So now we have a grand compromise, which makes no one completely happy, which will anger supporters of either candidate to some extent (which means it's a good compromise), and which will, unless we're careful, not produce unity in the Democratic Party, and risks, therefore, handing the election to Senator McCain.
The first dose of honesty is for the supporters of Senator Obama (such as myself): you know yourselves. You, like I do, enthusiasm and passion for a candidate and cause. You need to remember that if we look ourselves in the mirror in the morning, we have to be honest that, were our candidate on the down-side of today's meeting, some of use would have been as boorish, as rude, as obnoxious, and as disruptive, as were Senator Clinton's supporters during the meeting. We are all humans, and we, in this process, are all members of a faction--as James Madison both defined and warned against: a group motivated by passion. Factions are, in a democracy (whether perfect or imperfect), inevitable: we are one, Hillary's folks are another and, I suppose, Senator McCain's are a third (although being passionate about him is tough to imagine). So if we walk around in the other folks' shoes for a while--which I think as progressives/liberals/moderates we are required to do--you know and I know that we could have been there in the balcony being babies. If you can't be honest about that human tendency, then you don't understand human nature.
So we are unified in our ability to be foolish. We are human.
But we also have a goal greater than our faction: the common good, the common wealth. We therefore must also acknowledge that our common good is furthered, not hindered, by the ability of a Democratic President to appoint judges and justices who are approved by a Democratic Senate; that we all benefit if a Democratic President has a Democratic Congress to consider proposals for economic reform, health care financing (which is of course what the Health Care Debate is all about), and environmental protection; that we all--including our misguided conservative brothers and sisters--are freer when we have active oversight and avoidance of unnecessary restrictions on freedom imposed because of an odd theory of kingship...er..Presidency imposed on us by the Vice President and his cabal. So we must be honest about that.
Finally, we must be honest that personalities are important. Winners are to be congratulated, and losers are to be welcomed with open arms. It is, no doubt, great when your man or woman wins, and it is tough when loss is the result of months of passion and work. Yet people's feelings...to which, frankly, we pay too much attention to nowadays, at the expense of their thoughts...are real: disappointment is real, and the lot of all of us from time to time in our lives. So, therefore, being honest, I say to those of Obama's camp: do not gloat; do not rub a victory in the face of the supporters of another candidate; do not be gleeful. A simple high-five and a beer glass raised on high will suffice. To those of Clinton's camp: be disappointed, perhaps even be pissed, but then think which is better: President McCain or President Obama; work through your disappointment; and then channel your emotions both to ensure that a Democrat wins occupancy of the Executive Mansion in November and to make sure that this new occupant acts in a manner which benefits the common good. You have the unique ability to keep the winner honest: use it.
[One notes that were the shoe on the other foot, one would have written the same diary. The commonwealth is more important than my own emotional stake in any one candidate, and, since no candidate is perfect, nor the new messiah, nor the savior of the world (that job already being taken), we are simply selecting the person who will be but a part of our governing system, not our King. Praise be.]
BC