Bound for Glory . . .
Good things ahead. Tough times, now and to come, but better times coming.
I’ve mostly been hating the post-election transition period – Obama hunkered down, Dumbass stumbling unenthusiastically through his last, outgoing flurry of stupid blunders, and the seemingly interminable wait (has it always been this long? – it hardly seems so) for what we’ve all been waiting for. I just want it over.
But just in the last few days I’ve felt a rising anticipation – a growing excitement and a feeling of hope. The pre-inaugural festivities looked joyous and upbeat. Everybody I know is on tenterhooks. My mother, who is almost entirely apolitical, kept saying on the phone just now how “excited” she was by the upcoming Obama inauguration, and how impressed she was by him and how confident she was that he would do good. I’ve never heard her talk that way about anyone, let alone in politics. My uncle, a deeply decent man but hardly a raging liberal, and also not that political, is thoroughly disgusted by the failures and disasters of the last 8 years; he told me today he wonders how America will be able to repair its standing in the world, and he looks to Obama to make it happen. I’ve never heard him talk that way either.
Even the coincidences are cheeful and amusing: just now I grabbed a Diet Pepsi and noticed it was the first one I had ever seen with Pepsi’s new “smiling swoosh” logo – the one that right-wing nutcases are boycotting because they’re convinced it’s pro-Obama propaganda. It does look kinda like a smile, and it drives wingers crazy – two cool things at once! And now, barely 15 hours away from the Obama presidency, I’ll take that as a good omen.
Good things ahead.
One figure to keep in mind while enjoying the festivities:
ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY MILLION DOLLARS
oh yeah, change we can believe in.
Bob -
Just for the sake of accuracy, it should be noted that, unlike previous inaugurations and associated festivities, that figure includes the total cost of security, which is estimated to be over half that total. Leaving that aside, this inauguration will raise and cost about the same as Bush 2004.
If you will acknowledge that, I will acknowledge that what remains is still a freaking lot of money.
Wow, $170 million? I guess Obama will have to bring the troops home from Iraq one whole day earlier in order to offset the cost!
(Actually, that’s not entirely fair; we’re spending about $270 million a day in Iraq, so it wouldn’t have to be a whole day…)
Hey, I want to be there with you, KTK. Unfortunately, I can.t. Certainly not wholeheartedly anyway.
I’ve seen a lot of self-professed lefties, and not just center-left, but real progressives chug the Obama Kool-Aid. For most of them, this administration is going to be like waking up feeling proud of yourself for drunkenly bagging a 10 the night before, then rolling over to see a 6.5. It’s still passing, I guess… (no post-racial pun intended). But, meh.
I’m not rooting for it to rain on your parade, fellas, But I’m a practical man, so I am buying golashes futures.
In a perverse way, an underwhelming Obama presidency is what a lot of people may need to finally get it. Bush fucked it up so bad, so transparently, and so egregiously that people began to question underlying notions about the culture of American politics and the character of the two-party system in general. When his projected polar opposite arrives, as if by divine intervention, to save the day, and beholds himself to the largely the same interest groups, etc. then perhaps people will begin to see how broken this whole shit really is. To see how profound and deep the needs for reform really are. To see that we’ve been looking for it in all the wrong places.
KTK, Obama [is] DRASTICALLY more like George W. Bush than he is like Kevin T. Keith. You risk hurting yourself if you forget that!
Tall, thin, rich, and two daughters. Beyond that, I’m having a hard time finding too many more similarities between W and H.
It’s a blowout. Let’s start with some big ones.
Supported or voted for the war?
W: Yes
O: Yes
KTK: No
Self-professes deep, meaningful bond with imaginary men living in the sky?
W: Yes
O: Yes
KTK: No
Supports gay marriage?
W: No.
O: No – though some convoluded language about equal benefits or something
KTK: Yes.
How about the extent to which the three worship the free market? Don’t you think it would be something like this?
Bush…………….Obama………………………………….KTK………………….
Here’s a question, if Obama and KTK were asked to list those who most profoundly shape their intellectual development, worldview, political ideals, whatever, what do you think the lists would look like? From what I read, Lincoln would probably be near the top of Obama’s; where would it be on Kevin’s? Bush is ineligbible here because he doesn’t read, but I would guess that he would actually say Lincoln (just b/c he has to name somebody, and knows so few) before KTK does.
Look, I think, within the context of the U.S. Presidency, Obama can do a very good job. And, I think his election can send a nice message for the vast majority of the world abroad and at home (at the same time, think the messages can be dangerous too). I’m just not expecting to see the world conforming to my ideals. I sincerely hope that I’m mistaken.
Here’s a question: Any chance the gap between the top and bottom economic quintile shrinks under this administation?
I’m with Digg on this, and I should note that it many ways I’m even less of a leftist than KTK, nevermind Digg. (I even used to think of myself as a libertarian, at least until I met some.) Even so, Obama’s gonna be very much a centrist compared to me.
He’s going to do nothing to get the god-thumping out of public discourse, and I’ll be pleasantly surprised if he even noticeably decreases the amount of public money that goes to religious groups. He’s sure as hell not going to help get the grubby little theists out of the institution of wedlock.
He’ll give plenty of lip service to abortion rights, but will he actually consistently oppose anti-choice legislation, or will he simply roll over once the body authoritarians have lied enough about how limitted the scope of their rules are? Will he actually support the autonomy of living people over the ongoing attempts to redefine membership in the polity to include zygotes and exclude women and poor?
How about corporate subsidies? Any chance we’ll see the legal personhood of institutionalized greed revoked? Heck, any chance we’ll even see meaningful limitations of commercial speech?
And that doesn’t even touch on how the balance of power between the executive, the legislature, and the people will be affected. The one glimmer of real hope I have with Obama is that he’ll get to appoint some pro-human justices, though he’ll be hard-pressed to find somebody to fill Stevens’s shoes. (Fuck, Anthony Kennedy is the court’s moderate.)
Ugh, I’m just gonna let this rant fizzle out, because I’m just that underwhelmed.
The evening after the election I stopped in my neighborhood liquor store for a bottle of wine, and the guy behind the counter, originally from Burkina Faso, was positively beaming. We chatted, and he explained that Obama’s election (a black elected to highest office in a predominately white society) couldn’t have happened anywhere else, not in western Europe, Canada etc, and for the first time it really clicked for me. It’s significant because we, and the rest of the world, can finally believe our own press, and I walked out of the store feeling positively elated. I do believe that Obama will have a positive effect on our foreign policy, not only because the previous administration had set the bar so low, but because of Obama’s more inclusive approach, his willingness to work with our friends instead of bullying them, will be more effective. He has alot of fences to mend, but I do think the US will be seen in an entirely different light as a result.
That being said, I really have to agree with digglahhh on this one. Obama is very much of the center, in some areas, conservative in fact. He supports the death penalty, he agreed with the SC’s decision regarding the second amendment and private gun ownership (I know you, tgirsch, and I disagree on this). While he was in favor of Congress releasing the monies for jumpstarting the economy, he has yet to provide any plan to keep people from defaulting on their mortgages, which is not only necessary to prevent further economic decline, but is necessary from the human perspective. His views on gay marriage have already been addressed.
Don’t get me wrong, I think he will have a far more effective administration than the last one. But I do maintain a rather more sober view of his policies.
digg:
On what basis do you say that Obama “supported” the war? He has consistently spoken against it since late 2002.
As for the “imaginary men in the sky” thing, I don’t dispute it, however I note that we’re the ones who are decidedly in the minority there.
On same-sex marriage, Obama’s been somewhat inconsistent, but that doesn’t mean he’s not WORLDS better than Bush on the issue.
Look, nobody here claims Obama is perfect or anything like it. But that doesn’t mean we have to pretend, as you seem to, that Obama is somehow indistinguishable from Bush on important issues.
As to your last question, I don’t necessarily expect that gap to shrink, but I do expect that the growth of the gap will slow considerably.
Agreed, Obama will be worlds more leftist than was Bush. But Bob Dole would be worlds more leftist than was Bush.
Obama will be a monumental improvement. …by being a unexciting and probably half-assed centrist.
And I must say, his swiftness in dealing with Guantanamo is impressive. He promises a more open and transparent way of governing, and I do think he’s taking steps in that direction. That in and of itself is a refreshing change from the last eight years!
Look, nobody here claims Obama is perfect or anything like it.
“Here” being the operative word. There are plenty peddling the Obama perfection myth.
[...] been some discussion amongst our more cynical readers, notably here, about whether Obama is closer to Bush than he is to “us.” Now, as previously noted, I [...]