On Inauguration day, it was clear that some sort of disagreement was taking place, just ahead of where I stood in line at my local Safeway.
“…And all the streets are closed,” an elderly customer was complaining, as her items were rung up.
“That’s because this is history,” the cashier said irritably.
“It’s always history when we get a new president,” the customer said mildly, loading her purchases into her cart. “It happens every four years.”
“Well, this time it’s Barack Obama,” snapped the cashier. She turned her body away from the customer as if she couldn’t bear to have the woman in her field of vision, and widened her eyes in annoyance. “Next?”
Fifty-six million Americans didn’t vote for the guy. But I shop there every week, and who knew how the cashier would take it, so I demurred.
In Washington these days, to express any dissent from the general orgiastic acclaim for President Obama is to invite aggression – or, in better moments, mystified incomprehension.
Those who adore him are so wreathed in their own rapture that they seem to have forgotten not everyone shares their joy. In some local schools, adult enthusiasm for the new president has come perilously close to indoctrination.
That’s what a friend of mine encountered at the private elementary school her child attends. Stopping by the school one day not long ago, she happened to run into the music teacher.
“I’m so excited,” the teacher bubbled, “I’ve just composed a song for the children!” The purpose of the song, the teacher explained, was to celebrate the results of a school wide mock election in which – surprise! — Barack Obama had come out victorious.
“And the chorus goes, “Yes We Can!” the teacher enthused. My friend was stunned. What was the school thinking, getting children to sing political campaign slogans?
She took her concerns to the school principal, fearful that her objections would be taken the wrong way. After all, why would anyone complain about a cheerful, positive song?
In the principal’s office, my friend gently pointed out that when we see schoolchildren in foreign countries chanting government slogans we call it political indoctrination.
The principal got the point. Some time later, after several classes had already performed “Yes We Can,” the song quietly disappeared from the musical rotation.
In one private school last week, children were encouraged to write letters of congratulation to the president-elect. In another, the art teacher passed out portraits of Obama for the children to color.
With his name in large block letters at the top, the pictures were virtually indistinguishable from pieces of campaign propaganda.
Obama is, of course, every American’s president now, and congratulations to him. But we do not live in a one-party state, and many Washington families do not, and did not, support the Democrats.
I don’t suppose it would have occurred to any music teacher to compose a “No Child Left Behind” ditty in 2004, no more than art teachers would have been likely to distribute McCain’s likeness for coloring-in, had the GOP won in November.
Polls show great optimism for Obama’s leadership, even among those who did not pull the lever for him. But surely it would be wise to see at least a little of what he does with his new power.
Pro-lifers, for instance, are deathly afraid that Obama will sign the Freedom of Choice Act. FOCA would instantly reverse the hard-won progress the pro-life movement has made through the ballot since the Roe v. Wade decision.
Among other things, FOCA would rescind parental notification laws in 44 states. When he was campaigning, Obama told supporters he’d sign the legislation into law. As of Tuesday, he’s in a position to do so.
It’s lovely that so many Americans are so thrilled with our new president. But in that gladness, there really does need to be caution.
Americans used to regard the seething, impassioned crowds attendant on charismatic politicians as something foreign, and borderline sinister.
History doesn’t know what kind of president Obama will turn out to be. But surely that should be decided after he’s left office, not on the day that he arrives.
Examiner columnist Meghan Cox Gurdon is a former foreign correspondent and a regular contributor to the books pages of The Wall Street Journal. Her Examiner column appears on Thursdays.
