All I Am Saying, Is Give Him A Chance

Reading the liberal blogosphere lately is like watching a unshaven, manic-depressive cannibal try to eat its own foot.

So first, Obama picks Rahm Emanuel, and people go: "OHMYGOD OHMYGOD OHMYGOD so much for bipartisanship!!! Rahm's gonna eff up EVERYTHING with his fuzzy haircut and big, fat, sharp-elbowed 'tude!!!!!1"

Then Obama steps in to spare Lieberman's chairmanship and people go: "OHMYGOD OHMYGOD OHMYGOD he's isn't being partisan enough!!! He's gonna be such a wuss and sell his soul to Dick Cheney!!!!!1"

Then Obama starts making a case for bailing out the auto industry, and people go: "OHMYGOD OHMYGOD OHMYGOD he's being a big careless spender and trying to Sovietize America and OMF'nG maybe that be-beehived genius Sarah Palin was right about the socialism business and I'm so disappointed in life I can't stand to watch the Wolf Blitzer show any more because my liver hurts from how drunkenly depressed Barack Obama is forcing me to be!!!!!1"

Then people notice that Obama's making a few hires with experience under Clinton and people go: "OHMYGOD OHMYGOD OHMYGOD he's not really going to create change! He's just going to be Clinton No. 2 and he's going to hire Terry McAwfullife to be the Secretary of Selling Out To The Man!!!!!!!1"

And, you know, talking about issues is fine, sure - but, PEOPLE, COME ON, none of this is an indictment on his whole bleepin' presidency! He's not even president yet! He won't be president for two months even!

We just won the election, folks! Liberals nationwide should be reveling in this! Having to decide what to do with our newfound immense power is an excellent problem to have, after all. You know, the kind of problem that's you want to have.

This is part of what drives me nuts about my fellow liberals sometimes. (And I suppose I'm not helping with this post... but ah well!) There's so much nervousness, and panic, and worry, and freaking out over who did what the wrong way before they even began, that you'd think the Republicans were not only still in control, but Bush had just dissolved the constitution and declared himself Grand Poobah/Eternal Warlord of North America, Baskin Robbins and the Moon.

At least give these people a chance to fuck up before you tell them they fucked up, kay?

Pure Glee

Last night, I hunkered down for almost two hours straight and browsed YouTube for people celebrating on Election Night. It's not very hard. Just type in "Obama celebration" and any given major city or college campus and you'll find tons of videos of young Obama supporters romping about, immersed in pure glee, singing, dancing, howling, crying, chanting, honking their horns and leaning out car windows.

I can't think of any time in recent history that so many masses of people gathered in streets across the country to party. It was like we'd just won World War II all over again. It was crazier than New Year's Eve. When was the last time a presidential election sparked so much pure exuberance?

It gives me a lot of hope. I'm not talking about campaign-stamped-and-approved-of-hope, so much as hope that we are witnessing the end of one of my greatest pet-peeves. Political apathy.

I was a teenager during the '90s, and fell in love with politics in the middle of high school. I frequently went on political rants and was frustrated by the utter disinterest of many of my peers. That continued afterward, during and after college. But Bush continued stepping on things people cared about, and finally we've seen a fundamental change in how we as a people think.

Thanks largely to the ineptness of Bush, political discussion has transformed from an annoyance to the norm.

People care about and are talking about ideas again. That is the mark of a great period in history. Times of great ideas spark civil rights movements, revolutions and periods of progressive transformation. Renaissances. Those times are where the values that are worth fighting and bleeding for come from in the first place.

So, while we're riding this wave of glee, let me just say: Don't lose out on this chance to be a part of a world-wide conversation. It is here. It is here now. And it won't last forever.

Values and Pride

This blog is tied to a forum with some history behind it called Turn Left Interactive, and while there's a lot of typical web board bullshit that goes on there, every once in a while something pops up, in this rabid microcosm of the national talking-points war, that's very revealing.

One of our members posed the question, "What are small-town values?" a la the Sarah Palin quote: "We grow people with good values in our small towns."

Here are two of the answers Republican participants put forth, when they actually bothered to try to answer:
"I think much of what makes small town values seem more appealing is the presumption of a more caring and cohesive society -- one in which your neighbors are "known" -- not only to and by each other, but known within the community. In many cases, for generations."

"You're 2 times as likely to be murdered by the morally enlightened members or our nation's urban communities. We upstanding urbanites improve a bit when it comes to forcibly raping our neighbors, only outpacing our rural counterparts by about 30%."

So, in essence, small-town values are knowing who your neighbors are and having a lower crime rate?

Both attempts at this answer are earnestly made, but fail when confronted with logic. You can know your neighbors in any community, rural or urban, (Hell, some cities even have a sampling of the recently maligned "community organizers"), and if anything has served to isolate us in our communities, it's television, computers and cars. As for the crime rate, it's doubtful anybody really believes Sarah Palin was talking about not getting mugged.

The reason the boat is missed here is because "small-town values" is just code for small-town pride.

Small-towns throughout the country have seen massive losses recently. The family farm is disappearing. Rust-belt cities where life revolved around one or two industries are falling apart as those industries abandon them. These places are full of people desperately in search of pride.

The reason the neo-conservatives don't use the word "pride" is because pride itself is not enough to be proud of. There has to be something you have, intrinsically superior to the alternative, available to make pride possible. And values are where that's at.

"Our schools may be struggling, but I can be proud that I'm a hunter."

"I may not have health insurance, but at least my neighbors share my cultural roots."

"I may have lost my job, but I'm going to Heaven."

This is the tricky part, that Obama has, for the most part, been very conscious of. This is not something to lash out at with anger and sharp tongues. Small-town folks are already beaten down. The situation is actually just sad. When all you have to turn to is your heritage and the afterlife, then you've given up any hope that you can control your own life at all.

Preaching about "small-town values" does nothing but encourage the same bad habits many Americans developed as a result of Republican policies. It's the same cycle that we've seen for years, and it will continue until enough people snap out of the funk, at least for that necessary brief window of time, and stop it in the voting booth.