Thursday, November 6, 2008

I Almost Wish That Obama Had Lost

There have been a few thoughts going through my mind for the past few days, but I never wrote about them, out of fear of jinxing the election, and for wondering how crazy those thoughts actually were. A couple of events today has impelled me to write them now.

One was a conversation with a friend, who had the same thoughts as I did, and the other was reading this line from by friend, Elliot Stearns (or whoever he thinks he is today):

No! I’m saying the Republicans clearly did NOT steal this one. And if they could, why wouldn’t they?
Sometimes, I really almost wish Obama had lost this election.

For the past eight years, George W. Bush and his buddies have been reliving his frat boy days. They have been throwing one helluva party.

Bush et alia have been going around starting unjust wars for whatever perverted reasons they could come up with.

They have trashed the economy while they've looted the country's coffers.

They've done everything they could to trash the environment.

In the process of having their two term version of a toga party, they've also caused economic and other sorts of damage to our global neighbors, and have strained the relationship the country has with just about every single one of them.

But for anyone with teenage kids who have thrown a house party, for anyone whose children are young adults in college and their parties, or for anyone who remember these events from their own youth, you know what a freakin' mess these parties can create.

Everyone has a blast at them, but no one wants to be part of the crew that has to pick up all the empty beer cans and bottles, and to clean up the place from the mess that can only be created by a bunch of out of control, carefree, reckless young adults. The same can be said about having to clean up the mess left by the Bush administration and all their buddies.

The clean up is stinky, hard work. Sometimes things end up having to be thrown out because they are so badly stained and/or damaged. And paying for the clean up and the damage caused by an eight year long party can be pretty darn expensive.

No one, either the kids or the Bushies, want the party to end. And they definitely don't want to be part of the clean up. They will do whatever they can to keep that from happening, whether it is blaming others for their mess, obstructing the cops and the voters, or just pretending it isn't there.

They just don't want to own up to their responsibility for the mess they created, and they resent anyone that would try to hold them accountable.

But now, in the form of Barack Obama and a majority of Democrats in both houses of Congress, the adults arrive home, and are aghast at the mess they find. Now it is the time to clean up the mess, fix what can be fixed, replace what can't be fixed, and to pay the bills for the good times.

But because this is work that is unpleasant and difficult, because it can be embarrassing and get quite costly, Bush and his supporters, the people that were enjoying themselves at this party, all at our expense, are becoming very angry indeed. They resort to the behaviors more histrionic and obscene than ever displayed by an angry teenager.

They will blame Obama and the Democrats for raising their taxes to pay these bills, without ever admitting they were the ones that ran up the bills in the first place. They will call Obama and the Democrats names like Marxist and Communist.

They will be resentful for having to take part of the clean up. The will tell Obama et alia that they are fascists and that they have no right to tell them how to live their lives, even if the rules are that of common courtesy and concern for one's fellow man.

We have already seen evidence of this. Obama has had more death threats than any other presidential candidate in American history. He has had to give his victory speech behind bullet proof glass walls.

There have been incidents on the local level, as pointed out by Brew City Brawler and Other Side, to just name two who have written about it already.

Also, let us not forget the nutter in Tennessee, with books penned by right wing squawkers like Michael Savage and Bill O'Reilly in his home, shot up a church and killed innocent people. He did it because he wanted to kill liberals who were "ruining the country."

So, you see, I am honestly afraid for the lives of Barack Obama and his family.

I am also afraid that even if they are kept from harm's way, Obama will still be a one term president. Fixing the problems that have been created in the last eight years will not be easy. It will not be fun. And it will not be cheap, at least not at first. The right have perfected the art of blaming those who try to hold them accountable and responsible for their behaviors. They have also perfected exploiting people's desires for instant gratification. I can see another amazingly difficult campaign for 2012.

It would be almost better to have had McCain in office and forcing him to own up and correct these mistakes. The right, who already don't care for him much, would have gladly sacrificed him if and when he started cleaning up the mess they created. Then the Democrats would have had a better chance to fix things. Much like the Clintons did when they took over from the Reagan/Bush years.

But then I realized that we could never have counted on a McCain/Palin ticket to do the right thing for the country, and my 'almost wish' goes away. That is why the Republicans wouldn't want to try to steal this election. They don't want to be responsible for having to clean up their own mess. In fact, I wouldn't have a hard time believing that they would have blown the election on purpose, given some of the dunder-headed moves McCain made during his campaign.

I am glad, after all, that Obama did when the election. We'll just have to hope that the majority of the right grow up in the next four years, and are equally glad for the start to the reparation of the damage Bush and friends have caused.

6 comments:

  1. Caps, you surprise me. I can't say disappoint, because, sadly, I've come to expect this. Just not from you. Someday, if my life ever slows down enough, we'll talk. Likely, it won't make any difference, but it's worth a try.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Before obama is even elected, you guys are already making excuses if things don't go your way. That's pathetic.
    At least you can say, the kids made the mess, we kicked them out of the house and we will take over this place and make the house better and make damn sure the kids will not do this in the future. You also may say that as parents, we share in the responsibility in the damage because we should have supervised what was going on. (Congress) But no, we just get whining.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Dan, supervision was next to impossible in the DeLay-led House and the Lott-led Senate, what with the constantly shifting rules and often the outright breaking of rules.

    Am I trying to completely absolve the Democrats in Congress? Absolutely not. Their spinelessness and seeming deliberate obtuseness made me angry many times, but let's not pretend that even if the Democratic minority had had the will to oppose the majority, they would have allowed to do so by the Republican bouncers at the party.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'm surprised at you Capper.

    You are first blaming the Right for everything wrong in the country, as if the Left, as if those politicians representing all Americans who made the decisions for us, and finally as if we alone who have had to make our own daily choices in what we do in life and in who we have voted for are not all to blame for what is troubling you or anyone else.

    Now your glorious "Hope" is flittering away?

    Why, it's just like Christmas isn't it? The build-up...the excitement...maybe you got what you really wanted. And now you have to put it together. Oh, oh...some of the pieces are missing, too. What a let down. And the gifts you gave? Did everyone like them...maybe not. You can't please everyone all the time. Even though they are gifts. There's always next Christmas, though. And some people never take their decorations down.

    ReplyDelete
  5. No, Janet, my hope is still there, and I am still satisfied with the election. However, the right side has already started their pissing and moaning. This will only increase as the "punishment" is enforced.

    I am just saying that people will not be happy when they are faced with the consequences of the last eight years. It is impossible to run a war, much less two, without sacrifices. Bush didn't succeed, except to push it off until someone with a higher sense of responsibility came in and started cleaning up the mess.

    No one is getting Christmas presents. We are just returning the ones that Bush gave his cronies. That's when the tantrums will really start.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Bill, Bill, Bill,

    I love you, my brother, but you got it bass ackwards. I am the one trying to teach you, my friend. ;)

    ReplyDelete