There I was, lying in bed, trying to fall asleep. Not happening. So I did what al insomniacs are not supposed to do. I turned on the TV.
Flashing through cable networks and other shows, I happened into CNN's universe with its Captain, Anderson Cooper.
David Gergen and the dude from Redstate.com joined Jessica whatever her last name is and Ari Fliescher to discuss the midterm elections.
Listening to their inane conversation got me very pissed.
Of course the topic of conversation was why the GOP made such huge gains in the House. The usual suspects had their usual talking points.
Gergen especially made me want to shoot the TV screen. According to him, the mid-term elections was most absolute, beyond any doubt, an indictment on the President's policy. He will have to move to the center, chortled Gergen. I hate to tell him, but Obama is already in the center.
Then I started thinking: What possibly could be the reason for so many people to vote against their best interests? And why is Obama having such a difficult time getting his message across?
Because, major pieces of legislation was passed in his first two years. Maybe they could have been stronger. Maybe health care could have had a public option.
So why didn't all the accomplishments get out there.
Well, take the media, for example. We are living , thanks to Reagan's refusal of the Fairness Doctrine, in a biased, partisan 24/7 news cycle. Did the media acknowledge these accomplishments? The Hate Crimes bill. I do not recall stories touting its worthiness. Equal pay for women. That could be a whole night's worth of discussion.
What the media did do was to ignore the accomplishments made by this President. The pundits got the narrative from their corporate buddies to only report stories with a high degree of conflict.
Being an abstract random and an insomniac leads to thoughts bouncing around my brain. I started back to Barack Obama's inauguration.
In my 63 years of life, I have never seen a President so vilified. The names used for him - socialist, communist, elitist, unAmerican, Kenyan. The list goes on.
From the beginning the opposition made it a priority to make people afraid of the black man in the White House. Every thing he does is scrutinized through a magnifying glass. The right is giddy with how well this works. My neighbor, who used to be on the Democratic Town Committee, believes that in 2012, if Obama is reelected, he is going to open the prisons and let all the black people out.
They questioned his patriotism. When JFK went to Berlin and recited his famous line in German translated roughly to mean, I am a Berliner, that seemed to be acceptable. But this President reaches out to Muslims reciting some words in Arabic, and suddenly this is worse than murder one.
A song popped into my head from the show South Pacific. The lyrics, and forgive me if I'm wrong, are: You.ve got to be taught to hate and fear. You have to be taught from year to year. It's got to be drummed in your dear little ears. You've got to be carefully taught.
And that is what happened to many people who would have voted for Obama. For two years the hate and lies have been drummed into them until they became zombies able to repeat talking points at the drop of a hat.
You have to give kudos to the Republicans who understood that if they kept saying no, but drummed home the anti-Americanism of Obama, making him The Other, suggesting that he is not like any of us, by doing this over and over, people will believe it.
And the low information voter bought it.
And then the came the left, who, thinking it acceptable to criticize and whine about all the negatives in legislation because that is what Democrats do each and every time they control the White House, they played right into the hands of the GOP.
Barack Obama never stood a chance. He was beaten down by both sides. He was second guessed on every thing he said.
Rarely has there been a story about anything he has done correctly.
And now it will only get worse. Before the last votes were counted, blogs lit up with all sorts of theories blaming Obama for losing the House. Yes, he does have to accept some blame. But come on people, this is a human being who is trying to right a country that was in free fall.
And why all of this scrutiny for this President? He has the audacity of being black.
He can't win.
How can he fight the rumors and accusations and the implied fears we should have of him. He can't. Ever.
I am angry at the media, the GOP, the uninformed voter, the purity rationale on both the right and the left. I am angry because the smartest man we have ever had as President, a man who has a long term vision for this country, will not run again.
There was a sadness on his face at the press conference - not just because the House was lost. The sadness, I think, is deeper. He is fighting for the middle class every day, he has helped so much, but it is never good enough. No one has his back.
He is vastly under appreciated. And therefore, why put himself through another term.
The GOP will not stop attacking him. The left will never be satisfied.
The Republicans will nominate Palin or Romney or Huckabee. Who do we have?
The one man with the smarts and the vision will have slipped from our fingers.
Certainly there had to be some other way of criticizing Obama while still advocating his strengths,
Did we get brainwashed the eight years of Bush that we can't accept a different kind of President?
There are mysteries in life that bother me as I lie awake. For instance, Superman fights for truth, justice, and the American way. Yet I always thought truth and justice was the American way. What's up with that?
And now I add another. How can we elect a man who, if given the chance, could change our world for the better, then proceed to criticize him constantly. How can we expect any human being to stick around and take that for another four years.
So, yeah, I'm pissed. I'm pissed because this President could have fought a little harder. But I am pissed because once again Democrats circle the wagon to kill their own.
Barack, we hardly got to know you and soon you will be gone.
Now I will make an attempt to sleep, perhaps to dream of a time when everything seemed possible.