General Interest > Tacitus' Realm
Letter to a whiny young Democrat
heretik:
--- Quote ---http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2010/11/03/notes110310.DTL&ao=2
"Letter to a whiny young Democrat"
By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist
SFGate November 3, 2010 04:00 AM
Oh, now you've done it.
See? You see what happens when you young liberal voters get so disgruntled and disillusioned that you drop all your party's newborn, hard-won ideas about Hope™ and Change™, without any patience, without really giving them sufficient time to mature, without understanding that hugely foreign, anti-American concept known as "the long view"?
See what happens when you wallow in hollow disappointment, trudging all over your liberal arts campus and refusing to vote in a rather important mid-term election, all because your pet issues and nubile ego weren't immediately serviced by a mesmerizing guy named Barack Obama just after he sucked you into his web of fuzzyhappy promises a mere two years ago, back when you were knee-high to a shiny liberal ideology?
Well, now you know. This is what happens: The U.S. House of Representatives, the most insufferable gaggle of political mongrels this side of, well, the rest of Congress, reverts to GOP control like a brain tumor reverts to a more aggressive form of cancer, and everything gets bleaker and sadder and, frankly, a whole lot nastier.
What happens is: Many kinds of fragmented, muddled, but still constructive Democratic progress might get stopped quite nearly dead, and even a few pieces of legislation we actually did gain get slapped around, threatened, stomped on the head like a scientist at a Rand Paul rally. Happy now?
Check it out, kiddo: This is not just any Republican party you allowed back into power; these mealy folks are not anything like the war-hungry, Bush-tainted army of flying monkeys and Dick Cheney moose knuckles you so wonderfully helped bury in the history books last election.
No, the GOP of 2010-2011 is even weirder, dumber, less interested in anything you even remotely care about; this GOP is infused like a sour cocktail with a bitter splash of the most cartoonish, climate change-denying Tea Party dingbats imaginable -- most of whom think you're an elitist, terrorist-loving, gay-supporting threat to "real" American values, btw -- all led by a guy named Boehner who wears a bizarre, shellacked tan so fake and creepy it makes Nancy Pelosi looks like a supermodel.
And you made it all happen. Or rather, you failed to prevent it from happening, by not voting, by turning your collective back on Obama's tough love, by getting all whiny and dejected like some sort of sullen teen vampire who can't get laid.
Do you deny it? Did you see the polls and studies that said that most fresh-faced, Obama-swooning Dems like you are now refusing to support our beloved Nazi Muslim president because he didn't wish-fulfill your every whim in a week? That he was, in fact, not quite the instant-gratification SuperJesus of your (or rather, our) dreams?
Of course you didn't see any of that. Hell, I bet you're not even reading this column right now. You're probably back on Twitter, raging into the Void about, hell, who knows what? The Wolf Parade concert. Angry Birds. The People of Wal-Mart. Anything but politics, really.
But hey, whatevs, right? Screw it. Screw him. After all, the prez let you down. Conveniently "forgot" to include you in the dialogue, after a major election that you helped him win. Where were the outreach programs? The campus speaking tours? Weekly appearances on "The Daily Show"? Legal pot and gay marriage and discounts tickets to SXSW and Burning Man and Coachella? I want my goddamn political perks, and I want them now.
Hey, I understand. We're an instant gratification culture, and you're an ADHD generation. Who wants to hear that serious enviro legislation might take a decade or two to fully come to fruition? Who wants to hear about Obama passing rather amazing student loan reform? Or even financial reform? Or health care, the Iraq drawdown, saving a million jobs at GM, or all the rest of his rather astonishing achievements to date? Dude, so boring.
Of course, you've now learned the hard way that the hot flush of a major election is far more electrifying than the gray n' meaty grind of actual governing. Obama flew into office on gossamer liberal wings, but the real halls of D.C. are a goddamn pigsblood slaughterhouse, brutal and depressing, full of gnarled legislative compromise. Screw that noise, you know?
And you know what? You're right. Well, sort of. The Obama administration sure as hell could've done more to keep young activists inspired and involved. It's an opportunity squandered, no question. Then again, dude was sorta busy unburying the entire nation, you know? And the twitchy Democratic party has never been known for its savvy cohesion. Maybe you can give him/them a break? Whoops, too late.
Look, I'm sorry. I know I'm being far too hard on you. Of course it's not just you. It's not completely your fault these dimwit Repubs were allowed to ooze back into a bit of power so soon. As many analysts have pointed out, this wasn't a vote for the Republicans, but against the limp-wristed Dems who didn't step up and lead with more authority and clarity of purpose. Truly, libs and independents of every age are frustrated Obama isn't governing with the same kind of magical, balls-out visionary zeal that fueled his campaign.
And let's not forget a shockingly unintelligent Tea Party movement that stands for exactly nothing and fears exactly everything, all ghost-funded by a couple of creepy libertarian oil billionaires -- the leathery old Koch brothers -- who eat their young for a snack. Who could've predicted that gnarled political contraption would hold water? But hey, when Americans are angry and nervous, they do stupid things. Like vote Republican. It happens. Just did.
But here's your big takeaway, young Dem: It ain't over yet. The 2012 election is just around the corner. If we've learned anything, it's that two years whip by insanely quickly. Anything can happen, and usually does. You'll have another chance. And probably another after that. Maybe more.
So here's what you need to know, right now: Barack Obama is, and will continue to be, a bit of goddamn miracle. He's simply as good as we're going get for an articulate, thoughtful, integrity-rich Democratic prez in your lifetime. Period. To hamstring his administration out of spite and laziness is childish and sad. Check the accomplishments. Understand the process. Deal with the messiness.
It will never be perfect. It will never be giddy liberal nirvana, because it doesn't work that way. Politics is corrosive and infuriating, de facto and by definition, even with someone as thoughtful as Obama in the Big Chair. Understand it. Deal with it. Get back in the game. If you don't, we all lose.
Your choice, kiddo.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... z14FGrxN4u
--- End quote ---
Very well thought out and written. Tells it like it is.
Shadyacres:
I agree, well said. I think that because many of Obama's voters were younger, they are still rather impressionable. They succumbed to the unrelenting and heavily funded onslaught of advertising and propaganda. I am hoping that in two years they will have realized how they were duped and they will be ANGRY. NOTHING will happen in the next two years, period. The republican controlled house will now set about trying to undo the small amount of progress the Obama administration has made so far. They will fail, Obama has the veto, so, gridlock.
I don't see how anyone here, with the exception of Whooter, would EVER vote republican. The Reagan's and the entire Bush family shilled for Straight and its descendants, and were handsomely rewarded by the industry in campaign contributions. WWASP was a major contributor to Mitt Romney. Republicans, more than Democrats, seem to believe that the end justifies the means, just like the programs we were all in. They, as a party, believe in torturing people, spying on their own citizens, legislating their own version of morality, waging wars on false pretenses to obtain optimal position for oil acquisition, etc.....
How much money has Dick Cheney's old company Halliburton made off of that illegal war?
The Democrats may be lame, but I don't think they are outright criminal as a rule. I cannot say that about Republicans.
heretik:
--- Quote from: "Shadyacres" ---I agree, well said. I think that because most of Obama's voters were younger, they are still rather impressionable. They succumbed to the unrelenting and heavily funded onslaught of advertising and propaganda. I am hoping that in two years they will have realized how they were duped and they will be ANGRY. NOTHING will happen in the next two years, period. The republican controlled house will now set about trying to undo the small amount of progress the Obama administration has made so far. They will fail, Obama has the veto, so, gridlock.
I don't see how anyone here, with the exception of Whooter, would EVER vote republican. The Reagan's and the entire Bush family shilled for Straight and its descendants, and were handsomely rewarded by the industry in campaign contributions. WWASP was a major contributor to Mitt Romney. Republicans, more than Democrats, seem to believe that the end justifies the means, just like the programs we were all in. They, as a party, believe in torturing people, spying on their own citizens, legislating their own version of morality, waging wars on false pretenses to obtain optimal position for oil acquisition, etc.....
How much money has Dick Cheney's old company Halliburton made off of that illegal war?
The Democrats may be lame, but I don't think they are outright criminal as a rule. I cannot say that about Republicans.
--- End quote ---
Well then I'll say it for you, the Republicans are outright criminals and liars. It will take another 2 years for the people to wake up again. I just hope they stop thinking the Prez is "GOD" and he grants prayers on a whim.
Sorry, for being so forward.
seamus:
yeah,an everybody knows theres NEVER,EVER been any criminal wrongdoing or lies told by a Democrat,well ceptin not in haling,or was that not havin sexual relations with that woman,or during the kennedy camelsnot presidency,or hows about the fdr tapes or all the poor schmucks that died a peal harbor,due to a president needing popular sentiment to make war against japan, or the sinking of the "unarmed" lusitania.......can I stop now? :soapbox:
seamus:
polititians are by very nature,liars. The idea of one party being any less full of shit than the other is insipid. Flip sides of the same coin.
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