Hi. I've been absolutely fascinated by politics since about 1978... I think
that's when my grandmother started sending me Herblock editorial
cartoons she clipped from the Washington Post. I drew my first Reagan cartoon in 1980 (age 9, copied from Mad Magazine).
In high school, I teamed up with a conservative friend (a math & programming wizard with feet as hairy as a Hobbit) and ran his mock election candidacy
as Dukakis. Deep in OC, "Dukakis" won. I was proud. I read Marx and
Chomsky (it wasn't until college that I realized he's the left's Dan
Quayle... dumb, cynical and wholly full of shit). I listened to the Dead
Kennedys. And kept waiting for meaningful liberal victories.
They didn't happen. Yeah, I still blame Nader for actively combating
what would've been our greenest presidency. If Noam is Quayle, then
Ralph is surely the left's Bush (arrogant and wholly full of shit). The
left just kept getting more angry, stupid, and stubborn (a lot like the
tea party). Honestly, aside from Ted Kennedy and Wellstone (also opposed
by the Green Party), liberalism was pretty devoid of nationally
prominent thinkers that actually accomplished things.
But along came Obama and his team of pragmatists (if you haven't read it, I recommend the
Metaphysical Club,
about the creation of pragmatic philosophy... which trails only
baseball and national parks as this country's greatest gift to
humanity). I predicted his presidency early. But I most certainly didn't
anticipate the speed at which progress would take hold. If you'd told
me sometime in 2000 (or anytime during the Rove years of supremacy) that
within the next decade we'd have a president endorse gay marriage or
demand that cars get 56+ MPG... I think I would've probably dismissed it
as too optimistic. Remember when 8 MPG SUVs were outselling cars by
ridiculous numbers? That was one term ago.
Look at Obama's coalition. It's a Guthrie folk song. It's a liberal
Noah's ark: young, multiracial, loaded with estrogen. Compare it to the
Opposition. It's amazing. Liberals have never been good at keeping
people together. We have an anarchistic streak. When Goldwater got
beaten, conservatives organized. They coalesced, realizing that
everlasting political victories take time and strategy. If the left
could've figured that out earlier, maybe they get behind Gore. He
wins... and Alito and Roberts are just lawyers for an oil company
somewhere in Dubai.
Obviously, that didn't work out. But then Obama did. And, with apologies to some leftists, there
is
a difference between Roberts and Sotomayor. Kagan, too. These are
meaningful adjustments and I'm thrilled that they will be ongoing.
Ginsburg can retire... if she feels like it. A scientist remains the
head of the Dept. of Energy. Etc.
We're winning and winning big. I didn't think DADT would be
eliminated this decade (it's not that old), much less have the
Democratic party and its president endorse marriage equality. A decade
ago, Tommy Thomson was governor of Wis. Then, Bush's Secretary of
Health. This week, he lost to Tammy Baldwin for the state's senate seat.
Massachusetts elected a consumer crusader to rightfully sit at Ted's
seat. We raised taxes for schools in California. We have a
super-majority in the statehouse. I'm represented in Washington by a
former Sierra Club lawyer. Gay marriage started winning in state
contests. Pot was legalized in Co. The list goes on and on. Sure,
there's plenty to do.
But it's worth noting that this week was the greatest liberal
triumph of my lifetime. Yours too, probably. This isn't hyperbole. Yes,
trends probably suggest that a lot of these things were eventually
inevitable (demographics, price of gas), but most of the big and small
victories that occurred yesterday owe a huge debt to the strategy,
optimism, inspiration, and pragmatic patience of a black man at the top
of a now competent Democratic party. He's been hammered from the left
and the right, but Obama has remained unfazed. He knows the score and
the clock. He's building something slowly in an impatient world, but I
think it's built to last. In human history, has there ever been a more
diverse coalition rallying around one person? I don't think so (Caesar's
popularity was coerced). That alone is something truly worth
celebrating.
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