enough.
The next stages, of seizing a Democratic supermajority in the Congress, and purging the Blue Dogs, will be urgent priorities. The work has just begun.
I wonder if similar circumstances may have been the case in the UK...your system is somewhat different, as I understand it.
Did Labor have a super majority in the Parliament, or were they blocked at every turn, by a sufficient conservative plurality to sabotage their every effort?
That's the situation the Democrats have faced in the recent past, with their simple majority not being quite enough to overcome Republican resistance.
Is it possible that if more people had turned out at the elections, and put more Labor reps in there, to be able to cut off the opposition at the knees, things might have been different?
That's the situ we hope to achieve in the next election cycle...this one brought it very close to that, falling just a few seats short...on some issues, that will be enough votes, if just a few Republicans are willing to cross over, to ram through some important legislation.
See my report on the-post election celebrations, and situ in general, for more analysis...I might add, that while there was much joy, and some "fun" in that, it was also a very serious and heart-wrenching moment for most, as you will see from the many tears.
Not everyone saw it as merely an "our team won" kind of thing, like at a football game. Most saw it as a vindication and an affirmation of the best of what "America" hopes for the future...but few believe that it's just going to automatically be "all better now".
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