Post-election thoughts, part 1: Reason 1, Fear 0

The election is over and I'm still inspired that last Tuesday was a such an overwhelming victory for rationalism in a country that has been driven by irrational fear for so long. I'm also overwhelmingly impressed with the thorough, rigorous and transparent transition process. My greatest concern about Obama was that he would be a wishy-washy Clintonian centrist in progressive clothes. From what I've seen over the past week, I'm more than happy to be proven wrong. Within days, the unprecedented change.gov went live. In a clearly deliberate shift, the campaign's font Gotham has been replaced with a more "presidential" serif font. The site outlines policy agendas in great detail, calls for citizens to be part of the process and is very up-front about new public service programs. If change.gov says anything, it's "We have a plan and we know what we're doing. Here it is. Be a part of it."

The other thing that impressed me this week was an old interview with Obama on his faith. Now, I don't think anyone who publicly believes that an invisible man in the sky rules the world is mentally fit to make decisions for themselves, let alone for the most powerful nation in the world - but, even the founding fathers grudgingly acknowledged the political necessity of religion. [They had to deal with the nutty Puritans, and we have the Christian Right.] Obama's answers in the above interview seemed very much in line with Jefferson, Franklin and Adams. Although he calls himself a Christian, Obama comes off more as a spiritual humanist in the interview, citing Ghandi and King, and skirting the prayer question to talk about searching himself for answers. His spirituality seems to be more Jungian than anything.

To put it mildly: I think this is going to work. And I'm very proud of this country for choosing reason over fear.