Two years ago, we did something we felt was almost impossible. We elected a black man to the Presidency who had some giants to slay along the way. Hillary Clinton was Obama's opponent after all the other candidates fell away due to lack of interest in them, and the two of them duked it out for the Democratic nomination for the entire primary election season. The Clintons have a well established money machine in place and a still fondly remembered Presidency when the economy was solid, money was flush and the federal budget was in surplus. It was an exciting, if sometimes excruciating, primary season until Obama finally won the nomination and eventually, through a grueling campaign season, the Presidency. Things seemed so good, so hopeful, so positive, but I suspect we heaped far too much hope and expected far too much of Obama, so that two years later, our views and hopes for him have dimmed quite a bit as reality has set in. The economy was in a far deeper ditch than we could ever have imagined and the dig out is going to be far longer and slower than we want. I suspect that people regarded Obama as a bit of a miracle worker who could turn the sagging economy around in under two years and return us to the old glory days of the Clinton years, but what people fail to realize is that you can't do that in such a short time. It's going to take years for things to recover to pre-recession levels. Many of the millions of jobs that have vanished will never again return. Our country is in a transitional time between an old smokestack industrial period and a new one where technology rules, where you can no longer go down the street to the factory after high school graduation and land a job for life that will put you solidly in the middle class. Those days are gone, and people are having a hard time adjusting to the economic changes going on in our country.
The industrial revolution changed our country in that people left the countryside and moved to cities to work in factories manufacturing things. Certain parts of the country went from being agrarian to industrial and certain cities boomed in population as a result, primarily in the northeast and midwest. Times were, you could graduate from high school and the very next day, land a job you had for life that paid wages good enough to support an entire family and put them solidly in the middle class. You could own a modest home in a decent neighborhood where your kids could walk to school and you could afford to eventually send them to college if that was their wish. Mothers didn't have to work and could be full time homemakers. Well, that time is gone forever as our economy shifts from its old industrial base to one based on high tech that requires an advanced education. No longer can you count on having the same job for life. Companies regularly downsize, outsource and off-shore their work nowadays. Even public sector jobs aren't safe anymore. Teachers, librarians, firemen, police and other government employees find themselves regularly downsized out of a job. We're living in financially uncertain times and it doesn't help that we just had a major financial meltdown thanks to too many years of laissez-faire government policies. What slays me is that these same people want to return to power and people are more than willing to vote them back into office again. American memories are notoriously short, I'm afraid. And I'm afraid that the enthusiasm of the Presidential election will no longer be there for the Democrats, who are mired in a sort of disillusioned melancholy. Many have vowed to stay home on election day, instead of getting to the polls to make sure that Congress isn't overtaken by adherents of laissez-faire policies. I hope I'm wrong and that turnout for the midterms is solid for Democrats, but people expected too much of Obama and now they find themselves feeling just a wee bit of buyer's regret, which is ridiculous because he's not even been in office two years yet. Give the man time to fix what's broken, for heaven's sake! Sadly, if Republicans do successfully take over one or both Houses of Congress, the next two years promise to be quite ugly and I can almost guarantee that nothing will get done and Republicans will make it their goal to do as much political damage to Obama as they can so that they can win back the White House in 2012. Sadly, they may well be very successful in their attempt, what with all this anonymous money all but buying elections now and drowning out the voices of ordinary people from deciding who their leaders are going to be. What a crock of s***!
Two years ago, we did something we felt was almost impossible. We elected a black man to the Presidency who had some giants to slay along the way. Hillary Clinton was Obama's opponent after all the other candidates fell away due to lack of interest in them, and the two of them duked it out for the Democratic nomination for the entire primary election season. The Clintons have a well established money machine in place and a still fondly remembered Presidency when the economy was solid, money was flush and the federal budget was in surplus. It was an exciting, if sometimes excruciating, primary season until Obama finally won the nomination and eventually, through a grueling campaign season, the Presidency. Things seemed so good, so hopeful, so positive, but I suspect we heaped far too much hope and expected far too much of Obama, so that two years later, our views and hopes for him have dimmed quite a bit as reality has set in. The economy was in a far deeper ditch than we could ever have imagined and the dig out is going to be far longer and slower than we want. I suspect that people regarded Obama as a bit of a miracle worker who could turn the sagging economy around in under two years and return us to the old glory days of the Clinton years, but what people fail to realize is that you can't do that in such a short time. It's going to take years for things to recover to pre-recession levels. Many of the millions of jobs that have vanished will never again return. Our country is in a transitional time between an old smokestack industrial period and a new one where technology rules, where you can no longer go down the street to the factory after high school graduation and land a job for life that will put you solidly in the middle class. Those days are gone, and people are having a hard time adjusting to the economic changes going on in our country.
The industrial revolution changed our country in that people left the countryside and moved to cities to work in factories manufacturing things. Certain parts of the country went from being agrarian to industrial and certain cities boomed in population as a result, primarily in the northeast and midwest. Times were, you could graduate from high school and the very next day, land a job you had for life that paid wages good enough to support an entire family and put them solidly in the middle class. You could own a modest home in a decent neighborhood where your kids could walk to school and you could afford to eventually send them to college if that was their wish. Mothers didn't have to work and could be full time homemakers. Well, that time is gone forever as our economy shifts from its old industrial base to one based on high tech that requires an advanced education. No longer can you count on having the same job for life. Companies regularly downsize, outsource and off-shore their work nowadays. Even public sector jobs aren't safe anymore. Teachers, librarians, firemen, police and other government employees find themselves regularly downsized out of a job. We're living in financially uncertain times and it doesn't help that we just had a major financial meltdown thanks to too many years of laissez-faire government policies. What slays me is that these same people want to return to power and people are more than willing to vote them back into office again. American memories are notoriously short, I'm afraid. And I'm afraid that the enthusiasm of the Presidential election will no longer be there for the Democrats, who are mired in a sort of disillusioned melancholy. Many have vowed to stay home on election day, instead of getting to the polls to make sure that Congress isn't overtaken by adherents of laissez-faire policies. I hope I'm wrong and that turnout for the midterms is solid for Democrats, but people expected too much of Obama and now they find themselves feeling just a wee bit of buyer's regret, which is ridiculous because he's not even been in office two years yet. Give the man time to fix what's broken, for heaven's sake! Sadly, if Republicans do successfully take over one or both Houses of Congress, the next two years promise to be quite ugly and I can almost guarantee that nothing will get done and Republicans will make it their goal to do as much political damage to Obama as they can so that they can win back the White House in 2012. Sadly, they may well be very successful in their attempt, what with all this anonymous money all but buying elections now and drowning out the voices of ordinary people from deciding who their leaders are going to be. What a crock of s***!
1 comment:
Well said, Sally!
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