Collegial Civility

That's what should be anticipated in a civilized democracy. A smooth transition from one administration to another, regardless of the fact that it is one political ideology replacing another.

Polite courtesy and helpfulness is the mark of a mature society. And America's outgoing president is demonstrating good will and courtesy as he should, under the circumstances. It cannot be claimed that he, like much of his country, does not welcome the ascension to administrative opportunity of a man of colour.

That the man of colour is a Democrat, one whose agenda and values are diametrically opposed, in a great many instances of social purport to his own, is the problem. But if he has a problem with that - and he assuredly must have, since the ascension of Barack Obama to the presidency of the United States will spell the turn-about of many of George W. Bush's decisions, imperilling his legacy.

The simple fact is never simple.

This is a country polarized by the ideology of religion, the religion of the fundamentalist evangelical demographic with a powerful voice in American society. This is a country historically polarized by the reality of colour. With its unsavoury history of white domination of blacks whose presence in the country came about for the singular purpose of achieving the cheap labour of enslaved people.

This is a country that fought a protracted and bitter civil war, brother against brother. The way that the country votes now, for Republican or Democratic representation, is now more muted than it has been, but it still echoes the bitterness and unforgiving nature of the civil war legacy. The complexities of equal representation in a society that still stubbornly clings to race, are manifold.

But Mr. Bush was congenial, accepting and pleasant toward President-elect Obama, and First Lady Laura Bush could be no other way toward Michelle Obama - soon to take her place - for such is her sunny and gracious nature. The underlying tension is not to be aired for public consumption. This is a time for coming together, in a nation stressed by financial insecurity, and miserable about its two war fronts.

Much good will come of the initial acts undertaken by the new Democratic administration. High on the agenda are overturning such items as the Republicans under President Bush barring funding to overseas family planning groups that support abortion. Along with AIDS funding in the third world that required health workers to impose restrictions they could not possibly control on sex mores, rather than advocate for condom use.

The limited federal funding for embryonic stem cell research will now be lifted in the search for answers to dire diseases that confound medical science. And states that wish to empower themselves to battle carbon dioxide emissions will now be able to proceed. And drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge will not now proceed. Vital interests of large energy corporations will no longer proceed unquestioned.

And while he's about it perhaps when President Obama takes office he should order an investigation into the muteness of financial institutions with respect to the disposition of the vast tax-payer funded bailouts they've received.