Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Reality Check

Perhaps I am too much a realist. I have always been, thus the excitement over Obama's win and the end of the Bush era is tinged with anxiety.

1) A whole lot of people think Sarah Palin is great, just what the country needs and would be a great leader. I see her getting to Washington someday, perhaps replacing Ted Stevens, and gearing up for a White House run. She is loved by the right and they will continue to support her. She has not disappeared yet.

2) The right wing hate machine is gearing up to make Obama's life miserable. Like with Clinton, the unrelenting personal attacks will distract him from more important things. Rush Limbaugh will be out in force, as will Faux News.

3) Large segments of the country still voted to take civil rights away from gays and lesbians. It is likely that gay marriage will be banned in California, after thousands of loving couples took advantage of the right. Gays and other unmarried people can not adopt in Arkansas, marriage is double banned in Florida now, as in many other states.

4) The US is still very polarized. Many harbor barely contained hostility towards the opposition. I know I do. It is still Us and Them.

5) Young people still think playing with an Xbox and texting to each other about nonsense is more important than voting. They have not seen bad times, so they do not care. They stay home and the homophobes, the motivated by issues people come out. Bad times, they is a comin' and is here...y'all.. so better get out and change some things, kids.

6) Bush has fucked the place up so bad that no one can undo his damage in 4 years.

One good thing, at least Obama will have a hand in keeping the Supreme Court from being a totally conservative domain.

So congrats, Barack Obama, and good luck, you'll need it.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

What is very strange is that the repubs have already started a full blitz to blame the economy and financial disaster on the dems during Bush's years!

But by their inverse logic and count, obama and the dems will not be responsible for anything that happens in the next two (or more) years because the repubs have 44 Senates seats. They don't get to have it both ways.

If one agrees with them, then they're already arguing that obama's failures can be blamed on senate repubs unless they fall in line and vote with Harry Reid.

Weird how that works (both ways).
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Once young folks get a job, or five, and start paying ever-increasing taxes into their 30s and 40s, they'll come to appreciate that voting counts. Taxes are a reality. But having to blow them on bailouts, wars, Medicare Part-D, Homeland Security, and trillion-dollar deficits over roads, healthcare, jobs, and alternative energy angers the blood!

Anonymous said...

Behind every silver ling, there is a dark cloud!