Fake Empire

As I stood in front of the stage Tuesday night, shortly after CNN had broadcast its projection that Barack Obama will be our next President, and shortly after Senator McCain made his gracious concession speech, I cried while watching a video the campaign had put together. It shows roads and people throughout the country discussing their dreams and hopes and flashing signs of hope. The video is entitled "Signs of Hope and Change" and can be found at the link on the BarackObama.com website.

I had seen the video first in the stadium in Denver the night President-Elect Obama accepted the nomination. That night, I sat next to my daughter, soaking up the pure Denver air and the atmosphere of hope. The video summed up the journey that the campaign and all of us supporters had taken on this road to a new country. This night, I stood with my wife and son and his girlfriend and 250,000 other Americans, celebrating the audacity of hope. I cried with joy and exhaustion and disbelief, that this country at this time elected this leader.

Suddenly, I was overcome with terror. I recognized the song on the video - it is "Fake Empire" by The National, remixed without the words.

I usually love the sly irony of music counterposed against visual images. My current favorites are the UPS commercials with that long-haired adverstising executive sketching his ideas in brown ink on a whiteboard, all to the music of The Postal Service. I love the delicious crosscurrent of UPS using a song from The Postal Service. And I love this song by The National. It is compelling and original. It supports the video well, the drumbeat insistent and moving forward. But the title suddenly hit me as inappropriate.

Fake Empire on our night of triumph? Was this some sick joke of a subversive new media Obama campaign staffer, undercutting the accomplishments of our new President-Elect? Is the title meant to imply the false hopes of the future, that we are building a Fake Empire?

I was desperate to find the lyrics. I tried listening on the tinny speaker of my iPhone, but I could not make out the words. I found them, and post them below for you.

I felt relief. The images in the song are gentle, heart-warming, inspiring. Maybe the new media staffer who had selected this song, captured by the beat and tune, after reading the lyrics, and acknowledging the potential danger of the ironic title, chose to believe that those who got the joke saw Fake Empire as a reference to the past eight years. We're half-awake in a fake empire. And now, maybe we are waking up from this nightmare. Despite the shape in which we now find ourselves, our American values and the simple joys of this American life are still with us. This song celebrates those joys, even in the midst of this Fake Empire that is now coming to an end.

I listened to President Barack Obama's speech even harder than I thought possible. I cried some more, this time hugging my wife so hard, missing her already as the thought of her flying away to DC to work for this President and the pain of that separation weighed on me. So proud of her for working so hard to end this fake empire, and her contribution to make this moment and this speech possible.

I loved the humility of the President-Elect's speech. I loved the rhythm of his words. Yes We Can. After reading the lyrics below, I noted the echo, from the song's "let's not try to figure everything out at once" to the President-Elect's caution that we won't get there in one year, or maybe not even one term, but we will get there.

We will get there. Here's to the end of our Fake Empire. Here's to celebrating this hope-full future, to the end of fake empire building, and to the hard work ahead of us, re-building this nation, with a renewed sense of purpose and hope and optimism and faith.

The National
Fake Empire
Stay out super late tonight
picking apples, making pies
put a little something in our lemonade and take it with us
we’re half-awake in a fake empire
we’re half-awake in a fake empire

Tiptoe through our shiny city
with our diamond slippers on
do our gay ballet on ice
bluebirds on our shoulders
we’re half-awake in a fake empire
we’re half-awake in a fake empire

Turn the light out say goodnight
no thinking for a little while
lets not try to figure out everything at once
It’s hard to keep track of you falling through the sky
we’re half-awake in a fake empire
we’re half-awake in a fake empire