A Year of Obama: From "Yes, We Did!", to "What Have We Wrought?!"
I remember the live-posting and running threads from some of my Facebook friends last January 20. Oohs, aahs, feeling as though the universe had aligned, maligning jokes on the outgoing administration, pull quotes from the inauguration speech, and on, and on, and on. I am all for savoring victory, so I let them have their fest without commentary. But the pragmatist in me knew that the proof would be in the actual wearing of the big pants, not in the campaigning, the posturing and the speeches that garnered their possession.
One year later, the chants of "Yes, We Did!" are being replaced with, "What Have We Wrought?!" It took less than a year to move from an approval rating of 70% to 46%. Seems to me that the shining brightness of HopeandChange is looking a tad tarnished, maybe even green... Not to mention, his "historic first year" (am I ever tired of hearing that phrase) is being overshadowed by the Miracle in Massachusetts--Pigs Fly edition.
It started with the Tea Party Movement and the Tea Party Express. You know, that bunch of racist crackers that the corporate media dismissed as haters, who were an anacronym, and who just needed to get with the program. Well, looks like those "teabaggers" have effected more Change than our President--and in the most unlikely of places.
Massachusetts, Kennedy, and Democrat were synonymous. No one dreamed that the seat would be won by a Republican. Bring in Scott Brown, heavy grassroots funding powered by the conservative blog community and those dreaded teabaggers, and the result is Change that nobody expected.
And our President? Despite the Superman status the media and others wish to attribute to him, he is suffering the same fate of his predecessors--looking old, worn at the edges, and like he's searching for the exit door, not a second term. And those rousing, supposedly inspirational speeches? Seems they have been replaced by lame stump speeches, circular town halls, and strident, clipped assertions that the last three state-wide elections are not a referendum on him or his Obamacare.
Yeah, right.
I often patch into Booker Rising's blog coverage, particularly for a bead on politics from the Black perspective. She writes a couple of revelatory posts: one about Why Obama 'Can't Do Enough' for Black America, and another about how Black conservatives are at the forefront of this Tea Party movement--effectively disputing the whole cracker/racist meme.
Both posts pinpoint what I have been saying for years: We are living in the benefits of Dr. Martin Luther King's Dream--now we need to take advantage of these opportunities won to confront real Civil Rights causes, not keep the same tired canard of disenfranchisement on life support, and looking for "saviors" who only manipulate and drag that corpse around, but do nothing of import for Blacks, or anyone else, for that matter.
If the Tea Partyers represent nothing else, it reflects that individual citizens uniting around a true cause can effect real Change. This movement is more representative of Civil Rights and Martin Luther King's Dream than electing a bi-racial president ever will be.
What Have We Wrought?! Indeed.