What is America's problem? I live here - I've been an American citizen for many years - and I don't get it. It must be all but impossible for rational minds elsewhere in the world to understand what is going on.
We suffered eight years under what is now universally accepted as one of the worst, dumbest, most easily manipulated presidents in American history. Okay, so it took two terms to convince enough Americans of these facts to kick him out. But eventually we got rid of the jerk. More importantly we got rid of the truly evil guy who was doing the manipulating...Dick Cheney.
This country could easily have chosen a lesser evil - John McCain. But, I like to think, his acquiescing to Sarah Palin as his running mate - the most mind-numbingly stupid bimbo ever to find her way into politics - was his downfall.
This country chose instead a young black man. A man who offered hope and change. A man who wanted to see America rebuild its image in the world. A man who wanted to restore war to its role as the absolute last option in any conflict.
We elected Barack Obama.
We also gave him a true majority in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. In other words we put the Democratic Party in power. As 'in power' as a party can ever be in America.
At a Gay Rights march in Washington DC the other day, a man carried a banner which read "Democrats -
Use It Or Lose It." I'm pretty sure he was referring to the power we gave the party last November.
So is Obama failing?
Absolutely not.
The problem we face now in this country is the the age-old one of minds too set in their beliefs to ever change.
Obama campaigned and has led his administration on the premise of inclusiveness. Call it bipartisanship if you will - same thing. And that is what has failed. Miserably.
Why? Because he faces an enemy (and as I've said before, that IS the right word) that will NEVER change their collective minds no matter what happens.
I read an interesting article recently that said the Democrats stopped taking part in programs on the FOX network because they realized that they could never change the minds of that network's audience.
They were right.
Glenn Beck is an embarrassing idiot. Rush LImbaugh is too. They are despicable human beings regardless of their shameless pursuit of money via politics. But...and it's a huge but...their audiences adore them. Their audiences agree with them. Their audiences are why they are still occupying a disproportionate amount of our thinking hours.
But those audiences...that audience I should say, as it's largely the same people..will NEVER change its mind. Even individuals who make up that audience will NEVER change their minds.
Down through history, mankind has improved and progressed through unique human beings who had the power to get the rest of us to think differently. Progress does not just happen...people inspire, create, provoke and promote it. Obama is one of those people and he has to realize he's inspired enough of us! The rest we don't need.
The Republican Party has a short memory. People who support it have a short memory. Or maybe they want us to believe the next Republican president will be so much better than Bush. But the truth is they are still in favor of Wall Street being left alone to generate wealth for the top 1% of Americans in any way it can...screw the rest of us. It is in favor of healthcare run by insurance companies who are driven by the call of Wall Street for profits and investor dividends no matter what the cost to people who are actually sick. These people simply do not understand that as they count their money there is blood on their hands.
I was dismayed recently to learn that a good friend and mentor of mine - the most liberal man I know in many ways - voted for John McCain simply because he owes his livelihood to the share price of the company he works for and he believes that when that is the case it is almost a given that the person should vote Republican. I think he was shocked that I voted for Obama. But maybe he finally realized why I had never been comfortable in the "management club" he once told me I had joined as he gave me a promotion. Wealth at someone else's expenses is no wealth at all.
I agree with the sign that man carried in the Gay Rights march. If the Democrats...and President Obama...do not start using the power we granted them unequivocally back in November, the noise machine and the fixed minds of the Right will destroy the hope.
They want back their guns (that have actually never been taken away but should be!). They want back their white America (look at the Democrats who are standing in the way of healthcare reform, greying white guys with their hands extended for payouts from the health insurance and pharmaceutical industries). They want to feel that America rules the world rather than being a respected leader of that world.
They are wrong. And they were proved wrong in a fair election. Hello, America...that's the way this country is supposed to work.
I admire Obama's willingness to listen. If only his opponents would try that for a change rather than criticizing everything he does and says simply because he's the one saying and doing those things, we might actually progress.
The noisy minority is trying to change America. The fact that that can happen and has happened before is part of what makes America great. But in the past the noisy minority has usually had right on its side.
The Right right now does not have right on its side. Far from it.
Ask the person with no medical insurance. Ask the person with insurance who knows he or she cannot trust it to be there when they need it most. Ask the person who has lost his or her job because of Wall Street driven CEO greed and the imbalance between management and workers in terms of compensation. Ask the person who has lost everything because they were encouraged by greedy bankers to take out mortgages they should never have thought they could afford.
Republicans may say they are not the party of George W. Bush. Even they are smart enough to know they have to say that. But they are still the party of too-free enterprise. They are the party of obscene profits. They are the party of the rich - that is, paradoxically, supported by poor folks who don't even realize they are being taken for a ride. They just somehow think they'll do better in a war-mongering, seemingly powerful, world-dominating America.
Truth is they do better in a world at peace, a world in which America's leadership is respected and a world in which they can trust their country to help them when they lose their jobs or get sick or are impacted by any of the hundreds of things that are basically out of the control of the average person.
Of course, if you're not the average person, if you've padded your bank account at the expense of your fellow man we can only hope you can still sleep at night. There are times I truly wish I believed in god because then I could believe in the devil also and know that there is a special place in Hell reserved for these people. And that when they look to their left they'd see Glenn beck and to the right, Rush Limbaugh. (Actually they'd both be fighting to be on the right!)
Democrats must do two things. First, use the power we have given them. Second, give the president the time he needs to use that power wisely without criticizing him as if they were members of the opposition.
The sad truth is this: if this Democratic President fails it will not be because the Republicans had better ideas. It will be because the Democrats let good ideas die. Ideas that have the approval of the majority of Americans...just as Obama did last November.
As a footnote to all of this, it's interesting to remind ourselves where the well-known phrase - A mind is a terrible thing to waste - originated. It was an advertising line for the United Negro College Fund.
