When Bad Things Happen

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I remember back when Bush was president, one of the things that sometimes happened was that the Democrats and media seemed to oppose him on everything. One aspect of that stood out to me in particular: when things were going well (i.e. the surge was working, the economy was good, etc.), they would oppose him about those things and seemed to even hope that bad things would happen just to prove that Bush was wrong. It seemed that when the war went badly, or the economy tanked, they were so enthusiastic about trying to prove Bush was wrong that it looked like they were actually happy that bad things happened. It gave them an opportunity to bash Bush.

Well, I've recently noticed a very interesting dynamic within myself. Now that Obama is going to be the president, I actually noticed myself having some feelings that were very similar. When the stock market went down the first two days after Obama was elected, I found myself reacting differently than I had in the past. Instead of feeling upset and sad about it, I found myself feeling vindicated - as if just because Obama is going to be the president, all bad things are now his fault.*

I condemn that in myself just as I condemned that when it looked like Democrats did that to Bush.

I think it's going to be VERY interesting having a president in office that I oppose. How many times am I going to catch myself doing the same things I opposed when Bush was president? How many times will the arguments I used against others need to be applied to myself? I think this will be a very enlightening and growing experience. Since I recognized things I didn't like about people's reactions to Bush, will I be able to not indulge in the same things now that Obama will be our president?

I pray that the answer will be "Yes." But I know myself well enough to know that it will not be smooth sailing. But I think it's an exercise worth pursuing. I think it's a very worthy goal to avoid acting in the same way as some of those I opposed, now that the situations are reversed.

If anyone reading this ever sees me doing things like that, can you let me know? I would really appreciate it.

(*I feel a need to clarify a point here. I think it's perfectly legitimate to oppose a policy or decision that I don't agree with. And if/when there are bad things that happen as a direct result of things he's done, that's fair game to talk about as well. These are not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the tendency to hope, to wish, to yearn for bad things to happen just to say "Aha! See? I told you so. He's wrong." That is not right. One should never hope for bad things to happen to anyone.)
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