the other side

In the midst of all the joyful looking forward to the Obama administration, I catch myself wondering how the people who voted for the other guy are feeling. I don't remember my kids, or in fact my whole town, turning out to watch the inauguration for the previous president. I mean, he's my guy, and I am beyond delighted. But I keep wondering if those other people are feeling as alienated and mad and worried as I was 4 and 8 years ago. Yeah, he's MY president, I am proud to have voted for him, but will there be students abroad this summer who will wince and say "he's not my president, I didn't vote for him" ? (actually I can't think how that would play out, because this president is in some strange ways better liked abroad than at home. Traveling students are unlikely to get anything other than a giant thumbs up. huh. Maybe we should travel abroad this year just to sample that feeling, having been abroad in the Regan and Bush years and had all Europe shaking their heads and wagging their fingers at me.)

I'm just trying, in a moment of introspection, to see what it might feel like being on the flip side. I can remember it, pretty clearly. It sucked. I am thinking if there is anything I can do to make it suck less. Because I really really really want this experiment to work. I want the other guys to be, if not pleased, then at least reassured that they are heard, and that the country is still this country, and it belongs to all of us.

ETA - I can remember feeling this same kind of relief and pleasure when Clinton was elected. Maybe that is what comes from being old. And I remember the intensity with which the Republicans went after him for all kinds of stupid things, as a kind of tit-for-tat for the Dems going after the Republican presidents when it seemed there was no way it would ever change and that was the only check there was on his behavior.

Apparently, mostly this is making me feel old. Pleased, My president, but old.