It's the night the Massachusetts election and it's time
to look things over. I don't think the burden of this
belongs on Ms. Oakley....who is indeed a hapless politician
and was almost reduced to one of those little wooden solidiers
with the red and blue uniforms and the awkward step as she
walked up to shake hands over a police barrier. It ain't her. It's us.
We've lost some of our bearings. We've forgotten our history
again. The tea partiers, the know
nothings...the fringes are always there. Hell, even the founding
fathers had their Aaron Burr. They lurk in the sun of their
nuttiness, paint graffiti on Obama's face and on the country's
monuments. It's part of the American game.
But this time the game (because of the cloture rule) had a deadly
risk. And something deeper than the usual mid-term bounce is
involved. We lost in Massachusetts!
We've got a black president and that means we have a
very small amount of slack. The American racial estrangement
gets suppressed just so long....and comes bouncing back at the least
crack.....we are, as my mother used to say, walking on thin ice.
Everything is twice as hard.....diplomacy, the economy, serious
legislation...everything is reflected through the racial prism. The least
mistake, a wrong sentence, a distracted candidate like Martha
Coakley...can do us in. Obama's decency, pragmatism and measured
policy isn't enough. He's got to lead....lead....lead....he got to be twice
the president that a comparable white man or woman would be. He
and his programs have to be so visible and aggressive and (this is
important) brave they blot out everything else. He needs a horse.
3 comments:
A tough day in Mudsville, making me ashamed to have a house in that state. A sad state of affairs. But we'll muddle through like always and come out patting each other on the back that we made it in spite of what they threw at us.
This has got zero to do with race. People are mad about a lot of things and from the Massachusetts point of view, the Democrats are in every way shape and form the party of the status quo. They've had Democrats running everything in the state for years (other than the governor for several years) and with Democrats also controlling both branches of Congress and the Presidency, there was only one party to go against. No statement would be made by voting for the Democrat.
The GOP will gain more from this than the Dems (at least as long as they are out of power), but for all both sides have tried to label tea partiers as super-Republicans, they really aren't. They are people who are mad and feel like their country is being sold out. Many will just as quickly go against Republican incumbents they don't like.
The theme for this November will be against incumbents. With more Democrats in power, they'll lose more, but I see both parties being shaken up quite a bit (and that's if the economy holds up, something I doubt).
I ran across this very interesting blog in a search. It exemplifies much of what is wrong in this country. “ol val” seems to be stuck in a successful, but out of date, civil rights movement, who sees race in everything. He says, “we won” about Obama’s election but, as Eric, said, “This has got zero to do with race”.
The results in Massachusetts is more indicative to people waking up to what is going on—socialism, no longer creeping, and its long-term effects. Many people, like ol val, admittedly voted for Obama strictly because of the color of his skin. Is there any less relevant qualification? Others because he is a great orator. Now, we are reaping the results.
Obama promised transparency (CSPAN, etc.) but recent debates have been anything but. The back-room deals and his purchasing votes in Congress are disgraceful. The so-called stimulous packages have done nothing for the economy. How can anyone argue that going into debt and creating government jobs can possibly improve the economy? If there is an economic theory explaining how building up trillions of debt can help us in the long run, I would like to hear it. Families can’t work that way, states can’t work that way, why can the federal government act that way? I would really like to know.
The tea partiers, which ol val describes as “know nothings”, are waking up the American public, to the dangers of big government, the hazards of out-of-control deficit spending, and the repugnance of corrupt politicians (on both sides of the isle). I have heard no criticism of Obama based on race. His critics speak of corruption, incompetence, terrible policies, dangerous associations, etc., all of which have zero to do with race.
Seems like it was Plato who observed that “a democracy is doomed when the populous discovers that it can vote itself benefits from the public treasury”. (Paraphrased because I don’t have the exact quote.) Decades ago, Paul Harvey used to say that “people seem to think that we can stand in a circle with their hands in each others’ pockets and thereby get rich”. Gee, did they get it right or what?
Ol val says that “We’ve forgotten our history again”. Right on, but I doubt that he means in the sense that I do. Yes, we have certainly forgotten our founding principles, those of freedom, liberty, and all those forgotten ideals.
Eric said that people are “mad about a lot of things”. Thanks goodness! Finally! The awakening public is going to have their say at the ballot box and, hopefully, will speak loudly in November as they did in Massachusetts. Another saying comes to mind: “Those the bums out!” I think we’d be better off replacing the entire Congress and starting over. As things are now, at least before Massachusetts, I have been very pessimistic about the future of our country. I hope we can change.
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