To start this diary, let's take a look at a reality check:
That's over 100 pages of foreclosures in Wayne County, Michigan, folks. That's is one of the most stunning visual examples of pain I've seen in awhile.
And that is the start of the fish we need to fry.
As disappointed as I am, and we all probably are, about Turncoat Joe's retainer of his committee chairmanship, I also know that in the realm of personal politics, this would be inevitable. The Senate is very chummy that way. Paul Wellstone wrote about it in his brilliant book The Conscience of a Liberal. Sometimes, those relationships are good things, sometimes bad. But regardless, they do dominate the Senate.
Regardless, the netroots would take heed from this lesson that the personal does not necessairly translate into the political. Or for that matter, necessary policy, which is really the be all and end all of what needs to happen.
I've read many a diary here about Lieberman, or speculation about Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State, the past few days. I've read a lot of concern in those diaries too, about personnel decisions and what it might mean to an Obama cabinet. I do not share that concern as much as I am looking for a way to ensure that the correct policies are put in place to move this country forward.
Make no mistake: the challenges facing us as a nation are vast. Those challenges are greater than getting Obama, or any one individual, elected. They are reflected in that clip from above, and reflected in the mood of a nation as a whole.
There is an opportunity here. An opportunity to ensure that progressive policies are indeed the change we can believe in.
Are we up to the challenge to ensure that change happens?
Often, I'm frustrated by the netroots in the sense that it seems to do well to mobilize against a common enemy -- i.e., Republicans -- during electoral season, but seems to haphazardly have no vision to what governance should look like. Governance is not dependent on people, but on values and ideas. And that's where we need to concentrate.
At no time in history have we been better poised to get universal health care, restructure government, ensure an economy that works for all, turn the tide against global warming, institute a new energy policy, base our foreign relations on right and not might, and turn the page on failed Republican rule.
I ask again: are we up to that challenge?
I'm not sure how we get there. I'm not even sure what the answers to those questions are.
But I do know we need to get to work on figuring out the game plan for January.
Let's define change, and then let's own it.
And let's start frying that fish.