The scenes are etched in my mind, from the Campaign, to election night, to the Inauguration. Hundreds of thousands; old, young, rich, poor, black and white. The haves and the have-nots of whatever persuasion, working together, striving together to undo all of the destruction caused by the previous criminal administration. All celebrating the vision, the intelligent thoughts, so wonderfully expressed. The conviction that we could make this world a better place for ALL who believed. The triumph of hope, audacity, change…
I was privileged to live in Chicago during this historical period. I experienced that night of triumph in Grant Park, with more than 200,000 others. It was such a contrast to the previous nightmare that occurred there in 1968. There were people streaming into the Park hours in advance, happy to be able to participate in the celebration with each other. Street vendors selling Obama merchandise on every street corner for miles, buttons, T-shirts, posters, all of it being admired and ultimately purchased with many of the parents saying to their children ‘this will remind you years from now that you were HERE.’ I saw smiles and tears on the faces of the famous and the ‘little guy’, watching their new President. And pride! So much pride! Look what we did!
This was an Army. These were the troops who’d given money, time and most of all their belief in the rightness of the cause. Committed, faithful, willing to do whatever it took to right the ship of state. And they had won! I still see their faces.
I didn’t make it to the Inauguration, but I watched (with millions of others) the coverage on TV. Hours of coverage, all of it positive. (Fox News? What’s that?) The millions of people who did attend had the same look on their faces as those who were with me in Grant Park, a million pictures for the ages.
Our new President had astronomical approval ratings; poll after poll, week after week. His predecessor had spoken of using his ‘political capital’, but he was heading for political debtors prison, he had no ‘capital’ to spend. This one had that ‘capital’. The people of this country were behind him. They liked his ideas, they wanted him to succeed. They expected him to work on changing the system. Most didn’t expect miracles, but all expected that the new Administration would make some inroads in bringing our country back from the brink of the disaster that incompetence, a thuggish anti-intellectual mentality, and power hungry criminals had wrought.
And it WAS a disaster. The economy imploded (thanks to those wonderful Wall Street mavens of greed). We were still fighting two wars after 8 years. Our standing in the world was damaged almost beyond repair, due to the arrogance and greed that was the Bush II Doctrine. How many other Presidents had faced this number of major problems? Not many, if any at all.
So we worried, but we were optimistic. After all, who would have thought that Obama could have even won the nomination, let alone the election? We had listened, and agreed with his programs and ideas about how to make things better. Bring the troops home from Iraq, reform healthcare, take our country back from the lobbyists. Change you can believe in!
And then the doubts started to creep in. Not from any specific policy stand taken, but from the appointment or nomination of advisors, who were less than we had hoped. Rahm Emanual, Tim Giethner, and ‘gasp’ Republicans! What is he doing?
Then came the bad policy announcements. I, for one, couldn’t believe that this administration would not pursue those who had dragged us into the mud of World opinion. No Torture prosecutions, no release of the photographic evidence that would have put many, including Torturer in Chief Cheney behind bars, hopefully for life. Bonuses for Banksters? We can’t do anything about that, sorry. And now the current state of Healthcare Reform.
Where did the ‘capital’ go? Because it’s gone, and it’s probably not coming back. How did the President who couldn’t be beaten in 2012, become a potential one term resident of the White House? Was it the rabid right, hounding him minute by minute? Was it the constant pressure of a million competing issues, and the Corporate lobbyists whispering in the ear of his closest advisors with ‘just the right approach’?
Do they know what they’ve thrown away? Do they know that their constant conciliations to those who would like nothing more than to block success are seen as weakness, when strength is required? Do they know how bad it looks that they are caving to a man who campaigned against them, yet loudly criticizing one who built the infrastructure that allowed them to succeed? Gibbs, Axelrod sounding like idiots talking about insanity? What madness is this?
I do not know why or how this happened. I just know that it has. The Army has been ignored, scorned and thrown away. The hope for change is gone, the belief in the future of this country is tarnished. The pride of millions who worked constantly, fighting to elect this man who would fight for us, is lost.
They could have scaled the highest mountains with this Army. It didn’t have to be this way.