Meh, probably not. But I'm feeling better already. When I was young, I was cynical--the sort of dude who would tell you that it didn't matter which party had the White House, or that the Dems as just an extension of corporatism gone amock. I think George Bush did almost as much to mature me, as my parents. And now change begins.
The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood 
Copyright © 2010 by The Atlantic Monthly Group. All rights reserved.
I know all the talk about Obama being "The One" is over-hyped and all, and I think some of it's over the top myself. But I couldn't help but notice that, not thirty seconds after his inauguration, there were about fifty people out walking on the reflecting pool.
Just sayin'. ;)
It's hard not to be hopeful, you know? After the last eight years, the bar for success has been set so low that we'll be ecstatic with basic competence, but with President Obama (damn, that feels good to type), there's the real possibility for excellence, and that's intoxicating.
I started coming of age politically during the whole Lewinski thing. Details aside, nothing made me more cynical than using federal tax dollars to figure out what the definition of "is" is and giving a whole generation of promiscuous teens a new definition of sex.
Cynicism deepened with the 2000 election debacle. It became nearly unfathomable with unbelievably inept way GW's administration has handled things.
I'm given, now, along with every other adult in America with an IQ over 50, to hoping and praying that our newly minted President rights the lean our ship has taken on.
I remain, however, guardedly cynical about the Dems holding both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue. While I have a measure of faith in the President, I have zero for those in Congress. To watch a supposedly educated and intellectual representative make the statement in all seriousness that minimum wage should fully support a family of four (home ownership, food, bills, credit) is patently ludicrous. Here's to hoping the more reasonable minds in Congress throw in with President Obama and concentrate on the issues that actually matter.
Or...I suppose they can just pass more non-binding resolutions to salve their own egos.
Obama will inevitably disappoint us all sometimes, as he's a politician who has to make political compromises, accomodate unpleasant realities, avoid confronting problems that are painful but politically explosive, etc. But it sure does feel like a better world with Obama in that job than it did with W in that job, and as someone else said, performing better than W is not exactly a high bar.
I am generally optimistic about things, though I have a deep streak of cynicism about human nature. Some things will change, some won't. Iran has a new effigy to burn and Hugo Chavez has welcomed Obama in by shit talking. But hopefully Obama can do something to get houses moving, loans processed and factories building things again.
Let me put it perspective...
I'm not american...not white, don't live in or near the US.
Before this, i was increasingly sceptical of the political class of america, and it's elitism.
Clinton and european leaders passivity about Rwanda made me queezy beyond imagination. My view of the middle-east was that it could be solved by bombing the region and hoping that the intellectuals survived.
Before Obama i didn't believe that racial equality was even concievable in the US or Europe for that matter. Specially for people of muslim or even muslim-like origin.
Some of that has been reversed, some of it is still unchanged, none of it has left untouched by the events that occured during 2008.
Ya'll know me and my obama-cheering attitude by now. It's almost too much for myself, and i often have to yank myself out of being a cheer-leader and moving towards a objective admiror. I don't believe that the US can solve every problem in this world, i don't want them to, and i dont expect them to. But atleast with prez Obama in charge, i can atleast hope for some intelligent input from the great nation in the west. I can atleast hope that, when there is a major crisis in the world, the US has one of the most intelligent thinkers on route and hopefully will push the rest of the lazy-ass european establishment in the right direction. Again,I can only hope, it's not written in stone, but I can see with my own eyes that he's intelligent, amicable, pricipled beyond comparison , yet strangly pragmatic....oh there I go again, he's just a man. Just a man.
Personally, I'm so happy to have a President who talks to me like I'm a grown-up that I'm almost ready to dance. (I've got Parliament's "Tear the Roof Off the Sucker" playing right now, so I'm prepped.) I know we're the ones who've got to direct the country, rather than vice-versa, and at long last, the Chief Executive knows it, too.
I've had some fondness for past Presidents, and tolerance for others, but I think Obama is the first one in my lifetime that I've actually *respected.*
For me, it's simply nice to have a President that can C-O-M-M-U-N-I-C-A-T-E effectively, regardless what he's talking about. GW could have been the best thing since sliced bread, but his completely lack of oratory, and the attached lack of inspiration, was horribly disconcerting.
Although, admittedly, the Germans could probably tell us a thing or two about the dangers of leaders with exceptional public speaking skills.
(note: not an equivalency...hold the flames)
When I was young, I ... would tell you that it didn't matter which party had the White House
So there goes the theory that Coates is just a pen-name for one of Nader's alternate identities.
Personally, I'm so happy to have a President who talks to me like I'm a grown-up that I'm almost ready to dance.
Word.
As for change beginning, it was nice when my daughter asked last night to be able to point to something Obama had already done. She is focused on reducing her homework; I've showed her the Submit Idea section of the new website, and when she asked the list of what he plans to do on Civil Rights and the economy, and the Secretary of Education (who is not in charge of homework levels). (Note to the overliterate--she was being smart mouthed but actually interested. She does get that the president does not set her homework levels.)
My son was thrilled to learn Sash and Malia had a bowling alley and swimming pool, but I cannot answer his question about bunk beds. He is picturing triple decker bunk beds for each girl.)
Addendum: I went off to google White House swimming pool just to double check that they had one (they do, or at least did in the 90s) and the first link I tried to click, on a page of White House facts, redirected me to the new Obama WhiteHouse.gov website which does not contain the old link. And when you search on "swimming pool" it has no luck, being all focused on policies and such.
Check out the interview robin roberts did with beyonce last night after she sang the First Couple's song "At Last" at The Neighborhood Ball.
I'm going to find a panel from a comic about the Wobblies later that gives an excellent counterpoint.
But for now I'll simply point you to that interview and say "That's what's up."
As an aside I was on the Mall yesterday for the Inaugural--something that never ever crossed my mind.
Live? That speech was helluva.
I'm with you guys: cautiously optimistic. A lot of the cheering and joy is because electing a brown-skinned man to our presidency is indeed a barrier broken, and a lot of it is also love for Barack and the hopes people have placed in him because he seems to be so much more capable and sincere than most political leaders. Perhaps this is too obvious to bother saying, but what sends it over the top for most people who are feeling good right now - and that is most of the country - the real emotional catalyst - is the departure of President George W. Bush.
I don't need to go into specifics but Americans across the spectrum - rich to poor, urban to rural, conservative to liberal to whatever else - are aware of a serious decline in the functioning of our nation's government and the consequences to our fortunes, our military, our honor, our Constitution. We're in more trouble than we've been in for a long time, but we can feel that it's a sort of internal rot. Clearly Bush, Bushism, is not the expression or cause of everything that is or has been wrong with America - but it did take some bad American habits and stretch them further. Fiscal recklessness, military and foreign policy recklessness and blatant disrespect for our own power and for other people, etc, etc. So yes, 'Morning in America' does really express the hope many of us feel. ('river runnin free, you know how i feel') -sv
This morning, I feel inspired. I feel inspired to build things. I feel inspired to be part of my community.
Look, after 9/11, the last president (nice, huh?) gave us fear and told us to go shopping. SHOPPING. That was NOT inspiring. That was a downer.
Obama faces so many challenges. He needs all of us to pitch in and help. He makes me feel like I can be part of this rebirth of America, not just be a bystander.
But, it's not going to be easy. That is why, even though I feel inspired, I also feel unease. I wonder what his administration is going to find as they dig into the mess left by the last administration. We really have a long road ahead of us.
The poet Allen Ginsburg called the involvement in the Viet Nam war "the fall of these states," and one could easily argue that the transparent lies Johnson fed America about our involvement there compounded by Nixon's calumny began the grand attitudinal descent of the American populace about its political classes. Many fell for Reagan's ghost town false front, but Iran Contra, followed up by Clinton's transparent oiliness, and the epic catastrophe of the Bush years only fed our national cynicism.
It's safe to say many of the lower economic class, non whites, non Christians, all whose lives were immediatly affected by the power of privilege and lack thereof have with reason a long standing skepticism of American polity. And even with Barack Obama in the White House, realistic skepticism is a healthy thing, worthy of our expression. Otherwise, how can we hold ourselves responsible for the democracy we desire.
However, a society like a love affair, let alone a marriage, is an epic making task. Mornings, afternoons, evenings, the dark hours before dawn--they are all part of the story. What Obama is asking is that we shed our childish notions that society is nothing more than the morning after we fall in love, but something worth digging into for the long haul. How he succeeds, how we succeed, it's on us all. But that, after the sneering condescension of the past 8 years, the pathetic, sadistic false bravado, at least seems like light shining in the doorway from a garden before springtime emerges.
I am with you on the young and cynical tip. I was that guy in the 80s and 90s that shrugged in 2000 not seeing the difference between Gore and Bush or viewing Clinton's domestic policies (Welfare, Crime Bill, FBI phone taps) as rancid. I have a Serbian friend whose mother was a journailist. She characterizes Europe, as an "old whore. It has seen everything." Well I feel a little old whorish as 8 years of Bush and Right Wing extremism has shown me not everything, but a lot more than I wanted to see. So I have become hopeful and enthusiastic about the possibility of peace and justice. I was skittish about my early investment in Obama's candidacy. Now it was just fear and trembling before the unknown within me.
So what should be done with Khalid Shaikh Muhammad now?
One more thing, TNC. What's with the "When I was young..." bs? As someone who has a few years on you, I'd like to remind you that you are still young. Very, very young. Whippersnapper. Get off my lawn!
One could do an entire poem of atonement with the phrase "After George W. Bush" as the refrain. As in, "After George W. Bush, I promise never to leave dirty dishes in the sink overnight./After George W. Bush, I will only smoke pot twice a week." In fact, I'm going to start a religion, and Jan 21 is going to be a high holiday during which one will be required to recite a 200 strophe poem along the lines of the above. The first strophe will read, "After George W, Bush, I will never speak glibly about politics again."
Even Obama can't get me to keep it to two nights a week.