The Justice

The U.S. elections have become more than policy disputes. They have ever increasingly become a sport, an us vs. them event. I am convinced that most of the pain of losing an election comes not from rational judgments about future political direction but from the humiliation of being discredited by the public and of watching your opponents dance on your graves-a feeling each political party has had to deal with in turn. It is similar to losing a Super Bowl. Each day features a monument to your defeat in the papers. As campaigns increase in length and the attention they garner rises astronomically, so does the pain associated with losing after you've invested so much of your heart and mind in the outcome. The result seems to be that those who come up on the losing side spend the next four years planning revenge.

Following Barack Obama's victory on Tuesday, there was no shortage of calls for unity. We were often reminded by various liberal commentators and spokesmen that Obama was now the president of all of America.

This begs the question: Where was this rhetoric during these last eight years? Recall all the times professors used class time to bash conservatives, Republicans and Bush, and consider whether you would've considered this treatment fair or respectful had the circumstances been turned around. Can anyone so quickly forget how difficult it is to accept an outcome he so strongly hates?

With loss comes the desire for revenge. Our resentful pride delights in seeing our enemies discredited because of catastrophe. We'd rather shoot down any positive development that the other side makes than let them take credit for it. The humility required to wish good on your president, which may result in his re-election in four years, is unimaginable. That it is the right thing to do for America does not make it any easier.

But the call for unity must come from the losing side as well, for it is they who smart with bitter resentment. How easy it is for the winner to call for laying aside differences once the banner has been transferred to their camp.

However much he wants to help, Obama cannot bring about healing. The challenge of putting aside our differences and supporting our president rests on the shoulders of those most disappointed with Tuesday's election. To his great credit, one can hardly have made a more heartfelt, sincere attempt at reconciliation than did John McCain in his concession speech.

How will Republicans perform over these next four years? Will they be able to take pride in any good thing that happens for the country and for the president, even if it makes his re-election more likely? Will they be able to love their country unconditionally? Will they constantly qualify their love for America with their hatred for its president?

In the West Bank, when people asked me if I like Bush, I decided against detailing which policies of his I happened to support and which I didn't. Instead I simply answered, in Arabic, "Bush is my president." I will always answer the same for Obama, come what may.

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