I can remember all the trouble that we have had since the days of JFK.
Particularly pertinent to our situation are the years of Nixon, Reagan, Bush I and Bush II. That is a big chunck of the past 50 years.
Consider where this country would be at if JFK, RFK and Martin Luther Kind had not been assassinated. Just that thought alone ought to highlight contemplations about the disparity between the nation we could be and the one we have become; let alone the one we might become if conservative fearmongers' darker dreams define the future.
Are we going to give in to the seductive, almost erotic negativity that is floating around the zeitgeist - or are we going to rise to our evolutionary potential in the moment and build the better future?
That is what the election of 2012 is really about.
If Obama loses and if the GOP gets to have a majority in Congress, the nation takes a very dangerous step backward. It will fuel the bonfires of negativity and the evangelicals will become even more certain they are right.
That is because many people fear change so much that the medieval instinct to blame those who question authoritarianism will kick in and they will seek to elect people on that model. We The People, losing our educated edge as we are, cannot allow that. Not now.
We need to be making forward progress. We need to remember the song that admonished the civil rights activists who were tempted to give up to "keep our eyes on the prize" and hold on.
The question isn't whether Obama gets re-elected. THe question is what kind of country to we want America to become?
We have to be determined for the long term. Any increment of progress can be washed away like a sand castle when the tide comes in, so it must be protected by adding new increments. When setbacks occur, as they have all too often over the past 50 years, the effort to build must begin anew.
Our world is full of problems so overwhelming in their scale that much of what we need to deal with is actually beyond the entire political system.
Our politics tend to move too slowly. Worse, as problems become more clear to more people, the reactionaries want to slow things down out of fear.
We absolutely have to be clear about what is really going on and what we need to be focused on.
We need to win the next presidential election, and to take back majorities in the Congress and in the state houses and locally as well.
Even more important than that, is that we must focus on what must be done to build the better society of the future we want to see. This is the real work.
It is much easier for the regressive forces to figure out what they want to do - it is all about protecting special interests. It is very difficult to figure out what incremental progress must be made because there are so many aspects to the problems we face, and the unprecedented scale is beyond easy effort.
Most people will find that dedicating a lifetime to activism based on intelligent and persistent effort is a bottom line necessity.
The options for allowing the reactionaries to have the field unconstested, however are the sort of thing that will keep you up late. Better to do something about it now.