Moment of Truth

I really started getting interested in baseball while getting swept up by the Red Sox during the 2003 American League pennant race. That year's Championship Series versus the Yankees brought to life in all its dramatic intensity the very essence of the Red Sox Story, complete with tragic ending. Their World Series win the very next year was a miracle that launched a new era for Red Sox Nation, but the 2003 Championship is the vessel which contains the fabled history.

In a similar way, it was an historic drama which drew me in to politics. The drawn-out and still-disputed 2000 Presidential Election results got me listening to NPR during my daily commute. My liberal blood became galvanized during the process that produced President George W. Bush, as it became clear that more than just Al Gore's stupefying dullness was working against his election.

I don't think Americans knew exactly what they were going to get when they went for W. Those who knew voted against him, and those who voted for him were die-hard Republicans, religious fanatics, or centrist folks who were simply tired of Bill Clinton, and willing to give the other side a try. There was drama in the historic way that the election results were finalized, but after Al said that the patriotic and ethical thing was to accept it and move on, largely, America and I did. We expected a typical Republican administration.

Of course Bush's leadership and the depth of Republican governing philosophy were quickly and repeatedly tested in a series of human disasters of literally historic proportions. Over the last 8 years we have endured both the random acts of mass cruelty that nature and fanaticism tolerate, and the creation of an Orwelian America by a son of favor and his Machiavellian veep. This paired heartbreak has left a scar not just on America's soul, but on her face to the World.

Now with Election Day 2008 just hours away, I think Americans know in their guts the historic implications of their choice. This election is a vessel which contains the history of hanging chads, Osama bin Laden, Guantanamo Bay, WMD, regime change, Abu Ghraib, Katrina, Fallujah, warrantless wiretaps, $5.00 gasoline, credit default swaps, and Sarah Palin. The choice whether to link the next four years to this chain, or whether to break it, is visceral. You know in your gut which choice will truly change the character of America's future, and you know which choice locks her to the past.

This is the moment, in full knowledge of the aching drama of history, in which America reveals herself. We await the truth.