And so it came to pass that in the sixth month of his presidency, Barack Hussein Obama was declared a failure. He is being called a traitor, Cheney-like, Bush-lite, baby-killer, socialist, communist and a fascist, Even PETA has gotten into the act - he is a fly-murderer.
The lunatic Right prayed for his failure from day one. The myopic, hypocritical, self-righteous, self-indulgent Left aided and abetted their twin on the right to ensure that their most fervent wish be fulfilled.
Even his wife, the love-of-his-life Michelle, of whom Mari Evans could have been writing when she wrote:
I am a black woman
tall as a cypress
strong
beyond all definition still
defying place
and time
and circumstance
assailed
impervious
indestructible
Look
on me and be
renewed
even her could not escape the visciousness of the attacks. Her lineage was gleefully traced to gorillas by respected leaders of the Right.
For eight years - eight long years - the myopic Left sat on their hands as Bush destroyed this country. The previous eight years they gave Clinton time and space to work and forgave him when he transgressed. Clinton left office with a better than 50% approval rating which was fueled by the overwhelming support of Democrats - especially black Democrats. But not this fella. No. After only five months (five mother-effing months), he has failed.
People and organizations who were prepared to put their shoulders to the wheel, to go block by block, city by city, state by state so as to achieve their goals, suddenly want a wand to be waved so as to make their world right. And they want it done now. Seldom are the courts or congress mentioned anymore because, "Obama must..." Obama is the enemy and the heroes are Dean, Feinstein, Franks, Krugmann and Greenwald. Why the heck didn't we elect one or more of them to the presidency? Shoot, all of our problems would have been solved in the first month, don't ya know.
And what about participatory democracy? What about the invitation Obama issued to make this a robust, energized, bottom-up democracy? To include ordinary folks, bloggers and all to the big table? Yeah, Plato, Socrates, Aristotle and the rest would be scratching their heads in amazement to see how the sophisticated citenzry of this Super Power responded to that invitation. The response has been to whine, to scream, to complain, to criticize, to condemn, to threaten and the employment of snark. Yes, Mr. Socrates, in this twenty-first century we have invented something called, "teh snark." That's how we stay engaged. That's how we deal with the myriads of complex issues we face today. You ought to listen to Rachel Maddow and read Maureen Dowd as they have perfected the art of snarkiness.
We have never really had such an invitation before. To really get involved, to shape policies and to effect real change. If we were honest with ourselves, we would admit that we don't really know how best to participate. This is unchartered territory. So instead of admitting our fears, our doubts, our uncertainties, that we really don't know how best to respond to and make full use of this invitation, we have resorted to what we know best. O we know how to march. We know how to protest. We know how to be adversarial. We know how to use inflammatory rhetoric so as to inflict the most harm, the most hurt. But how do we come together to talk about and effect meaningful change. How have we changed the way we do politics? What was different about the way Bill Maher attacked, or criticized Obama from what he has always done?
If we are honest with ourselves - real honest - we would admit that we are the ones failing Obama. While he, in so many different ways, have done and strived to do things differently we continue in the same old, tired, cliched manner that we have always practiced our politics. We have just become louder and more vitriolic. The next time we are tempted to say, "This isn't the change I voted for," let's stop and think about whether we have changed any. Did we expect that only Obama should change?
Not for one moment did I ever think that Barack Obama was going to smash the existing system to smithereens and then rebuild from scratch - and to do it in six months to boot. Not for one moment did I think that my life would be made better or easier in the first, second or third year of his administration. (In fact, my life has gotten worse since his election, through no fault of his.) I believed that my children's lives would be better. That my children's children lives would be better. That the lives of poor people in this country, in Africa, in Asia, in the Caribbean, and in Central and Latin America, and in the Middle East, would be better because of a new tone, a new approach, a new understanding, a new respect. I was prepared for the long haul. I am not talking about waiting. I am talking about working to achieve these ends. I know that our problems took centuries, decades, years to build and that no reasonable person would expect that a politician would just snap his fingers have everything corrected. Especially not in this day and age when you have the courts with which to contend, the Congress and this MSM. I was prepared to disagree respectfully and encourage him as he undertakes what must be the hardest job there is on planet earth.
President Obama hasn't failed me. You have.