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  Seems they have been replaced by lame stump speeches, circular town halls, and strident, clipped assertions that the last three state-wide elections are not a referendum on him or his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 abouthow 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 realChange.  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.

Kathleen,

It is a sad day when someone who I use to think of as a talented writer has to resort to snarky, smug posturing when describing people of faith and their supposed bad influence on the Republican Party.

You talk about the “evangelical, right-wing, oogedy-boogedy branch of the GOP” as though we are some strange breed of jungle animals (“gorilla in the pulpit”) that need to be anthropologically weighed, examined and found wanting, in order to facilitate our eviction from the party.

It is people like yourself–the so-called “intelligensia”– who serve to reduce much needed discourse of faith and politics to stereotypes and name-calling. You can’t even manage to differentiate the belief systems among varying Christian faiths. Using silly asides like “bathing in holy water” in an attempt to be clever, when it only reinforces your ignorance. Catholics, who use and apply holy water, are not evangelicals—they only share with evangelicals the same faith in the G-O-D you not-so-cleverly mock.

As far as this black, Christian conservative is concerned, you and your ilk are the ones that should be evicted from the party. You are as elitist and divisive as the other party, reducing thinking individuals to stereotypes that you can classify, use and dismiss with your quasi-intellectual meanderings and a stroke of the pen. It would be wonderful if your purported “marginalization” of the party results in you moving across the aisle where you belong.

I had a quasi-sleepless night, going to bed at 10:00 pm when it was pretty much determined that McCain had lost and Obama had won. I woke up at 2:00 am, and did my usual insomniac meanderings, as I mulled over what we had to look forward to over the next four years of an Obama presidency. Lots of dark clouds, but I managed to dredge a few silver linings. Here are my top three:

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