"....put your hand on the arc of history and bend it once more for a brighter day....."
-President Elect Barack Obama, 11-4-2008.

Barack Obama didn't just suddenly become the President of the Untied States last week. During the the past couple of weeks he has exhibited an almost unnatural calm and an air of destiny..His grasp of the situation made it seem like this day was almost just a formality, and besides the fact that those of us who watch this stuff closely have been twisted in worry that the machinations of men or technology might prevent that which seemed a foregone conclusion, it felt done even before the states toppled.
The Obama family, along with the Bidens looked so crisp and shiny on the hi-def, and the hope in the moist eyes of the crowd ...the tears streaming down Jesse Jackson's face...the celebrating throngs jammed outside of the the white house fence; because its really ours, you know!
As an exclamation point on the historic change that has taken place, the new guys have opened up President-elect shop here. I find it heartening and touching because it is not only,as Jill says, a big hat tip to the Dean-genius grass-roots Internet explosion, but it asks us for our input and stories; it engages all Americans to reach towards their leaders and tell them something...anything....And, I don't care if its just bullshit that some secretary is skimming over in the basement by the standpipe...Its a moment in history that will exist on the Internets and in the ether for as long as this little ball falls around the sun.

Its been a long 8 years, and the trauma of it for some of us isn't gonna just rub off...celebrating the end of the Bush era and the dawn of hope, and realizing the importance of this thing; something so small and taken for granted; that in the face of fear and threats and the tight grip of a huge machine backed by big business robbing us blind, we have our vote, and with that we can do something. It is less about the top spot than it is about the landslide of defeats across the country!

Its that Chris Shays lost BIG, which is a big fuck you to Joementum Lieberman. Here in CT people were saying that Joe has been neutered....Just ask Harry Reid, and watch Joe hem and haw and squirm while he tries to explain again how it was such a hard decision for him to make to throw his party under the bus because he thinks he knows whats best for the country!..and after watching him for months, standing behind John McCain, my supposed democratic representative, ignoring every promise he ever made, in order to to step over the dead bodies of public servants who really wanted to improve the country in order to improve his own lot in life...too caught up in a doctrine that he really didn't seem to grasp...on that required him to be the Jew sacrifice in the end days scenario....Fuck Joe and fuck Chris Shays and their weak-assed supporters who knew they were bad for us but were afraid of the unknown, or who just wanted their fucking tax break to remain intact at the expense of our entire s0ciety circling the drain ! So long...don't let the door hit you on the way out. Maybe now we can get to work on real statewide health care and reforming our social services division...not to mention putting the money back into our schools!

This is where the sacrifice begins, and though President Elect Obama only hinted at it in his victory speech, I hope that he really lays it out well, so that those who expect the country to bounce right back will begin to understand how deep the hole is that we are digging out of. This is gonna cost money and its gonna take time. Its gonna require concentration and an attention span, or at least trust in our leaders to be moving us back towards being a society that serves all of its people. In a global era, Americans have to realize some stark truths; we are not on this planet alone and we don't each automatically get a flat screen TV just for being born. Credit cards are not just free money, and no one owes you anything beyond the best society that we can build as a society together, realizing that we are only as strong as the children that we educate and give a hand up towards knowledge and success.

It was a historic night, and the pessimist in me is a little voiced devil on one shoulder whispering that they're all liars while the hopeful kid is pushing forward thinking maybe, maybe, maybe...
In Jesse Jackson's face you could see the years of the years of marches, the blood of his friend Martin laying on that balcony that day, the failures and struggles and inhuman treatment that has left its enduring mark on us all, but yet still allows our society to produce this shining and beautiful moment.
Obama accepts his place as if its was always destined to be that way, and perhaps it was.

I like him. What I don't much like these days is the American people, half of whom seem content to be greedy pigs regardless of what is going on around them. There is a shamelessness in this country that has grown out of this idea that all we are good for is to be consumers and that we deserve stuff...lots of it. I think that encouraging Americans to be come producers again might just get our asses in gear. Maybe high tariffs on imported goods, like the crap at Walmart, might just snap us back into a world where everything isn't so disposable.

We are blessed with this land that used to be a land of abundance, and we have squandered our principal away at the roulette wheels of unfettered capitalism. It is not our right to be the most powerful or the richest and safest nation in the world. we have to work for it and use our great fortune in so many things to enrich society as a whole rather than just a select few who seem to have forgotten the trickle down part of this setup.

In the beginning of this bizarre nightmare, a few bright lights shone out of the Internets and the radio box (forget the TV, besides West Wing as a total fantasy of what could never be) and as another great punctuation mark on the Bush years and all that has torn us apart, Jill had this from Crooks and Liars: Irrelevant!Well worth a look if you want to keep in mind the faces of those who dragged us down and who continue to pander to the lowest urges in the human animal.

And for those of us who have felt compelled to document this or purge our tortured souls or try to make some change by yelling like Who's on an elephant's trunk somewhere, visit the Weblogs nomination page and be either nominate a favorite blog, or look through the nominations (in the comments under each category,) and click the little plus sign or number after the blog that you want to be counted for! I'm gonna mention that Brilliant at Breakfast is nominated for Best Blog, best political coverage, best mid-sized, and Jill as best individual blogger. Also look for my all time favorite, Driftglass, under the same categories, and my little RIPCoco as one of the undiscovered gem, all the way at the bottom. Show some love, and nominate anyone who you think deserves mention! If you have a blog, snag a badge and post it, and send your readers over.
Never before have I been more grateful for these voices that have actually, literally saved me during this time...as well as for the outlet for myself. I'm not sure if I'm even going to still have the political voice in me as things settle; I'm thinking about it. Right now, I'm just exhausted and hopeful....at least there are going to be some grownups in the house this time around; how far the American people and the bureaucracy allow that to go will have to be determined.





c/p RIPCoco

Labels: Joe Lieberman, President Barack Obama, wingnuttia