Though it seems to have gotten a bit lost in the Palindrone, you may remember that a skinny black kid with a funny name officially wrapped up the Democtratic nomination for President recently.
65 days until the end of Bushco.
After being consumed in the purifying (ha) fire of the primary wars in one form or another for nearly two years, LeftBlogistan is now loosed from the yoke of THAT internal division and can now run free.
65 days until the end of republicanism.
But wither shall it run? Tom P very deftly outlines what we are fighting. I will add my summation. We are fighting the power structure that has seized hold of this country. The power structure of the haves making this country safe for the haves. While casting aside the have-nots. If you are wondering where you fall, just ask McCain. Do YOU make more or less than $5 million a year?
The Dems have always been the hope of the Little Guy. This is the battle for America’s soul and future…a battle between the Little Guy, all of us…and the power structure. A power structure that has, during its zenith of power, proven to be incompetent, greedy, petty and mean. We don’t want a mean country, we don’t want to have to be mean to survive.
65 days til the end of the ownership society,
Which as Obama said, has now been proven to mean nothing more than…you are on your own.
WE want to be nice, we want to help each other, not screw each other for a few pennies of profit. But as we have seen, a small group of greedy and powerful men is all it takes to derail that vision. If the model is “I got mine, if you don’t want to be mean enough to get yours at the expense of those less fortunate, less powerful, less greedy, fuck you.” It is a philosophy that has lead us from Reagan to here, the end of days for the meanest bastards ever to take power in the US of A.
65 days until it is safe to be nice again.
Taking back the power from these greedy, incompetent bastards is job one. We now have a candidate that is not just saying the right things, but also seems to BELIEVE in the right things. Someone who is CLOSE ENOUGH to what we believe in to rally behind, whose standard, set in his speech in Denver (transcript) is a more than admirable starting place to launch this Herculean …and truthfully never-ending….effort. He has set the bar for what it means to be a Democrat, a liberal, a leftie post Bushco. What it means to be a Liberal/Progressive/Democrat in the 21st century.
From now to the beginning of November we have one real task, to hone and reinforce that message, to define it and disperse it and defend it. To take it a far as we can to the Left and to shout it from the rooftops. So that when McCain…in 65 days….is defeated and Obama is elected, it will be clear what people are voting for. 65 days to achieve a Liberal mandate for change.
65 days to define what being a democrat means.
65 days until the pendulum swings back from this long painful national nightmare of rampant republicanism.
65 days. We will NOT agree on everything…we are liberal/progressive/Democrats, we can’t even agree what to call ourselves! But in 65 days we will have a lever, a way to shift the weight, someplace to push the pendulum from. In 65 days we will have an Obama presidency, and we will have a place to stand up and say, ENOUGH. Not just to McCain and the electoral machinery of the Republicans, but to the power structure that they have created that rewards greed and incompetence and RULES The People through fear…not governs them by, as it says in the Declaration of Independence, the consent of the governed.
And then, lol? Back to a lifetime of making “The Democrats” live up to the promise in Obama’s speech, a lifetime of continuing to work for the changes we want. but this time, not fighting against a greedy, corrupt, definitional incompetent anti-government for The People power structure…but the MUCH easier task of holding “our guys” accountable. Of making sure that THEY are not corrupted away from creating, in our names, a country that once again reflects the highest aspirations of the human race. Peace, justice and equality.
Rather than the lowest aspirations, war, greed and intolerance. 65 days to defeat them, 65 days to define US for the nation and the world, so that when we DO win, it will be clear what it is we have won. Democracy. Equality. And if we are lucky and smart, perhaps even Justice. 65 days until we start taking our democracy back from the (take yer pick!) aristocracy, plutocracy, oiligarchy that tried to steal the promise of America from us.
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It is about US.
And for a change, a politician is actually saying so, out loud. This is our chance.
what I’ve read from his speech is pretty much that whatever he may want to build here in the US is secondary (by necessity: where’s the money coming from?) to the continuing imperial adventures we’ve already embarked upon. Expect our ‘free’ trade policies to continue, etc.
I’m sure some get tired of reading it. But it’s there if you want to read it. Obama’s not a Republican, but he may as well be. He’s part of the power structure here in the country.
Dems can’t directly argue against FISA now. They can’t call for immediate withdrawls from Iraq and Afghanistan. They can’t call for the defunding of clean coal, etc. (I guess they could, but since Obama’s for this stuff, it’d be hard to be heard above the maddening crowd).
I think Billy Bragg has it right:
Change will not come from above.
I very much liked what Jay said in his essay:
Can’t really add much to that.
It really is up to us.
of republicans, too.
…or our inactions, contribute to the perpetuation of the neo-con, fundamentalist choke-hold on our liberties, our economy, our military and our futures–or if our actions will pull their hands off our necks and give us the opportunity to get up, dust ourselves off & continue the fight on a more level playing field.
…but even if the chance is slim…
…do we really have the time to try anything else. It seems to me that we don’t. Despite all our misgivings, all our understandings of the granite nature of the structure, I don’t see any other alternative at this point than to vote for Obama, support his election, and put pressure on him AMAP to make his actual leadership conform to his words.