Our historic election what can we make of it?

I don't like to speak about politics, we each have our own ideas and this country has been so torn asunder by the partisanship of our nation. However these are historic times and I think it is an interesting time to be alive. All the pundits have weighed in on why Senator and now president elect Obama won the election. I happened to vote for him also and everyone I know did. However to look at this election, one wonders why it was even as close as it was. Millions and millions of people voted for John Mccain. A man who is a bonfaide hero true but nonetheless dangerous because of his antiquated ideologies. Someone that picked a less than qualified running mate to be his vice president. I recently watched how CNN gave Sarah Palin a generous amount of airtime and I was angered by it. Does the republican party somehow think she will run again in 2012 for the presidency? I like many people don't understand why she was chosen. Was it simply because she is a female and mildly appealing to the republican base? I thought that choosing someone to lead our nation should be about choosing the most qualified applicant from among the vast pool of candidates. Is Sarah Palin the most qualified? Obviously not, it is also obvious that the republicans have lost their way, that is if they ever were on the track at all. Their party mantra has always been, smaller government and tax cuts, they were supposed to shrink government, but in fact they grew it by leaps and bounds. President Bush has not done one thing that I can point to that is positive. Republicans have been caught in scandal after scandal yet why do so many people continue to vote for them? It boggles the mind, especially mine. One wonders if the financial markets hadn't done so poorly, would President elect Obama even be where he is? If he had been unable to raise the record sums of money he did, would he have won? If he had accepted public financing could this all have been possible? It will never be known, but I for one am happy he won. I was watching CNN shortly after the election and one of the announcers said something to the effect of, that they would be watching Senator elect Obama, to make sure he was doing what he promised. I wonder where these people were for the last 8 years when the sitting president, broke every promise he had made, thought himself above the laws of this land. Where were these pundits? Haven't they been watching? I find it interesting that president elect Obama is trying to stay above the fray and not be partisan. Even though republicans have shut democrats out the past eight years. When they were in power they regarded our party as a mere annoyance. They didn't allow our voices to be heard in the halls of power. I remember when they made John Conyers the Democratic senator take his meetings in a basement office when he was investigating the republicans. I remember those partisan exchanges in the senate. I remember Senator Byrd saying wait, lets not rush into the Iraq war, lets think about this. All these queries falling on deaf ears. The agenda was already in place you see. We have a lot to be angry about. Don't you remember "Mission accomplished?" How many young men and women have died since in a senseless war? How many more will die. This wasn't my point however to talk about this, you wonder though, with all this and much more, the many scandals and waste, the deficit ballooning out of control, our stock market in shambles, our debts to China rising and rising. The 700 billion dollar bailout of companies who in many respects, shouldn't have been saved. The same man who worked under Paul Bremer in Iraq handing out our millions to contractors with no accountability, now working on handing out our tax dollars to the greedy wall streeters responsible for wrecking our economy. Yet so many are blind to all this. Americans have short memories. They forget so quickly or just aren't interested. I know this is a blanket statement, we should just move on now and forget what has happened. I am not one of those people. I always felt Bush should have been impeached long ago. I hope they continue to investigate him after he leaves the white house. Executive privelege should only go so far and not that far. They impeached president Clinton for so much less, a dalliance with a woman that was a mistake true, yet this president has done so much worse, so many lives he's destroyed and the lies keep mounting, yet no one seems to want to talk about that. Of course it is a great day, the first African American man has been elected to the white house. But we should be careful not to overlook the fact that we are a divided nation, haven't we been since the civil war ended really? The reality is, that our system of government is broken, we have allowed those corporations that we now villify to usurp power. They give to political parties and expect favors. In the dawn of the corporation in this country, this was illegal. Corporations were kept from the political process for a reason, so they couldn't exert control over our process. Don't forget this is a decision supposedly made by the people and for the people isn't it? Together both parties spent a billion dollars on this campaign. A staggering sum, one can logically assume that both parties took large sums of money from some corporate interest. If we don't in the future force politicians to accept public financing then how can we really say our process is free of outside influence? If we demanded that the networks give each candidate an equal amount of commercial time, there wouldn't be a need to raise these staggering sums of cash to buy air time. Our process could actually be free of outside influence. But you see, the corporations have become too powerful. If we are truly a free market economy then we should allow them to go under if they are broke. That is what a free market economy truly is. You mess up and you pay the price. Yes people get hurt from that, but that is why you take great care to not let this happen. You don't allow greed to motivate you for greater and greater gain. Instead we bail out these companies who now come begging for a handout when times are bad. They tried to label Obama a socialist but aren't we practicing socialist tendencies by nationalizing some of our banks and lending institutions? It is hypocritical. As I watch Sarah Palin on T.V. I realize that this country is morally and ethically bankrupt. That we can even hold this woman up as any type of example to anyone is a joke and an insult to our intelligence. The fact that this woman was even chosen to run a state is not only unbelievable but moreover an insult to the people of this nation. We should seek the best of the best in our higher offices and I hope President elect Obama will stick to this mantra. I think he will. We have suffered too long to take a step back. The job ahead will be hard, just as it was for President Clinton, trying to repair the damage done by the first Bush presidency and that of Reagan. Reagan who is held up as some kind of shining example but who really was a disgrace. Both these presidents bankrupted our nation as well and it took president Clinton 8 years to repair the damage, only to have President Bush come into office in 2000 and destroy his work. To spend and rob us blind through two wars and waste and gluttony. Yes I am angry and you should be too. So we look to the future and wonder if this country will ever wake up and actually see what is going on. Will they realize we are all consumers now under the corporate umbrella? When will they demand that we get these corporations out of our political process? Maybe Abraham Lincoln said it best at the end of the civil war when he wrote "I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed."
-- U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, Nov. 21, 1864

Doesn't that say it all? Food for thought my friends, how can we ever be truly free again? Don't we all have to consume?