[Cross-posted at The Left Coaster.]
Welcome to the lovely American experience of winning an election and receiving no power with it—not yet. A completely necessary interlude, yes, but in the meantime problems of screaming urgency get the same answer we all do: wait.
Citizens should get very used to that answer and mentality, it will be years, if ever, before some of us see dreams of America that should be become reality. Just because Executive power has been vastly inflated in the last 80 years does not mean the great Judicial and Legislative turf granted in the American system has been fully obviated, not hardly. Coupled with a rankly corporate journalism corps great forces are easily assembled to easily crush liberal enterprises, I’ve watched it happen many times.
Today is the last time I defend my outlook of grim, impatient son of a bitch combativeness in my political frame of reference. A small part of my brain is joyous at the election of Barack Obama, of course, but on the same night my gay brothers and sisters were horribly persecuted and I am fucking livid about it, no dawn will arrive in my life when I forget about it, and I am dismayed at the horrifying scope of economic pain about to descend on the little people of America (as if there weren’t enough now).
Forcing change into this environment is going to be extremely difficult, and I don’t buy for a second the 47% of America that voted for McCain embraces anything like the change necessary to fix it. Furthermore, extremely wealthy and powerful DC lobbying interests have vast powers and influence the blogosphere would be lucky to have in 50 years, getting the liberal policies America so desperately needs enacted next year is going to be unbelievably tough.
The total DC liberal healthcare lobby, for instance, already gave up on the only healthcare initiative that makes any real sense—single payer—because they’re convinced they can’t get it past fat old white guy Senators (Democrats) who got elected out in the middle of nowhere, their states don’t even have a million people but their DC brains wouldn't accept health care change in a million years, the rest of us be damned.
So like all people we give up on expecting everything and hope whatever gets spit out helps some people, somehow. Still, the more we accept the less change happens, so fighting and critical objection are necessary, of course. I’m impatient at defending this too, of course I’m going to be scathingly critical of President Obama and our twerp embarrassing Congressional delegation, what kind of change would we have without it, a return to the Soviet Bloc? Jesus.
Many readers would assume I would think the proposed Obama 36 month pullout from Iraq to be absurdly long, and in a way I do, but the plan calls for immediate withdrawal from Iraqi towns and cities, and I have no doubt that if things are relatively calm in 12 months President Obama will take America out of Iraq, yes, I have full confidence in the current American policy stance toward Iraq.
Afghanistan, however, was one of the most dismaying, childish, foolish policy proposals of the Obama campaign that offends me on many levels. What, pray tell, is the mission of America in Afghanistan? It cannot be articulated, because there is none. Defeat the Taliban, perhaps? How? By inserting 10 more brigades and creating another occupied Iraq?
Afghanistan has turned the stupid imperial reaches of militaristic countries into hamburger for centuries. If any citizen thinks the American experience will be different they are delusional. The only successful policy option for Afghanistan is to get the hell out of there and turn whatever mission of the week they decide for it into a tiny, covert operations one.
Furthermore, the embracement of more troops for Afghanistan represents a nauseating I’m Your Big Dick President endorsement to American politics that has been an utter disaster, way to go on the change there. Tightly weaved into this retro machismo is a frightening American nationalism of horrifying mass violence and tragic militarism, the only things we build truly well anymore are only good for killing other humans.
When all this stops I’ll be delirious with daily Snoopy dances, until then I’ll be constantly exposing the truth of our disastrous Afghanistan policy and urging President Obama to end the militaristic retro insanity. Now, please.