Like many of you, I wept actual tears for the stupidity of this country last week when we elected a gang of corrupt buffoons and liars into the cradle of power at both the state and federal levels.
After 2008 and 2012, I believed that the majority of the United States finally understood that the republican party is nothing more than an anti-democracy front group for a small group of ideological billionaires bent on rewriting this country into some cartoon Ayn Rand fantasy they barely comprehend on a good day.
I shrug off 2010 as an inevitable reaction to the unrealistic Obama hopes and the throes of a recession.
But now?
We lost. And we lost badly. We have not made the liberal case to the American public. Sure, we're facing a sea of right wing propaganda drowning out the message, and frauds like Chuck Todd and David Gregory giving cover to the bullshit. But we still lost.
I had little hope after election day. But then I saw Barack Obama at his most heroic. And I saw how we can win the long game. Follow me below the scribble for how we do that
In the past week we have seen one of the most significant events of the Obama presidency, and I do not say that lightly. In three steps, Obama laid out the plan for the final defeat of republicanism, easily the most important and significant event that has to happen in this country for us to survive as a nation. So I place these events at the level of his signature healthcare bill, the killing of Bin Laden, the bailing out of Detroit, and the rescue of the economy.
How did he do that?
Simple.
Obama told the army of White Aristocratic Pundit Scolds, or WAPS, to go fuck. This includes the army of Two-First-Names bobbleheads (Megyn Kelly, Brian Williams, Chuck Todd, David Gregory, Chris Matthews, David Brooks) that like to sit around and "tut-tut" the president for not doing what they (and the right wing) want him to do.
Instead, Obama took three steps in one week that laid bare the entire fraud of the political propaganda soup of mainstream media that we live in.
1. Massive climate change deal with China
2. Affirmation of Net Neutrality
3. Impending Immigration reform (granted this is not yet official)
Holy crap!!!
In three steps, Obama returned the importance of ISSUES and the REAL WORLD to a climate of media toxicity that sits around and parses political events like they're reporting from the Emmy red carpet on who's wearing what dress and who's sleeping with whom.
As he has done his entire presidency (well, most of it, at least), Obama is focused on the long game. The introduction and impact of real world policy change over performance for the cameras.
George W. Bush performed for the cameras. He was a fake cowboy clearing brush from a fake ranch in a state he didn't grow up in. He put on a southern accent even though he was born in Maine and went to high school and graduate school in New England. He pranced on a flight deck after a fake "winning" war.
But all of Bush's performance art, celebrated by the WAPS and Two First Namers, eventually crumbled under the weight of reality.
Reality wins in the end.
Obama gets it.
It doesn't matter if the pundits freak out over some dude named Gruber saying yakkity yak or whatnot. It'll be forgotten in a week. Just like it was completely forgotten that republcians shut down the government last year costing a billion dollars.
Just as it will be forgotten how Obama began the process of slowing climate change or helping immigrants get legal status in this country.
All that matters is results.
And underneath everything Obama is doing is a BIG FUCKING MIDDLE FINGER to the pundit-republican axis of bullshit that has been polluting our country for two decades.
Since an entire pundit class scolded Clinton for daring to try to kill a terrorist when the important work of examining his personal sex life was taking place in Washington. No matter that the terrorist Clinton tried to kill would go on to kill thousands in the World Trade Center three years later.
The pundit class had no interest in learning who this "Bin Laden" was when there was Ken Starr reports to gossip about.
Or when an entire pundit class told us that if we didn't support Bush's invasion of Iraq then we hated America and would tear this country apart.
Or when an entire pundit class overlooked the Supreme Court's blatant political intervention in Bush v. Gore, Citizens United, and Hobby Lobby (soon to be ACA as well) because they were busy talking about how Obama is "aloof."
FUCK THEM.
If there's any lesson from 2014 it's that when Democrats quake in fear of the pundit class-republican framing, they lose. Failing to celebrate the ACA? Ignoring Obama's numerous accomplishments? Lose.
In it's simplest terms: You buy in to Chuck Todd, you lose.
In the past week, Obama has laid the path to Democratic Party success in 2016, and it is simple.
Do everything you can, use every tool you have to stop climate change, help immigrants, raise the minimum wage, support Social Security and Medicare, strengthen public schools, invest in infrastructure, and prevent billionaires from running our media (Net Neutrality).
Every time a pundit scolds you on Meet the Press, ignore them.
Here's the long game Obama has laid out in specifics:
1. Bait and goad republicans into either shutting down the government or impeaching Obama
2. Filibuster enough so that The Turtle finally ends the stupid filibuster once and for all, thus tying republicans to the rule change
3. Contrast Democratic Party competence and cohesion with republican hissy fits, immaturity, and destruction
4. Tie republicans to Big Oil, billionaire plutocrats, and, most importantly, anti-immigrant xenophobia
5. Resist republican governance on every level, NO COMPROMISE
6. Take this to a presidential election in 2016 and KICK THEIR FUCKING ASSES
For those of you that don't understand Obama's genius and importance to American history, the last week is your wakeup call. His is the most significant American president since FDR. He has built the bridge to the most important step this country has to take in the next decade -- the end of the current republican party.
There is no room for anti-science racism, bigotry, and reactionary fear in a 21st century America. The pundit class is set up to block this next step. The pundit class and the Republican Party are therefore aligned.
We must defeat both at once.
It begins by what Obama just did. Refusing to even slow down in the face of this republican "landslide" despite the pundit demands that he kiss republican ass.
It ends when Obama goads republicans into imploding over the next two years and we clean house in 2016