When you turn off a fan, the blades still turn for a while.
When you speculate about the future, you have to make some assumptions. For the purposes of this pierce, I am going to make what are to some, some pretty big assumptions.
I am going to assume that for the first time since WW2 we have a President that is somewhat honest, that is not facing a powerful Republican Party, can find a way to neutralize the worst of the bought politicians in Congress…..and is willing to actually resist the wishes of the MIC and the Oil companies.
Under these assumptions….we are looking at a quite interesting future.
Obama wants a second term. If there are still wars raging that will be a threat to his second term. So he WILL get us “out” of Iraq. He will turn loose the drones and McChrystals death squads in AfPak to take out the leaders of the Taliban and he will make whatever deal he has to with Pakistan and India to stabilize Pakistan and neutralize their nukes.
He will be forced to make some kind of economic deal with China no matter what, (sorry Tibet) and part of that will involve N. Korea.
Where does that leave us?
In a world with no “major” wars. Perhaps we can even give some attention to Africa; Darfur and the Congo etc….and take the “quotation” marks off.
We are left with, then, in this speculative but possible future, with the most peaceful world we have seen since Clinton….
But with no resurgent, Culture War surfing, blowjob impeaching, Rovian/Cheneyized Republican party to service the MIC and the Oiligarchy and put political pressure on the GOOD Dems to lean Right.
Climate Crisis will unfortunately be devastating the planet in an undeniable, but still relatively benign harbingerishly obvious way… and combined with the slightly lessened influence of the economic denialists, resistance to shifting off of oil will be at an all time low.
The economy will be ‘bad,’ as it will be from now on out for the whole world as we shift from a resource rape based economy to….something else….hopefully something very green.
The demographic shift of increasing minority participation and the influence of the new generation of young voters will be in full effect.
The Cold War Fear Mongers (like Cheney) are dead or too old to have real influence.
The age of the White Male Christian Power Structure will be coming to a close…..though the fan blades will still be spinning.
Obama wins his second term, just enough “better democrats” are elected to complete a real power shift in Congress.
And “Prop 8” goes down to defeat in Cali as an increasing number of states formally adopt semi-equal rights for all under the influence of the huge young voting block and the diminishing political power of the Religious Right.
In other words….we are on the road….and it is a pretty damn clear road, relatively….to overcoming the worst of the World of the Neo-cons and their Reign of Terror.
It IS possible.
Especially if we, and many, many others….Yell Loud enough.
If all, or even most of these things come to pass we will be looking at at least a path to a brand new kind of world….on, lol, Dec. 31st of 2012.
Interesting times.
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tell me, buhdy, where, how, do you weave torture / accountability into this mix? And restoring Rule of Law. etc.
In particular, Ive been wondering about the whole Closing Gitmo thing. Perhaps he wants to resolve that (no small feat) before anything else in that arena. Claim that “victory” and use it to beef up Big Picture Items. I dont know. I have to imagine these possibilities or else Id just lose my mind altogether.
. thanks for the optimism burst.
anything horrible other than finding out what our leaders have been doing on our payroll (torture, lobbying, pandering, etc.).
I hate to use the word “Hope” around here as it seems to be associated with “dope” and “fool” but I do feel hopeful that Obama will get things turned around. I really do.
But it is going to take TIME. Not six months time, but six YEARS or more. Hell, it may take 50 years to get things right.
Who knows?
I know one thing though. I’m not going to jump on the “Fuck Obama-for-not-saving-us-in-six-months” bandwagon that has been all consuming as of late. The republicans started that shit right after the inauguration and it seems to have spread over to the liberals. I find that odd.
Let’s all just take a step back, chill, breathe.
Obama’s got a big — and I mean BIG — mess to clean up and the guy just barely got started. Let’s at least let him get through one year before we give up entirely and call ourselves fucked.
I’ll pass out joints if it means everybody will calm down. :-p
is as power structure does.
The U.S. as a power is waning and China will fall too if they don’t get serious about climate change.
It doesn’t matter what gender, race, or religion is in power. Since power is power.
There will always be some group in power while another group is not.
Take Sotomayor, for example.
She attended Princeton University and Yale Law School. If confirmed, she “would sit alongside seven other Ivy League graduates on the court”, according to the NY Times
“Only Justice John Paul Stevens provides a measure of non-Ivy diversity, having graduated from the University of Chicago and the Northwestern University School of Law.”
The Ivy League schools “shave off the differences in backgrounds” and causes class “group think”.
So the face of the power structure is changing in America.
Obama and Sotomayor are still in the same class as the power structure of America. They were not born into that class, but they are now part of it. Hierarchy of power, itself, did not change.
So, yeah great your rhetorical “White Male Christian Power Structure” is waning, but the “Power Structure” remains as strong as ever.
The problem is the power structure – the rules of the game, not the color of the chess pieces.
just love it. Unique in all blogworld. 🙂
Dont forget to tip your waitstaff folks. lol.
The DONATE button is over >>>> there.
I gotta go buy provisions, later skaters.
… when it comes to transparency, Obama is not getting a very good report card.
I understand that politics is trumping justice here. But there are consequences to these kinds of actions, regardless of whether or not there’s some long-term strategy if/when Obama gets a second term.
1. I don’t think we’re post neo con–Afghanistan and Pakistan and Iraq and Palistine show that to be true.
2. I never thought the problem was ‘white male christian’ ; but the nature of power and structures irrespective of race or gender, with religion being only a great method of controlling people.
3. I don’t see elections changing things dramatically in the US, without fundamental changes in how they are conducted–which would start with public financing, and likely end by removing the Senate, limiting Presidential powers, and much more.
The future I see is not so bright.
I see wars over dwindling resources, debtors prisons, environmental chaos, and I see Obama either putting a happy face on the lot or being replaced by someone that will.