the left coaster‘s paradox has a post up today about what it will be like with a President Obama and a Democratic Congress. I’m not so brave as he is. I’m anxious about the election. But it’s a real possibility – what’s right. One point he makes is one I’ve been thinking about. The blogosphere will change, and I’ll miss it. It has been a lifeline for these last three plus years – reminding me daily that I don’t live in a country I don’r recognize. The old one is still there, just buried.
I’m under no illusion that it will be any utopia. Going by recent history, it might well be the worst of times for a while. Carter got elected after the Nixon debacle, only to be constantly attacked and obstructed, and was defeated after one term. Clinton was dogged unmercifully and soon strapped with a Republican Congress. I expect that the Republican Media will go postal if we have Democrats in power. Add to that the enormity of the problems that are the Bush legacy, and I don’t think we’ll be in a position to enjoy much Lennon-esque imagining.
What can we legitamately hope for? First, freedom from the Bush Administration. What does that mean? It means a functioning government – a Department of Justice that is focused on our laws rather than obstructing them. It means a Congress that has time to think about what it’s there for instead of endlessly dealing with the Bush/Cheney bullshit that’s brought it to its knees for eight years. It means a Military that can get back to soldiering and out of the public relations business. It means a State Department that uses diplomacy as it should be used. It means a place in the U.N. as something other than an object of ridicule. It means a C.I.A. that gets back into finding intelligence rather than manufacturing it. And it means the possibility of an open government that gives us straight information rather than empty rhetoric. That’s a lot.
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