EDITOR’S NOTE: In the short life of this blog a conscious decision was made to offer opinion and commentary from an editorial rather than a personal perspective.  This post will depart from that practice.

Barack Obama

On November 4, 2008, Barack Obama became my president, too.  I didn’t vote for him.  I hoped for a different outcome in the election held that day.  But I’m a citizen in a nation facing extensive challenges, and it is now my duty to accept this outcome, to hope for his success, and to do what it is within my means to do to ensure it.

Twenty-eight years earlier, on November 4, 1980, I cast my first vote for Ronald Reagan.  I responded to the fresh perspective to government that he represented.  In the face of the many economic and foreign policy challenges of that day he and his party seemed to have the new ideas, and the determination to see something done.  Most importantly, his unapologetic love of his country and optimism for its future shown through the national self-doubt that clouded our mood.

Since then I have been a faithful conservative and loyal Republican.  I have been a volunteer, a contributor, a precinct committeeman, a party officer, a campaign manager, a voter registrar and more in support of the party and its candidates. 

That loyalty, however, has become severely strained.  Principles of conservative government have been abandoned.  The actions of President George W. Bush and congressional Republicans had proven pledges of less government and lower taxes with reduced spending little more than empty rhetoric.  The renewed life conservative government seemed to get from the first congressional majority in more than 40 years was fleeting.  A dearth of new ideas allowed conservatism to become discredited as meaning little more than anti-gay and anti-abortion.  The national pride that had been restored a quarter century earlier had become an affectation measured by flag lapel pins rather than real accomplishment that might be worthy of such pride.

The bonds of 28 years are not easily broken, but in the spring I did leave open the question of my vote for president.  I began a series of deep philosophical and ideological discussions with a neighbor who is a good friend and avowed liberal.  In a place defined by poliitics, it was a rare treat to have an honest exchange of ideas free of rancor and animosity.  In deference to him I gave serious consideration to the candidacy of Democratic nominee Barack Obama. 

In 2008, Obama represented the fresh perspective and the determination to see important work done that Reagan once had.  In 2008, he emerged on the scene after a period of national uncertainty with optimism, just as Reagan once had. 

Unlike John Kerry, Al Gore and Hillary Clinton, each of whom I saw as perpetuating the kind of partisan rancor that for so long has defined our national politics, I did not fear his election.  Although a senator, he seemed less of Washington than from it, and so his pledges of post-partisan government seemed more credible. 

The history that would accompany his election as our first African-American president would produce a positive change in the nation.  In another generation we will have a majority minority population, and his election now would inspire every child of a racial minority to take an interest in his government then, and that ultimately serves us all. 

No one who imagines he can be president is free from ego and ambition, but I sensed in Obama a desire to do something, not just be something.  Although there may be partisan and ideological differences on the means, we are agreed on the ends, and a president who sees the office as a tool, not a prize, is essential to achieving them.

And so, as Election Day, approached, I was faced with the first real test of my loyalty.  Would I give my vote to Republican John McCain, or to Democrat Barack Obama? 

As frustrated as I have become with the Republican Party’s failure to adhere to its core conservative principles and demonstrate their efficacy through effective government, it still represents the best reflection of those principles.  And as imperfect a candidate as John McCain was, I did come to see, or at least to hope, that if elected at the age of 72, he would enter office with the natural imperative to act quickly and the record to govern conservatively. 

For all the good an Obama presidency might bring, I worried that Democratic control of both the White House and the Congress would herald a return to the kind of liberalism Reagan had sought to end.  That worry seemed validated by pledges of an addition $1 trillion in spending, advocacy of a refundable tax credit even for those not paying taxes that amounts to little more than a government giveaway, and continued insistence on a full military withdrawal from Iraq despite security improvements and prospects for political improvements there. 

In the end my choice was governed by my belief in conservative principles, and my loyalty to the Republican Party, but it was not a joyful vote.

This year more Americans voted than had ever voted before, and Barack Obama received more votes than any president had ever received before.  The questions before me now are different. 

There are ideological questions: What is the future of conservatism?  Can a coalition of fiscal, foreign policy and social conservatives hold?  There are political questions: Who will emerge from the Republican Party that can carry the conservative banner and win with it?  Will the party recognize the need not only to reaffirm its principles, but also to reform its methods and practices? 

The most fundamental question, however, is how to respond to President Obama?

With our economy rapidly contracting, and our military waging a war on two fronts, it is essential that the next presidency be a successful one.  That would be true whomever had been elected our president.  It is especially true for our nation’s first African-American president.  I worry that the election obscures more than it resolves the nation’s history of racial tensions.

In wishing President Obama well, I am not suggesting that Republicans should accept everything he wants on his terms.  The country is best served when it has two vital parties offering competing policies and giving citizens choices.  The Republican Party, and especially its conservative members, need to rediscover their principles, apply them to 21st century needs, develop new ideas and policies, and reach out to new or under-represented constituencies.

As a Republican, I will hope for and work for a resurgent party.  As a conservative, I will hope for and work for a renewed commitment to core principles.  But as an American, I will hope for and work for a stronger and more stable nation, and to that end I will offer every best wish to my president, Barack Obama.