[Editor's note: This is what you get by celebrating a sea change in society with one too many lemon martinis.]
I am bored. Bored, bored, bored. Now with the elections over, I don't know what to do with myself. Other than my job. And where's the fun in that?
One thing that is keeping me busy and motivated is responding to genuinely stupid statements in the media about the meaning of an Obama presidency. If I could just get paid for that, well, I'd finally join the 2 measly percent in the nation that qualify for "redistribution of wealth" (i.e, taxation, or, rather, a return to the level of taxation of the pre-Bush II years) under an Obama administration. Wow! Just imagine! I, who will probably never earn that level of income in my lifetime--I'm not an aspirational plumber after all--could join the monied class and have the full attention and support of the next Republican administration!
Anyway, there have been so many examples of raging stupidity in the media, from pundit and populace alike, I am at risk of getting a repetitive motion injury, snapping my neck quickly toward the TV to see Joe Scarborough make another asinine statement. From Wednesday's MSNBC broadcast, in response to a weathercaster talking about the fine weather we're enjoying this November in certain parts of the nation: "Under an Obama presidency, you'll never be able to use a phrase like 'Indian summer' again, because things will be so PC."
Just how much does this buttwipe get paid to be so ignorant on national TV? I mean, I know he was in Congress and all that, so he's used to saying the dumbest things imaginable in as loud a voice as possible, but still, Joe, maybe it's time to rethink your career path.
Or the choking fit that is induced when I hear statements from the media that the election of Barack Obama to the presidency means "the end of racism in the United States."
Dude, give me a freakin' break. Tell me, did you go to college for a degree in journalism? Other than where Sarah Palin got her degree in journalism, I mean? Or did you just whip up the diploma in Word and print it out in color at your local FedEx Kinko's? 'Cause that is one seriously stoo-pid statement.
And if the neck-twist and choking don't get me, the carpal tunnel will from pouncing on my keyboard to respond to the latest invective from some crazy (I'm assuming), middle-aged (I'm assuming), white guy (I'm assuming), with a DSL or cable modem (I'm assuming), has posted to some blog or comment forum. (Just not this crazy, middle-aged white guy, OK?)
For example . . . this little missive was posted today on CNN's Politics website:
To all the Dems:
[H]ere is what separates Republican's [sic] (at least me) from you guys. Yes, I wanted McCain to win, but he didn't, and so, my President is Obama and I will support and pray for him. This is exactly what Elizabeth on [The] View is doing. We lost - we get over it and we move on for what is good for the country.
Instead, you left wingers are berating her for changing her opinion. She didn't change her opinion - she's moving on. Something you can never do. You'll never get over the 2000 loss and you'll always be angry hateful people.
Republicans blew it by allowing Bush to become like a Democrat and spend us into heck, but that is going be corrected in 2012. I wish Obama the best and pray he'll get good advisors [sic] and for this country. I will not wallow in anger or frustration or blame anyone - it is over. It is time to move on. It is time to get our country rolling again and at this point it doesn't matter who is at the helm. So stop with your anger and join the club. Country First.
Oh, goodness, where to begin when confronted with so much seething, oozing dumbassedness? How could I not respond to this? The poster is just crying out to be sent to a Socialist Reeducation Camp, which I'm sure will be the first order of business under a new Obama administration, being that he'll have nothing else to occupy his time, other than political correctness and uniform thought. By the way, that's a joke, right wingers.The Socialist Reeducation Camps don't open until the *second* Obama term.
And, so, here's how I responded:
Dear [Poster],
You're not angry? Or wallowing in frustration? You're moving on? Really? Jeez, you're already focusing on 2012, and President-Elect Obama hasn't even been sworn in yet. You're blaming Democrats for the Bush administration's problems and mistakes (he wasn't a real Republican, but a "secret Democrat"). That doesn't sound like calm acceptance to me.
I'm admittedly a liberal, although I wouldn't classify myself necessarily as a "left winger" or even a Democrat. I make decent money but certainly not the $250k per year that only 2 percent of the U.S. population makes, or even the $100k+ per year that maybe 20 percent makes. Still, I don't begrudge those who do--I just want my voice to be heard, my views to be as respected, and my needs to be considered as theirs have been over the last few decades.
I am very happy that Obama was elected but not because I think it redresses being "wronged" in the 2000 election. Frankly, I could care less about that at this point. I was no supporter of George Bush (l lived in Texas through both his governorships and didn't really think much of him as a leader or a visionary; a failed property tax initiative does not a leader make). While I may never have liked having him as president, I thought he handled the immediate aftermath of 9/11 quite well. I probably could have tolerated him as president throughout his terms, the will of the people and all that, except for a series of unfortunate events that occurred on his watch--namely, the war in Iraq, the 2004 election, and Hurricane Katrina.
Why those events in particular? Because his administration used soldiers and citizens as pawns in some egotistical, arrogant geopolitical maneuvering (my father was a Marine for 30 years; I'm sensitive to this); his campaign eliminated serious public discourse on the issues and problems that plague us with name-calling and fear-mongering among the electorate; his administration--and many, many people, along with the Louisiana state government (a Democratic administration at the time, not a Republican one)--allowed millions to be spent on "homeland security," yet couldn't manage to come up with an effective evacuation plan for a known death trap like New Orleans in a hurricane (or even Houston, for that matter).
So, as a liberal, I'm not bitter about the 2000 election; I'm angry about 8 years of failed public policy, of thinking that government is not for, by, and of the people, but instead for, by, and of monied interests and narrowly focused cultural groups. Heck, I'll take it a step further back--I'm anguished over years of this from both the Democratic and Republican sides. It's a sadness and a frustration that transcends time and party.
Despite my liberal leaning ways, I suspect that I'm not that far off the mark from a lot of Americans. I'm sick to death of the binary approach to life and politics in this country, the tit-for-tatting of Republican this and Democrat that. What I want to see--and why I voted for Obama--is our nation move beyond blaming each side for past grievances. Instead, I want to see someone address those grievances and get us all to get along well enough to work together to return our nation to doing our best work and being our better selves, both at home and abroad.
I do not care whether a Republican or a Democrat does this. I do not care whether it is a he or a she, a liberal or a conservative, a "tax and spend"-er or fiscally conservative, right wing or left, straight or gay, black or white or both or neither. I just want someone who will help us turn our attention back to what matters--looking out for each other and for our world.
There is no other reason to have government than to do these things for everyone we can. It doesn't mean doing the exact opposite of the last few years and creating some sort of dependency culture. (May I suggest you read The Audacity of Hope? Even Barack Obama doesn't support this.) It does mean moving things back to the center so that we encourage initiative, help us all find the tools we need to succeed, open up opportunity, and make things better for as many as possible, not just half or a quarter or 2 percent of the electorate.
Now *that* is what I call moving on . . . that’s what I call putting country first. I hope you'll join me in doing so, whether you like having Obama as president or a Democratic Congress or not.
OK, so maybe I'm not as genuine as I pretend to be. I have absolutely despised the last 28 years of mostly Republican leadership in the executive and legislative branches of American government. I think it's been nothing more than the promotion of ignorance, mean-spiritedness, selfishness, and stinginess, over any authentic attempt to address national and global problems. I do think taking some tax revenues and putting them toward social services and public initiatives is the way to go--whether the initiatives involve education, the economy, housing, transportation, poverty, the environment, healthcare, what have you.
You can call that socialism if you like, although I'm not sure I even know what that means anymore. However, I like to think of it as good, responsive government.
I do mean sincerely that I do not care who offers good, responsive government, Republican or Democrat, Green or Libertarian. If John McCain had offered that kind of campaign rhetoric, rather than the kind that focused on Obama's "difference" or "mystery" or "secret agenda" or "un-Americanness," who knows? Maybe I would have considered voting for him. I don't think the Democrats have a monopoly on good government; in fact, I have plenty of evidence to suggest otherwise. I do think, however, that their presidential candidate was the only one who seriously talked about issues, plans, and a vision for the people of this country and the world at large. I also think that traditionally, between the two major parties in the U.S., the Democrats are the ones who tend to address issues of bettering society and people's lots--albeit often ineffectively. I don't consider trickle-down economics an honest attempt at social welfare and progress. Shocking, I know.
Oh, and Elizabeth Hasselbeck? I think she's just trying to save her job at this point. But I didn't go there because I didn't think it was particularly germane to my argument.
How I wish someone would pay me to tell stupid people to shut the hell up. I'd promise to start with Joe Scarborough, first, move on to Elizabeth Hasselbeck, and save Bill O'Reilly and Glenn Beck until I was really warmed up.
How, too, I wish I were as patient, kind, and generous of spirit as I pretend to be.
Yeah, the two wishes do kind of cancel each other out. So what's your point? You want a piece of me?! I'll take you and your little blog posting to the floor, punk!
I just don't have the words. But I think I do have the song.
And that song is "The News" by Carbon Silicon (featuring Mick Jones of the Clash and Big Audio Dynamite), sums up my feelings better than anything right now, certainly better than my own writing does.
However, the more I hear from the actual news, the pundits, the media outlets, the usual suspects, how much I gather that no one has the words right now. Or at least no one has the comprehension.
For you see, the United States did more than elect a new president; it did more than select a Democrat over a Republican. It even did more than select an African-American president, although that in and of itself is HUGE and a thing whose import I do not want to diminish. I mean, my home state of North Carolina, a former member of the Confederacy and the site of so many civil rights abuses and battles over the years, once home to both the KKK and the Black Panthers, voted 50 percent for Obama and 49 percent for McCain. That in and of itself represents a radical change.
No, what happened at about 11 pm on Tuesday, November 4th, 2008, was seismic, cataclysmic. It transcends the everyday struggles of politics and race, generations and genders. It feels revolutionary, cosmic, as if we just witnessed the world change in the blink of an eye and nothing will ever be the same again.
People started calling those in power to account And people started saying, "I want my voice to count"
An overstatement? I don't think so. It just hasn't sunk in yet, what just transpired, but the same ol' same ol' can't happen again. And if it does, if anyone tries it, I think it will be recognized for what it is--inauthentic, false, a lie.
Again, I just don't have the words. But, oh, I have the feelings.
When I'm at a loss for words, I let TV do the talking for me:
All I can say is that I was so happy to wake up this morning and not find Bobby Ewing in my shower.
At the same time, it is rather nice to pull myself out of a bad dream and discover the political equivalent of a naked Patrick Duffy in my bedroom, giving me a wet hug.
I guess now there's no need for me to finish my piece, "Why I'm voting for Barack Obama; why I'm not voting for John McCain," a post that I've been working on, at least in my head, since mid-summer.
Wow. I am almost speechless. I certainly better understand the phrase "shock and awe" now. Barack Obama is projected to be the next president of the United States. Did any of us ever think we would live to see this night?
I don't say that for just the obvious reason, the one cited in heavy rotation on MSNBC at the moment, that Barack Obama, an African-American man, a biracial man, a child of at least one immigrant parent, a child of, in effect, a single mother, a man with the middle name Hussein, a man whose last name isn't English, Irish, Scottish, or ol' New York Knickerbocker(Roosevelt, Van Buren . . .), "that one," if you will, has, despite all odds and all prejudices, become president of the United States.
That in and of itself is a huge story. It's as if finally after 8 years, or maybe even 50 years, or maybe even 150 years, America has stepped into the present as well as into its own future. Welcome to the 21st century and beyond, folks. After so many delays, after so many mistakes and missteps, we are finally here, and it feels so very good.
But there's at least one more story out there that's worth telling before I head off to bed. And that is that today, the U.S. electorate, at least a good portion of it, chose intellect and reason over fear and demagoguery, something it hasn't done for a long time. No amount of bandying about terms like "terrorist," "socialist," "secret Muslim," "elitist," "real American," "Marxist," or "dictator" seemed to knock us off course from turning out the old and backward-looking and embracing the new and forward-thinking.
The story around Live Flesh takes place in different time periods, but one of the themes is the changes wrought in Spanish society from the repressive Franco era, to the immediate post-Franco era (kind of like our '60s excesses but with even more chemical substances, apparently), to a more moderate, contemporary time, when people make decisions based on what's best for them and those around them, rather than what they feel forced to do or are too scared not to do. I think you could show the scenes from Grant Park in Chicago tonight, or just about anywhere in America for that matter, read that line over the scene, and it would fit.
Is this that day, the day we no longer choose to be afraid? Good god, I hope so. I can't tell you how many years I've had that line in my head. I can't tell you how many times I repeated it to myself, my silent mantra, this election season.
The other thing on my mind tonight--and there are, admittedly, a zillion things running through my brain at the moment, making me wonder whether I'll be able to sleep at all tonight--the one that rises to the surface and stays afloat, is a statement made just a little while ago by political reporter David Gregory on MSNBC. (By the way, is there an island where mad scientists make boyish-looking, prematurely graying news reporters for the American networks? And do they take special orders?) He said something to the effect that he's 38 years old, that fellow commentator Rachel Maddow is even younger, and that the both of them didn't quite get the fuss over the U.S. electing its first African-American president. Or, rather, they could see it was a big deal, but they didn't feel it in the same way that perhaps their over-45-year-old colleagues did. As David Gregory put it, "We just see Obama as a qualified candidate, a man running for president."
I think that's wonderful, and I'm glad to see that has come about, even if I fall into the old guard, over-45 camp, and I will spend a few hours resenting the young whipper-snappers just a few years younger than me who are living a very different life than mine. Nonetheless, while that statement makes me feel my age, I can live with that feeling, as long as it it means those younger than me get a chance at a better world. Wow again. I must be feeling pretty hopeful and upbeat tonight if I'm well-wishing the under-40 crowd.
However, Mr. Gregory's observation makes me want to underscore one additional point, and that is this: That this under-40 worldview, that Barack Obama is just another man, a very qualified and successful one, but nonetheless, one of flesh and blood and bone like the rest of us, is a direct result of government intervention in our lives, of government working in tandem with people to make things better for all.
Government didn't always step aside and let "the market" deal with racism and inequality, at least before 1980 or so. Government didn't always shrug its shoulders and turn its attention to working out a better deal on home mortgages or let the insurance industry have a free reign in screwing people over. Government didn't always say, "Hey, it's OK to be selfish! I've got mine, and you'll have to get yours somehow by pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps, and if you don't have your own bootstraps, well whose fault is that? We're all created equal, after all." Government didn't always say, "I can't deal with the economic and social problems of this country because a very squeaky, intractable, and vituperative political wheel doesn't want me to because they feel it goes against their belief system."
Well, OK, government did say those things some of the time; it did do some of those things a lot of the time. In recent history, over the years, and long ago. But it hasn't always been like this. Sometimes government actually stepped in and attempted to address the issues and redress the wrongs. It fought a war, it emancipated the slaves, it gave 40 acres and a mule, it passed civil rights legislation, it challenged segregation, it forced busing, it sent in troops, it funded public welfare programs, it supported affirmative action, and it stepped up and defended those who could not defend themselves.
It did some things good and some things bad, and we have a legacy, both good and bad, to show for it. But the point is it eventually (if not consistently or even always effectively) took action for the people. It saw the bigger picture, it understood its role, and it effected some pretty powerful changes that only now, 30, 40, 50 years later, are fully playing themselves out.
So for all of you who fear the return of "big government," a couple of pointers for survival in this new era. First, read Barack Obama's book, The Audacity of Hope, in which he talks about this very thing, making government work for the people (it's very purpose in the first place!) but not giving a totally free reign to the market or, in the reverse, creating a dependency class, hooked on entitlement programs and handouts. There's a third way in most things, a "both/and," as opposed to a rigid "either/or." We've had years of either/or, and you see how brilliantly that's turned out. Now's the time to try something new. Given some time, I think you might find that you enjoy life in the both/and zone.
Second, Barack Obama is not a secret Muslim. He's not a dictator. He's not going to suddenly drop the mask to reveal some hideous visage under his human form. The Kool-Aid isn't suddenly going to wear off, and we'll all be left dealing with a horrible hangover. Many of those who supported him didn't drink any in the first place! Instead, we saw an intelligent, motivated leader who could help us--all of us!--find our way back to being our better selves.
So stop being stupid--this isn't some bad plot twist in V, for god's sake. This is America. If you truly love it the way you say you do, you'll give us all a little credit for knowing our own minds, and you'll give this new administration, this new era, a fighting chance.
And third, stop being afraid. Of government. Of people who are different. Of life. Government can do wonders for us when properly carried out. Different people bring different perspectives to the table, often very good ones. And dammit, just get out and live life the way it should be lived--fully, unselfishly, joyously, and fearlessly.
As the ol' saying goes, the only thing we really have to fear is fear itself. And marvel at this: A populist, effective, activist political leader, who led the nation through a time of economic turmoil and social upheaval, who saw government as an agent of positive, inclusive change--of all people--was the one to say it. (Yes, yes, I know he was a Democrat, but that's not really the point.)
Maybe just maybe history is on the verge of repeating itself. In a good way. For a change.
