On Tuesday, Jan. 20, Barack Obama was sworn into office as our country’s 44th president. It was an event that thrilled some people and infuriated others.
As with every election, presidential or otherwise, there are bound to be complaints from the losing party’s supporters. Being upset is completely understandable; nobody likes to lose.
But excessive complaining solves absolutely nothing. It only makes things worse by adding a bad attitude.
Those who are upset with the result of the November 2008 election need to accept their loss and move on. They need to realize that, this time around, they were in the minority. It is our responsibility to vote and the majority of those who did vote last November believed Obama was the best choice for presidency.
This is how American government and democracy work and has worked for the past 220 years. America is so often praised as the best country in the world, and one of the biggest reasons supporting this claim is that we, as citizens, have a say in our government.
This election, our say was Barack Obama.
It is unfortunate that not everyone can be happy with this decision, or with any other political decision for that matter, but Obama is the one whom the majority of voters wanted to represent them (53% to be more precise).
Republicans might not like his ideals or his plans for this nation, but even more people did like his ideals and his plans, as evidenced by the result of the election. And so that is how Obama came to be our president. He won the majority of America’s approval, where Senator John McCain failed to do so. More people had faith in Obama as our leader than McCain.
No one is expecting Republicans to suddenly be happy with Obama being their president. No one is expecting them to peel the “McCain/Palin” stickers off their cars and replace them with “Obama/Biden” stickers. It is perfectly acceptable for Republicans to be upset over the result of this election.
But it is not too much to ask of them to move past their political differences and support and respect Obama as our president, just as many Democrats had to do with President George W. Bush during his two terms.
Whether or not they believe it, President Obama will work to do what he thinks is best for everybody, Republicans included. It is important to remember that he is looking out for everybody, not just his supporters.
He is the President of the United States of America, not the President of the Democrats.