The past few months have been a rather difficult time for me. The national political system of America is not just broken it has become the repository of whores that can be easily bought by the highest bidder. The elation that I felt when Barack Obama was elected has faded into an underlying sense of disappointment and despair. I never would have dreamed that Obama's eloquence could have been matched by his absence of spine. In addition the recent events in the stock market added yet another blow to my illusion that one day I might be able to retire and leave my children a modicum of inheritance.
I live in the wealthiest Republican district in America. Marsha Blackburn theoretically represents me in the House of Representatives. She is the Marsha Blackburn that espouses all the talking points du jour of the Republican Party and never heard George Bush say anything that she didn't love. I live in an area that upon first meeting me wants to know what church I go to in order to ascertain whether or not I'm decent or worthy of talking to. I live in an area in which the sign that I had on my lawn supporting Obama during the last election was destroyed 3 times. I live next to the town that hosted the Tea Party convention.
So it is within this context that I went to the movies today. I saw "The Help". I believe that it is a wonderful experience that should not be missed. I will not give any details about the movie except to state that it is about Mississippi in the 1960's and what it was like to be a Black maid at that time. There is a scene in the movie in which one of the maids exacts a small measure of revenge on a woman who was deserving of all that she got. To my total shock the mostly White audience applauded. I found myself instantly sobbing. For a brief moment hope poured through my body. How glorious that every so often I can still experience the possibility of better.
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My mother, Kim, turned me on to your blog and while I have yet to delve deeper into it I want to say it is always refreshing to be reminded there are like minded individuals within this ever deepening red state. You'll have to forgive me in advance for my verbosity succinctness is a trait that often eludes me.
ReplyDeleteI have only had the opportunity to vote in 3 presidential elections thus far and I can only characterize my experience and those of my friends in the same age group by saying we feel increasingly disenfranchised with each election.
My first election was simply stolen. Whether one believes the actual votes were rigged or not is irrelevant because Gore won the popular vote and only by exploitation of an antiquated and defunct voting system, the electoral college, were we relegated to accept 'Dubya' as our leader.
My second election was simply a reflection of how weak the Democrats had become. Honestly, I am not sure they were ever a party of any real discernible strength, but I digress. America was simply a country drowning in an ocean of fear entirely manufactured by an administration that was fully cognizant that this fear was their strongest weapon and a news media that followed in lockstep because ratings held far more value than truth. Democrats saw fit to put forth Kerry as their answer to our leadership problem and while I am not convinced that anyone could have usurped Bush due to the disillusionment of your average voter Kerry was a poor representation of what a leader should be (Please note I am not implying it wouldn't still have been a vast improvement over Bush).
Finally, we come to my third election. I was listening to an orator who was able to instill a sense of hope with merely his eloquence and aura of energy. Obama was someone who seemingly recognized that Americans should not be paralyzed with a sense of fear rather that we are above that and the whole idea was simply absurd. Our country was founded on the ideology that we are to hold our liberties above all else no matter the threat and he reminded us of this. Due to his "grass roots" (I put this in quotes because the phrase has simply lost meaning in this plutocracy) approach he did not seem beholden to anyone but the voters who were so excited to put him in office and this is quite sad as it felt like such a novelty in American politics. I was brought to tears the night he came to office because I had little to no doubt that he would correct the boat per se and restore a sense of ideology that I once had about my government. Unfortunately what I got in return was a leader so naive and/or ignorant that he squandered the opportunity to make real change when he had a majority in both houses. We had a leader that was continuing the degradation of our civil liberties and an unjust war despite promises to the contrary. Obama then lost his majority and subsequently became crippled by a GOP and Tea Party house that is neither aware nor concerned with the reality of our times and is simply resigned to crippling the government to achieve their trivial idea of small government. This change marked the precise time that Americans most desperately needed Obama to step forward and be the leader he had portrayed himself to be more than ever but instead he stepped back and let a dysfunctional congress take the reigns and in essence handed over his bully pulpit to spew their insanity. Most recently when cornered by this same toxic GOP he hardly gave the appearance of being stead fast in our Democratic ideals and quickly capitulated at the cost of every middle and low income American. This is my leader now but this isn't the leader I voted for.
ReplyDeleteNext year I'll be faced with voting for a leader I do not have faith in or in all likelihood a Governor that would be as destructive if not more so than Bush. I guess I can try and take solace in the fact that due to the absurdity that is the electoral college in these days and times my vote will only have the effect of cancelling out a single vote from the abundance of ignorance that will surely be hitting the ballot box in TN.
I have no idea where this country will be in a decade or two but I feel quite confident that our current direction is not what was originally intended by our founders. I look forward to delving deeper into your past and future observations. If you haven't read it already, I highly recommend you take the time to read an article from a former GOP operative: http://www.truth-out.org/goodbye-all-reflections-gop-operative-who-left-cult/1314907779