It's been an interesting new year, hasn't it? Only February 21, and we've had a domestic terrorism incident that created calls for change in national discourse that weren't ignored for at LEAST a few days; the Middle East, that hotbed of civilization and incivility (you know, to put it lightly) has been rocked and roiled by protestors calling for democracy; Madison, that hotbed of, well, collegiate liberalism and badgery football (and awesome Halloween parties) has been overrun by people who strangely do NOT want their government to trample on the labor rights of teachers, police, firemen, and other people we rely on to stay healthy, wealthy, and fundamentally American; and SPEAKING of America, it might shut down next week because Republicans in Congress want to starve healthcare needed by millions of our compatriots, destroy one of the best resources for young and indigent women in the country, obliterate PBS (NO BIG BIRD DON'T GO) and take jobs created by the stimulus package to prove a point (or appease the Tea Party).
Am I wrong, or does this ROCK?!?!?!?!?
I'm going to preface the rest of this post by saying in 2004 I was positive John Kerry was going to win. It didn't help that I was working on the Obama Senate campaign at the time, and the months from March until October were truly a series of peons to naive idealism. Time after time, a non-machine, intellectual, not/Daley/approved young man who wasn't black enough for Chicago or white enough for southern Illinois somehow beat the odds (with the help of not a few opponents bruised by scandals) again and again to become Senator from that great state.
And now dudes - he's POTUS.
But the thing is, I translated those wins into a national rejection of President Bush. Clearly, I was wrong. Bush won, and my carefully constructed narrative of people-in-this-country-agreeing-with-me was crushed. I went on a two week not-eating, not-sleeping, mostly-vomiting-and/or-crying phase that to this day sort of shocks me.
But it didn't stop me from "knowing" Obama would win in 2008.
My point in this is, I am a naive idealist, and I know it. Every time my mother and I talk politics, she is very downhearted (other than the three months between November 2008 and January 2009) and I sit there and say - "no! No! It's all gonna work out GREAT in the end! And let me tell you why." In fact, I have that conversation with loads of people, from strangers on the street to my friends and family to my blogging amigos via twitter.
I may in fact be wrong.
But - caveat emptor - I think this is just the best shit ever. Democracy - DEMOCRACY - is raging through the Middle East far faster than any of the plagues visited upon Egypt so many religious stories ago. Most recently, Colonel Qaddafi - QADDAFI - seems to be a target. Dude's a fucking dinosaur, like Silvio Berlusconi but without the bunga bunga, the greasy hair or the unsubtle racism.
Oh, and with a murderous regime.
And Bahrain! Bahrain, Saudi Arabia's insulation! People are mad as hell, and they aren't going to take it anymore. How COOL is this! People in some of the more oppressive nations in the WORLD (certainly not most. Calling China? Are you there China? Iran, party of two? You and your
Sigh o'happiness. Power to the PEOPLE.
Also, the Republicans seem to have forgotten the 1990s (a big mistake, as it was the best decade EVAR) and have decided to put social issues - not exactly relevant in this day and age - front and center in the midst of a still-stagnant economy that is jonesing for some jobs.
Also - repetitive FTW.
I mean, don't get me wrong. Attacking Planned Parenthood and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is sure to shore up the base, whether that means religious conservatives or the Tea Party. But memo to Boehner (hehe. Boner!): you weren't losing them anyway. I mean, wait. I'm a liberal. You ARE. You're losing them by the SECOND. You know what you should do? Go talk about marriage equality and use some veiled racism to attack immigrants.
Pretty please?
As for the other things - Madison and Tucson - I must say I am less idealistic about the way these things will turn out. Sure, I think it's awesome that Midwest Americans are rising up Mid East style (I just really like that ubiquitous comparison, sue me), and I'm really happy to hear that Representative Giffords sings along to songs, which sounds like it's one of the more promising signs yet that she's going to be as OK as possible at the end of all this.
However.
I still think Wisconsin will pass this anti-populist bill, and I don't think discourse in the US is going to be much better anytime soon, especially with the 2012 elections fast approaching. I think Chris Christie is going to be lauded for screwing over teachers in NJ, and I am afraid that other states will follow his and Ryan's approach. I worry that Rep. Giffords will never be the same - I mean she suffered a freaking bullet to the brain - and that's really alarming. We are supposed to be a democracy, which means you defeat the candidates you don't agree with, not shoot them.
That means sometimes you lose - ehem, November 2004.
But I still remember a day way back in college, albeit before Bush won re-election, that I was with High School Ex, driving back to Madison (where they went to school) from a concert. It was April 2003, and we were in the thick of the first part of the Iraq War, and his friends were 100% on board, while I clearly was not. We got into it, first with them telling me I didn't understand 9/11 (note to others: that never, ever works) and then telling me we were bringing democracy to the Iraqi people. And I remember shouting - you cannot BRING democracy to people, they have to WANT it and FIGHT for it themselves!
For that's how change happens. The labor movement began because workers were sick of terrible conditions, horrendous hours, and tortuous tasks (not to mention the omnipresent threat of death). It wasn't because some governor somewhere decided to give them collective bargaining. And despite threats today, it will not end because some governor will take it away. Egyptians wanted their country back - they took it. Women's rights groups were formed not because of some elitist conspiracy to up the number of abortions, but because women were sick of being held under the thumb of men for the majority of the human race. In the history of the modern world, whether it be 1776, 1861, 1916, the 1960s or 2011, or any other of the many years so many brave souls fought - with naive idealism! - for rights and justice and all that's good, in the end, progress has always won. CHANGE has always won. So it has been, so it will be, and I for one, am more optimistic about our collective future than ever before.
