As the days go by I am struck by their similarity of FEELING to the way the days felt for the Eight Bush Years. So, what did I expect, some great CHANGE just because Barack Obama was elected President? Uh, well; yeah, I did. No, I didn't really expect the wholesale sea change that was promised by the soaring campaign speeches; I'm certainly not THAT naive. But I did expect that somehow things would FEEL DIFFERENT. That the "HOPE" that was thrown around like bits of confetti in the air on convention night might actually be something palpable once "we take over" from the Bush Cabal. But it doesn't; it doesn't feel any different to me in America than it did before.
I am struck by the seamless TRANSITION from "the Bush days" to "the Obama days", I really am. Based on all the campaign rhetoric I certainly expected a much more jarring transition. The "out with the old Bush ways, and in with the new Obama ways" of doing things would certainly be marked by a lot of upheaval, as all the behind the scenes puppeteers who pulled the strings on the Bush puppet were dramatically swept out and a new era began. An era of openness and accountability to The People, not to the cabals and corporate commissions that ran things for the past eight years. I used to laugh at all the guys I knew who spent their time RIPPING Bush, like this guy was really in charge of everything that his cabal did during the eight years of "his Presidency". I told them over and over again that Bush was nothing but a SPOKESMAN, a model, an ACTOR who got up and recited the lines prepared for him by his puppet masters. And I was right; even Bush himself eventually chafed under that collar and at the very end he peevishly REFUSED to pardon Scooter Libby after eight years of being told by Cheney and the rest of the Cabal to do as he was told. That was his way of saying "you're not the boss of me anymore; the eight years are over", and he gave Cheney the finger and thankfully disappeared into the Texas night. Too bad Cheney didn't disappear with him.
But now that Bush is gone and Obama is in, tell me what exactly has changed? Other than the COSMETIC, of course. We all knew THAT was going to change if for no other reason than Obama has a different personality than Bush the swaggering dumb ass, with his thumbs up, Mission accomplished, Bring Em On, Way to go Brownie penchant for doofus-ism. No, that has changed, but that was a foregone conclusion. That was surface, cosmetic, and although it is certainly nice to have a President that doesn't embody perfectly the word "STUNAD" (Don't know what that means? Poor you, to have had a deprived childhood, obviously not in New York; urbandictionary.com for you then!), I was looking for some OTHER changes, you know, the kind of changes that made me FEEL like we actually WON that election! The kind of changes that occur when YOUR SIDE wins all the marbles, White House, Senate, & House. The kind of changes that I felt from DAY ONE after Bush took over from Clinton.
See, the Republicans know EXACTLY how to take power. It's really very simple; they TAKE power. They get together, vote as a bloc, follow their President, whip all stragglers back into line and they SHOVE THEIR AGENDA DOWN EVERYONE'S THROAT, whether we like it or not. And how do WE take power? That's very simple too! Like the angst ridden, indecisive, wimpy, gutless LIBERALS that the right wing loves to caricature us as, that's how.
Oh, I can hear the outrage from some people now. You're wrong; it's not like that at all! Things HAVE changed; things are better already! Really? Then how do the same Wall Street THIEVES and BANKSTERS still control our economy? I don't know about you, but I expected nothing less than lots of PRISON TERMS for the architects of the greatest robbery of all time. instead they all KEPT THEIR JOBS UNDER OBAMA. I saw that coming before Obama even took office, when he named Geithner & Summers et al as his financial guys. Well, there goes THAT change. That's gonna be nothing more than a continuation of the Bush years.
Then he kept Gates at Defense and announced not an END to the Middle East wars, but an ESCALATION of them! Well, there goes THAT change. That's gonna be nothing more than a continuation of the Bush years too.
Then came the health care debacle. I'm tired of typing the same words about "continuation" so I won't. Anyway, you're not STUNADS; you get my drift.
Are there still some of you that are holding out? Some that are still shouting "No, you're wrong"? Ok, that's fine. I don't expect you to see my point ALL AT ONCE. Sometimes it takes a while for understanding to DAWN on people. But do me a favor, ok? In a few weeks when the Senate is back in session and you see Joe Lieberman on TV raking the Democrats over the coals as he lobbies for WWIII in his position as Chairman of the Homeland Security committee, I want you to remember this diary. The same Joe Lieberman who torpedoed real health care reform will be CHAIRING HIS COMMITTEE under Obama just like he did under Bush, and as you watch him (if you have the stomach for it; the very SIGHT of him and the sound of his voice nauseates ME) maybe THEN you'll begin to see why I say that it still FEELS like the same people are running things that have BEEN running them these past 8 years.