California’s approval of Proposition 8 – enshrining the unconstitutional denial of civil rights to a specific set of people into state law – stands in stark, ironic contrast to its overwhelming electoral support of Barack Obama.

My editorial page editor, Herb Pinder, tried to talk me out of using the term “We shall overcome” in this cartoon. This almost went to press with Obama thinking “we must move on.” As astute readers of this blog may recall, Herb is African American, and a former lawyer, so his opinion (which I value greatly on all issues) is exceptionally important to me on matters of civil rights. His contention was that the former phrase was tantamount to sacred text (which it is.) But the more I thought about it the more appropriate the phrase became in the context of the cartoon. What is sacred is that the words embody the idea that democracy would one day include all of us equally. It confers sacredness on the idea of a working democracy. While President-Elect Obama is a symbolic embodiment of the successes of the civil rights struggle, he has not made his race the focus of his political career. During the campaign he spoke of his admiration for Ronald Reagan and of the burning need for political unity. For him, as President, that is the struggle of his time.

Obama’s election to the highest office of the most powerful nation in history has in a single sweep, profoundly changed the boundaries of race relations. Many of our problems won’t go away – There’s still stubborn, racially defined economic disparities – but a basic argument of the Civil Rights movement, has been gratifyingly vindicated.

Another oddly formed glimmer of hope is it does seem that most of the opposition to Obama is based on his policy ideas (or at least a cartoonish version of his policy ideas) and not the color of his skin. In the context of “judging a man by his character,” and him being excoriated for being “a Democrat,” that is a huge step toward the destination that MLK dreamed of.

I had to have some sketches ready for election night deadline. Here’s the one I had ready for a too-close-to-call evening.
At this point…I have to confess…I never prepared a McCain upset win cartoon.

(Edit) I put the image back up. Hope the ensuing traffic doesn’t shut me down again.

This is a re-post. Sorry…No image. Had to take it down and move the URL to another server. Over 10,000(!) hits an hour from this cartoon has been responsible crashing our servers (and taking down this blog) all through election night. Yikes. At least people are paying attention though! I’ll be back in a little while with an election update…

A tip of the hat to Dubya. Only two months left to upset and alienate the remaining 20% of Americans who view him positively…