…and he is us.
Last night, I spent a few hours wading through BP oil spill related diaries over at Daily Kos, and spent a good portion of this morning getting a second dose. I don’t visit there all that often anymore, and when I do I rarely venture into the diaries, and even less frequently into the comment sections. Having now spent some time there, I can now safely say that I’m pretty much done with that place.
Truth be told, I’d have to go to FreeRepublic to see the same amount of utterly uninformed, hyperbolic bullshit. The place is overrun with imbeciles. Save the lesser objects of scorn, there is literally no difference between these knuckleheads and the very worst of the Teabagging Birther set. The obvious, and excruciatingly irrational hatred of all things Obama leads me to conclude that they are kindred spirits, drooling sycophants trapped in an endless For/Next loop.
Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and consciencious stupidity.
–Martin Luther King, Jr.
I’ve always known that wingnuts turn both ways, but up until now I’ve always taken comfort in the thought that, for the most part, we that skewed left were better, more rational, more reasoned. Smarter. Today, that illusion is shattered.
I can’t say that I’ve ever seen more half-cocked, bloviating, fact-dodging colostomy bags gathered all in one place in my life. It’s disappointing. It’s embarrassing. It’s disgusting. I’m not naive. Frankly, I’ve come to expect, even count on, certain gradients of this kind of crap from sites like OpenLeft, MyDD, FireDogLake, etc., but freakin’ Daily Kos? The once-stately flagship of the liberal blogosphere has run aground. It’s a Ship of Fools.
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former.
–Albert Einstein
I am a liberal and progressive, and these are not my people. Can someone, anyone at all, please tell me that these skull hampers DO NOT represent common thinking on the left. Please, in the name of all that is sacred, talk me down from the goddamned ledge.
UPDATE – UPDATE – UPDATE
I was pretty irked when I initially posted this diary, and now that my blood is no longer boiling, I see the need to clarify my position somewhat. It’s not entirely fair for me to bitch about all the bitching without showing my cards. Also, I’ve removed some of the vulgarity. I was pissed off, and it was gratuitious. Anyway, here’s what I’m thinking:
I don’t believe, nor do I intend to suggest that criticism of President Obama is out of bounds. Further, I don’t intend to dissuade or discourage activism of any sort — from marching the streets to bitch-fests on the intertoobz. It’s just that I’d like to see those things guided by reason, without undue influence from hatred and hysteria. I accept that there has always been, and will always be some element of the latter so long as humans are involved in the process. I just chaffe when hubris wins the day, and stupid junk permeates into memes. These are the times when my ‘punch pillow’ suffers most.
I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, and maybe my training as an archaeologist predisposes me to taking a sort of ‘long view’ when it comes to the observation of politics. When working at an archaeological site (or even looking for them), I very often find myself trying to divine a ‘feeling’. I’m not talking about new age vibrations, but about getting a sense of place; developing an understanding of the landscape, the environment, and the relationship humans may have had with it. Essentially, the big picture. It’s a holistic approach wherein I try to take into account more than what I’m seeing evidenced by mere artifacts or features. I attempt to take myself back in time, put myself in the position of those who were there before me. How was the immediate environment different 20 years ago? 100 years ago? 1,000? Where is food, water, shelter, safety? This same approach, I think, informs what I see when I try to look forward as well.
I don’t tend to see political maneuvers, strategies, and bits of legislation (whether landmark or trivial) as mini-events to be considered in and of themselves, but rather as part of a ceaseless process. I imagine governance to be a bit like a swimming fish. Fish are in nearly constant motion, whether suspended in still waters, or fighting upstream. The movements of the fish often have nearly as much to do with current as with volition. It’s not the motion of this fin or that that need be considered when one observes a fish, but also its intentions in addition to the whole of its environment.
I think the successes and failures of President Obama have huge implications for not only our future, but also the rest of the world. As such, his actions as a leader deserve a more thoughtful evaluation than they’re getting — especially in the blogosphere. That said, I get it: I understand some of the disappointment. I have a few of my own, as I imagine most of his reasonable supporters do.
The campaign was a marvel in branding and salesmanship, truly an operation without precedent in U.S. political history. How many books have been written on that already? Dozens? Many supporters’ hopes were wildly inflated (as evidenced by the scads of people who came to believe that Obama was some combination of Ghandi and Dennis Kucinich). Ludicrous projection aside, I still reject the assertion that we got something other than what was advertised. He’s no usurper, no Manchurian Candidate, no corporate shill, no pig in a poke. I read both of his books before I voted for the guy, and he’s pretty much exactly who he took pains to say he was. I’m not at all surprised with what we’ve seen from him so far in his still very young presidency. He’s not God or ‘The One’, and he’s neither dictator nor king. He’s not a socialist, fascist, or a communist. He’s not a Nazi. He’s not FDR, MLK Jr., JFK, LBJ or anyone else.
There are literally millions of Americans who refuse to accept his leadership, from racists to teabaggers to conservatives with good intentions. Our media establishment has done all it can to amplify these voices, particularly those that make the least sense. Let’s face facts: where would the Birther, Truther, Tenther, and Tea Party movements be without the media and weedy power of the internet? Pretty much dead on the vine, I suspect. Republican politicians have made it painfully obvious that they seek only his failure at every turn — the welfare of the nation and its people be damned. Plus, there are plenty of Democrats who, after eights years of submission to the Bush agenda, or by nature of their conservative constituency, or though self-interest or self-preservation, behave more like opposition than ally. Not exactly the makings of an ironclad ‘majority’. These are the waters in which fish Obama must swim.
Obama promises transformation, and I think if we look at things holistically, there are lots of reasons stay engaged in the positive part of the process; to stick it out and disallow whatever disappointments we may have from ruling the day. No matter how post-racial we pretend to be, Barack Obama is still the first black President of the United States, and there’s no dodging the significance of that. More accurately, he’s a mixed-race man, and an important and powerful symbol of our future. As a role model, he’s nearly beyond compare: a brilliant nerd athletic enough to drive the hoop, throw a mean elbow, and drop three-pointers like a NCAA star. He’s fun-loving while a model husband and father, an eloquent speaker and a great listener. There’s much for Americans, young or old, to admire in this guy. All this if he were nothing more than a mailman.
As President, he’s salvaged our reputation in the world, and is fostering a new era in international cooperation. His attempts to reform healthcare, drug policies, immigration and the financial system are all steps in the right direction, no matter how you measure them.
I’m not at all suggesting we liberals, progressives, Democrats, or whatever, let the President off the hook. It’s just that I think it’s far wiser to view Obama as an ally than it is to paint him as an enemy.
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