Okay, I've gone and used up my entire quota of exclamation points in the damn title, so I'll have to depend on you to read the diary without clues about what's important to focus on.
I'm writing this diary because I've run out of the energy required to read and post comments on the Joe Lieberman/Hillary Clinton/Prop 8 diaries that have proliferated here recently. Just to be clear, I'm not denying the anger, the sense of betrayal, or the feelings of helplessness engendered by the passing of Prop 8, or the fear of being sold out by the people we've elected to change a country battered and beaten by years of hideous incompetence and greed. I am concerned that in all the anger and frustration and fear we're about to lose some of the hope and idealism we need in order to keep things moving in a Progressive direction.
Please join me below the fold for my take on some important issues.
Life Isn't Fair
That's not been an easy reality for me to grasp or embrace, but it's the only reality that allows me to live a serene and useful life. I spent 30 years fighting to make life fair, and failing, and almost 30 years accepting the unfairness and finding ways to make a difference where I can.
It's hideously unfair that the LDS, right-wing churches, and a clever scarifying ad campaign were so effective in getting Prop 8 passed. It is not the end of the battle, it's a setback that we can learn from, and one that has done more to mobilize support for GLBT issues than the right ever imagined possible. People who may have sat on the sidelines, thinking "Oh that's not right, but what can I do, really?" are out of their chairs and angry. At the risk of sounding like Pollyanna, this outrageous abrogation of civil rights may be the best gift the right ever gave us - people have shifted from "intellectual support" status to "GOTV, stand on street corners, donate" status. I read a comment on Kos that someone feared that Prop 8 passage would put the movement back 30 years. My take on it is that it may have pushed us ahead by 30 years. Prove me right by leveraging the moment. Take advantage of the backhanded gift we've been given - don't lose that advantage by railing against the people who allowed Prop 8 to pass. Fuck 'em all - if we use that angry energy to beat them, we can follow up with a charming "Thank you", and let them know how much we owe them for motivating a sea change. {heads explode on Faux Snooze? a side benefit.}
It's annoyingly unfair that Hillary Clinton might get a pass on some dirty campaigning and some poor choices she's made in the Senate.
It's moderately unfair that Joe Lieberman isn't being properly humiliated.
In the kind of world I'd have designed, intelligently speaking, fairness would rule, and I'd be the final arbiter of what's fair. Thank the gods it wasn't left to me, or to any of us, to be the final arbiters of anything as complex as fairness. From a personal level, I'm deeply grateful not to have to pay a harsh price for the errors of omission and commission that fill every one of my days.
I believe Barack Obama has a solid grasp of the unfairness of life, and that he's learned to out-think, outsmart, and do end-runs around that unfairness. I don't believe that he wastes any time at all fighting the reality of unfairness, he just looks for ways to succeed in spite of it.
I also believe he was dead serious about changing the political discourse in this country, and that the decisions he's making now demonstrate his commitment to that kind of change. Please don't insult me, or yourselves, by assuming he's soft-headed enough to believe that Joe Lieberman is a trustworthy ally, or that he belongs on any important committee. I predict that Joe the Senator will step in some of his own doodoo, which will provide the perfect opportunity to strip him of his chairmanship AND leave Obama with fair claim to the moral high ground. PR and public perception are crucial to the success of the Obama administration. If we can manage to control ourselves long enough we can be part of creating the change we're chafing for. If we engage in classic liberal "eating our own" rhetoric we'll diminish the length of his "honeymoon" period with the general public, and erode his power to achieve. He knows he has a short window here, and a shitload of stuff to get done. If he comes up with even moderate success on a number of critical issues, he buys himself time. The right-wing bloviators are committed to ending the honeymoon before he's even sworn in. Aren't they a better target for our anger? Do we really want to help them undercut him before we even really know what he's about?
Last, but certainly not least, I don't think Obama's as concerned about the primaries, or Hillary's Iraq war stance, or Bill's various corporate connections as he is about getting excellent people with strong name recognition internationally into positions of power in his administration. They may not be the ideal Progressive choices we'd like to see, or the only competent people in their fields, but the President-elect sent a very strong signal during his 60 Minutes interview. He talked about the dangers of the transitional period. He said outright that we are most vulnerable to attack during the transition from administration to administration. He rarely speaks without thinking, and I believe his intent was to tell everyone that he is focused on letting the international community know that there will be no weakness, no inexperience to exploit if he can prevent it. If he offers Hillary SoS it isn't because he's made a pact with the devil, it's because he's weighed her value to his administration and found that the pros outweigh the cons.
Some helpful advice: Remember the last 20 months. Every time we hit a rough spot in the campaign there were dozens of diaries with helpful advice, most of them advocating for "hitting back hard", using Hagee against Wright, Liddy against Ayers, attacking the eminently attackable Sarah, and so on. I truly believe that the primary reason for Obama's election is that he stuck to his promise to campaign on policies, he avoided the temptation to sling mud, and he showed people that we're not stuck with Atwater/Rove/bloviator politicking. He showed me that we can take our country back from the haters, and I will always love him for that, even when I disagree with his choices or doubt his wisdom. If he'd taken my advice he wouldn't be President-elect. I'm willing to wait until he's sworn in to decide if he's a worthy president. I might even wait a year and see what he accomplishes.