What is going on? No, seriously. I was here for election night, the thrills and joy and tears. Then I leave for two weeks backpacking in the wilderness and now y'all are ready to rip Obama's throat out because he didn't tear down the establishment overnight in a quixotic bid for four years of getting nothing done and alienating the center of the country through far-left politics? Who said this was a revolution? Did you want our own version of Bush, coming into office claiming to be a uniter but instead using every opportunity to push an extremist agenda? The man is doing what he said he would do: changing the old politics, and treating us as a nation not of red and blue states but a United States. Did you think it was just rhetoric, or did you not really want it?
Don't get me wrong, people. I come to you as a (somewhat) reformed revolutionary anarchist, deep ecologist, and green guerilla. A little over a year ago, I was convinced that there was no hope for our civilization. I'll say this, despite the inevitable comments on my sanity that it may provoke: I believe that we are running beyond the limits to growth (as explained in many environmental texts, including one of that name: Beyond the Limits) and we are overdue for a crash. As cheap oil becomes more scarce, basic economics (I took macroeconomics 51, by all means correct me if I'm wrong) states that demand destruction will occur. Exhibit A: the current recession, though we may argue about its causes, was certainly helped along by the pressures of higher costs for transport, higher cost of food (as we turn food to fuel), and higher commodities costs. In my view oil has been propping up the extraction of other resources, and demand destruction looks like the end of growth as we know it.
We need to make a fundamental shift, larger than raising the minimum wage and larger than capping greenhouse emissions. We need to stop an economic ideology that emphasizes growth for the sake of growth and move to a steady-state economic system. And in the interim, we're going to have to deal with a shrinking economy. It will be painful.
You don't have to believe me. I count on it that most of you won't. But I wrote my thesis on this, researched it for 3 years, and think I know what I'm talking about. Whether I do or don't remains to be seen. But even if you don't buy that we face a crisis of this immensity, global warming and the current recession are nothing to sneeze at. Now is not the time for us to get into partisan rancor, now is the time to get things done. We won the election, so lets stop fighting against each other and start fighting the problems of today.
I don't like Lieberman, but if he votes for an agenda of change, then the country wins.
I don't like McCain, but if Obama gets his support for a climate change initiative, then the country wins.
I don't like Harry Reid, but if he can keep from alienating some moderate Republicans and bring them over to vote with us, then the country wins.
I don't like moderate Republicans, but if we can pull over their votes and avoid a filibuster, the country wins.
I don't like most of the senators on capitol hill. They're polticians, I naturally dislike them for their lying, selfish ways. The scum rises to the top, I say, but if they will get something done to solve the massive problems of today and help ease us into a soft landing or even a new energy economy, then the country wins.
We won, now let's let the country win.
Here's what I see:
I see a politician who may have just told the truth. He said he wanted to work in a bipartisan manner to solve problems, and he's trying to do it.
I see a Republican party divided in two: not just pro- and anti- Palin, but a few moderate members willing to try to work towards solving the big problems, and a sizeable block of evangelical lunatics convinced that the apocalypse is upon us and trying their damndest to out-wingnut each other and block anything from happening.
There are two narratives that can be told over the next four years. The first is the one that the winguts will push: the crises that are coming will be Obama's fault or at least he won't have done anything to stop them and the Republicans bravely stood against his attempts to screw things up more with a far-left agenda, or that Obama stood with Democrats and the reasonable Republicans, and brought change. We can choose, because we are the ones who decide what story we tell ourselves. But if we as progressives try to push Obama and the Democrats to be more confrontational, more oppositional, and more emotional, and (god-forbid) succeed at getting Obama to run from the far left, we will alienate any moderate conservatives who might have helped us break a filibuster and get something done.
And we will lose in four years. Because Obama doesn't have the advantages Bush had. Bush had the first attack on American soil (at least it was percieved that way) and people rally around the leader during those times. Obama is walking into a political minefield. It's a suicide mission if he tries to do it on his own, or even if he takes 58 or 59 Democratic votes with him. He needs the moderate Republicans to get anything meaningful done, and every vote counts towards real and meaningful change. Let's not make it harder for him: the expectations on him are so high already he will have to do better than Lincoln or Roosevelt (they both had attacks by foes, foreign and domestic, to rally their popularity). Say what you want, do what you want, don't let a green anarchist tell you what to do, but damnit people, this is a representative democracy. We chose the best man to represent us, let's give him a chance to try before we tear him down.
Update
I'm impressed- thats like thirty more comments than I was expecting. Thanks for the lively discussion, and I appreciate the passion, but I'd like to highlight two issues:
*Today's date: November 19th. Not done with first 100 days, not done with first hour. Not yet inaugurated. Chill out, people. Say the Serenity Prayer. Lets have just the smallest modicum of trust that maybe Obama will get some things done.
*Is postpartisanship and healing the divides in this country just rhetoric to you? He's reaching out to Republicans and former Democrats like Lieberman...LIKE HE SAID HE WOULD.
Well, I say to them tonight, there is not a liberal America and a conservative America — there is the United States of America...
We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America. In the end, that’s what this election is about. Do we participate in a politics of cynicism or do we participate in a politics of hope?
So you were hoping that he was playing the same cynical game that Bush did in 2000, playing to the middle and retreating to the radical right? You were hoping he was lying to the large group of moderates (and even republicans) who voted for him when he said he'd work to move past partisan divides? THAT is the politics of cynicism. And while it may be naive and idealistic, today I choose the politics of hope. Thanks for the discussion.