[Cross-posted at The Left Coaster.]
As the end of the first decade in the 21st century nears it’s natural to take stock, to look carefully, objectively around and see how we’re doing. Even before I could start to observe any societal elements at 2010 I’m struck at the vivid sense of American exceptionalism I used to poses in 2000, I was quite aware of most of America’s vivid problems and history but I was still very faithful that, generally and relatively, a great country exists because of great government. I never, ever expected Americans to regress and deliberately smash it, which is precisely what happened twice in 24 months: Florida 2000 and California 2002 were deliberate, heinous acts of anti-Democracy, State and Federal governments still reeling and dysfunctional from the gross acts of societal violence inflicted on them.
How’s that retirement going, Sandra Day O’Connor, with a husband’s mind in just as much smithereens as the Democracy you helped smash by stealing the election for Bush? Even if Americans don’t remember arcane confusing theft in legalese from 1999 they surely loathe weak lying incompetence to national problems of urgency, they know damn well Bush, Cheney and Republicans did it and are utterly disgusted by your precious Republicans. Seen the latest Republican Party ID numbers and approval numbers, dear? There’s your medal of Freedom, sweetie, lie to yourself as the ribbon is draped it all worked out, fine, cold reality and 80% of the rest of the country damn well know better and are tired of the useless self-deception.
As California nears its equally ludicrous and disastrous meander of simply obviating and trashing an election (2002) the heinous do-over has left it’s predictable outcome: the place is half-obliterated, the economy in ruins with millions of lives of the little people in horrible jeopardy. What the fuck else are Republicans capable of these days, you know? The really scary part about California is that technically we’re still in the blowup phase, we truly can’t begin any kind of possible recovery until that destructive idiot Arnold Schwarzenegger is gone, one more year to go.
Just to get a sense of how far we have to come back here, the judicial branch increasingly takes on legislative function from a laughably poor group of fools in Sacramento who just can’t do their jobs anymore, prison overcrowding and the sickening denial of help to our Seniors was recently, thankfully, yanked from their noxious incompetent mitts. Poor half-measure elements presently put in place for the problems, to be sure, but far better that the destructiveness of the California American legislature.
What of our national government after eight years of destruction by that Sarah Palin clone? Before I elucidate our most urgently perceived issues it’s very well to keep in mind it may not be possible for a national government to effectively and competently come back if the country is too far gone. We probably won’t perish, not on our watch, but it’s likely we’ll be permanently crippled, merely 40% of the country we could have been for 10-15 generations.
The Big Whiff, Matt Taibbi calls Obama’s performance to the financial crisis. I never saw a stolen election coming and I never expected our mega banks and brokerage houses to go belly up, to be "rescued" in the most horrifyingly enabling manner possible. Has the United States government been captured by Wall Street? I don’t know.
American militarism rages on, blindingly, a terrible force that’s scary in its blithe acceptance, hundreds of billions annually wasted on tools of death, two wars continually bleeding and killing. We lost a whole year and $60 billion dollars in Iraq for nothing but some absurd compromise with a lousy general while 21,000 more troops were sent to the eternal hell of Afghanistan. Will we ever even develop an opposition Party that sees this as the screaming problem it is? It doesn’t look like it.
Energy will never be taken up by the Senate, it seems, and the House version is simply laughable in its ineffectiveness. Will America ever respond to the horrifying disaster of resource security in the middle east and global warming by abandoning fossil fuels? Will it instead continue to spark debates on which industry captured the government, insurance, defense, or energy? It appears to be the latter.
We screamed about healthcare all year and put off the solutions for three. Please, who calls this functional?
Giving up and proclaiming The End is of course not an alternative, total failure is guaranteed with that immature outlook. We shall do the very best we can with what’s put before us, of course, but one wonders if the place will ever be the same again. After the smash-up at the beginning of the century a 40% country is likely all we’ll ever get, our time with the country just big dysfunctional pieces lying around, impossible to competently put back together again.