Hell, yeah. I point that out because a fellow blogger emailed something I've warned about many times, that sometimes getting up to blog is a bit more challenging these days because we actually have to say something about something, whereas for the past eight years it's been relatively 'easier' to rant about the Bush administration, pluck the latest outrage from the top of the pile, insert snark and outrage and click 'post,' done.
But there's another feeling I get, having read and participated in some online women's forums. There's a siren that goes off in my head when I see someone say "I'm actually happier when my husband is out of town." Lots of writers have written about Democrats suffering from battered wife syndrome, and it makes me think that we on the left have some healing work to do in our own psyches regarding our own participation in political discourse.
Screaming about the abuses while he was in office, knowing full well that only (and yeah, hopefully) an election would change things is not enough. We have to take steps to make sure this never happens again to us or to our country. That means staying really alert to signs of Bush-style abuse from every corner.
I have to say how happy I am that Obama is president. His presidency is changing our country for the better. AND we cannot stand by and allow his sense of power and propriety to erase or conceal what happened under Bush. Mister President? We won't.
I've seen too many blogs (mainly the bigger fishes) shut their critical eye and join the new administration hoo-rah chorus. Not me. I'll always remain a critic of whoever is in power.
ReplyDeleteCase in point - the day after Obama was elected the comic "Get Your War On" decided to retire. WTF? We're still occupying two foreign countries - and people are dying. Who said war would be over?
I agree - It serves no purpose for concerned citizens to hit the snooze button now and go back to that misty 'morning in America' nonsense that has paralyzed the nation's cognitive discourse for decades.
ReplyDeleteThere is a history in the U.S.A. of not dealing with painful realities, and of apathetically watching as the malfeasant servants of the status quo close off the paths to justice and prattle self-servingly of 'the good of the nation'.
America might develop amnesia as it clutches a rosy never-was to its woozy bosom, but the rest of the world will not.
You know. I agree BG. We must certainly always reflect on what is happening, whether in the ying or yang of life.
ReplyDeleteI worry about the apathy that may be, I worry about the losses we've had always holding us back, I worry.
In the end though that does me and you nothing.
What I want to do is keep on upholding the principles that I believe in: social justice, peace, love, happiness. Democracy and freedom.
I mostly want to be open to debate that is cognitively uplifting. Snark and negativity can only get us so much. It certainly can get us by, but to move us forward, I am afraid that our shields of snark and swords of sarc must be lowered.
Not always abandoned mind you, as snark is a method of dealing with the absurd, and many, many folks help us get through the day with at least one smile from their wit.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteDammit BG, leave it to you to elucidate the issue in terms EVERYONE can understand...and absolutely NAIL the cultural referent!! I didn't even realise how neatly the Bush admin. and Domestic Violence dovetailed... until YOU pointed it out!!!
ReplyDeleteThanks!!
Randall
Right, Blue Gal. I hope some of the progressive energy is spent doing productive discussion of issues. The heavy lifting on choice, energy, gun laws, etc. No reasonable person can fail to see the need to get past entrenched either/or positions. That requires mindful discussion.
ReplyDeleteTake the ban on assault weapons. In my state of Montana, people I genuinely respect and care about fear that their liberties and enjoyment as hunters are under attack if they are kept from owning an AK-47. People successfully hunted with rifles for a couple hundred years without AK-47's, a weapon designed to effectively and efficiently kill other people. Even so, the line in the sand is, the AK-47 must remain in the household arsenal or else. What's wrong with this picture?
So, who is going to lead the discussions about issues that have their basis in fear? Can we talk about issues without an outcome or agenda in mind that forces others into a defensive fear-based mode?
That is the challenge to the grown up citizens.
The country feels the same way. In the latest NBC poll that was taken (and yes, I know how you feel about polls) Bush's approval rating dropped five points lower since he's been out of office.
ReplyDelete