Do you remember 2008
in the U.S.A.?
I do.
I remember thinking in 2008:
this economy is going to get worse before it gets better.
I also remember thinking the Republican Party made a huge strategical error:
They actually thought the American public still wanted a ticket that was at least
half good ol' boy. And half "we need a war hero
to get us out of this mess."
And they were wrong.
America wanted someone different, and
they wanted someone who could speak in a coherent sentence,
someone who could impress middle-America
and the east and west coast as well.
Who would have believed he could be black on top of it?
I wish I could remember when I realized that the Republicans
were going to give Obama the election.
There was some kind of giddy goofy exchange
that I heard between McCain and Palin,
and I thought:
these two aren't serious about this race.
There was also a meeting,
I think it happened in late October 2008,
a precedent setting meeting,
when Obama met with
all the living presidents,
and I thought to myself:
I would love to be a fly on that wall.
I imagined the conversation went like this:
ALL THE LIVING PRESIDENTS: "Barack, we're fucked. America is in
the worst financial shape she's ever been in, most of the world hates us
and doesn't trust us, we're in a really crappy war,
and there's a really good chance that
it will get worse before it gets better.
Want to be the first Black American president?"
OBAMA: (still with the audacity to hope): "yes! I think I can do that!"
And the Republicans,
who have the calculating shrewdness of the very best psychopath,
said, "We think you're the best man for the job.
The hope you bring
will make America feel good,
and the rest of the world like us
a little
again."
(By the way, that is an imagined dialogue.
Please don't quote me as accurate
;however,
sometimes I think that's precisely what happened:
Barack Obama was offered a place in history.)
What the Republicans also knew,
and probably anyone with half a brain also knew
was that, over the four years between
2008 and 2012
the economy would continue to tank,
the war would get bloodier,
the terrorists would terrorize more,
and
America would forget,
oh so quickly forget
how bad we were before
Barack Obama became our 44th president.
And yes, under this young new black president,
international opinion began to turn,
as the rest of the world hoped, too, that America
was back on course to living in the world with them.
And yes, even as the Obama Administration made attempts,
with no help from the Republicans in Congress,
to change America's course,
the economy tanked more,
as anything in freefall is prone to do,
and terror became homegrown.
In fact, the Conservative spin industry in 2008 knew
that
by 2010, Americans would be wondering
why things hadn't turned around,
and by 2011, if the Republicans packaged their product well enough
they could tap into middle-America's
repressed racism
while also squelching
any real reforms
that this upstart young black man
who was given a historical opportunity to be president
tried to initiate.
This was a theory I developed
a little less than four years ago,
but I was reminded of it, tonight as I watched the debates.
Who won? Of course,
as a person looking for substance,
I'd say President Obama won.
However, I'm not sure everyone will see that.
Nor will they see what I see when I look at Romney.
I look at Mitt Romney and I see a masked man,
and the Republican machine,
the same machine that has blocked attempts
and bipartisanship during the Obama Administration,
has been working hard to build up his mask --
Mitt Romney is
a man who has been documented over and over
again to be a liar, with a bad temper.
He had no substance tonight;
if anything, he just repeated Obama's points.
But I give Romney credit:
he's a smooth schmoozer
when he's not being a bully.
Notice, too, he only talks about
the last four years.
He's relying,
or rather, the Republican-machine is relying
on America's amnesia.
As I say above, they are also relying, I'm afraid,
on White Middle America's
repressed racism.
It's been allowed to build up over the past four years,
and now the Republicans are tapping it,
while promoting a short public memory.
I am writing this entry because
I really feel this election is urgent.
Ultimately,
Mitt Romney,
like Barack Obama,
is a puppet for the larger
parties and interests behind them,
but unfortunately,
they are puppets with international power.
We know what happened the last time
America voted a puppet into power
who didn't have a strong sense of
America's place in the world:
We really need to look past
the spin
and ask ourselves:
who do we really want
in the position of president
of this nation?
Never forget.
Anything.
We need to keep our minds
and memories
crystal clear,
and try to maintain,
despite the apparent odds,
the audacity to hope.
