maxiep, I see your [/soapbox] and raise you. We've been having a lot of back and forths this campaign season, and I hope you don't think it ill will towards you. This post may seem like me trying to one up you on final thoughts, but don't think it so. Really, you have interesting points I like to talk about and expand upon, even if I completely disagree with them. I look forward to hearing what you have to say about the country in the next 4 years. Anyway, if you don't mind, I'd like to respond to your soapbox rant. And those of us on the left wish desperately that Bush would govern from the center rather than from the right. Guess what? Not gonna happen. It's called the tough shit rule and we dealt with it for eight years. I think people realize this inherently. And really, Barack Obama, I feel, has addressed this very issue. In the beginning of his campaign and his speech at the DNC, he talked about how all of this is going to take work and sacrifice. That we're going to have to go out into our communities and make a difference. That parents need to learn how to turn off the TV and the video games and get their children to be active members of society. So, we really do agree with Americans are no longer willing to put in the work. I just don't know why more people didn't notice that Obama has been saying that change starts with us having some, to borrow a republican mantra, personal responsibility. Maybe because people were too distracted by lipstick on pigs, Joe the Plumber, Bill Ayers, his middle name, blah blah blah blah blah cable news blah blah blah. No, we shouldn't be. This isn't some genius strategy of theirs. This is them taking advantage of years of extreme mismanagement of two foreign wars. We gave this to them. Don't make me repost "The story of stuff" for the third time because that video really talks to all these points very well. I agree 100% with what you're saying here. I am extremely doubtful that we will ever get over our consumerism. I would love it if we did. However, someone like Barack Obama is not going to fix that. The notion that we must consume material goods at an ever accelerating rate is central to the philosophy of our economy, and really a vast majority of the world economy. So, to teach that material wealth doesn't equal happiness is bad for the economy. Don't count on it with any president in office is all I'm saying. Still, it's a huge problem. +1. One or two points. Things were generally good for Americans. It's true, there were no Regean-esque explosion in homeless population or anything quantitative like that. But I find its hard for anyone not to feel a definite qualitative change. We work differently. We have a different view of the government, how it works, what its role is. A different way of looking at politics and the news media and how they interact. Definitely a different way of looking at war. Iraq, I think, has shown us how our wars are going to be conducted in the future. So, while our numbers are looking up, the American people have definitely become more cynical from all this change. Really, our culture has changed in that we don't trust politicians any more. This applies to left and right. Bush's approval rating was in the 20's. And when people don't trust their leaders, they're not going to be motivated. There's going to be pessimism and self-doubt. We're left feeling uninspired. And again, this is something Barack Obama, I feel, has addressed. He's said again and again that the old way of politics has to change, that we have to stop bickering and just get work done and do the right thing. He's recognized our growing sense of distrust of the government, that neither side trusts the government any more. He's acknowledged this. But, I find it very hard to believe that we'll ever work together. This isn't something I believe Barack can accomplish. But at the very least, he's trying. And that's what I like about him. Still, I'm finding it very hard to buy into 90% of what Barack is saying because I am no exception to my generation. I just don't trust him because I'm so used to hating politicians. Not because he's black, or liberal, or knew a Muslim once or new a terrorist once or had the Decemberists open for him at a speech. None of that bothers me, and it never will. It's just because hating politicians is all I've ever known. I'm 23. I was 15 when Bush beat Gore. I was 16 during 9/11. It was a weird time, because it forced me to pay attention at what was going on in the world around me. In all my time following politics, I've known nothing but George W Bush and all of the dirty politics that seem to follow him like a cloud. To see someone coming now and saying, "Hey, we're doing it differently," I have a hard time believing that's going to happen. But, to see someone come out and say, "We're doing it differently," and then win, despite the best efforts of the shit-storm of over-reactions and fear mongering spewed forth by proponents of the dick-move politics I've grown so accustomed to, is downright amazing. It, at the very least, makes me think we're moving in the right direction. All things aside, we live in interesting times. If someone had come up to me nigh upon 2 years ago and told me I would live to see the first black president, I would have called them crazy. One thing is for certain, it has been and will continue to be an historic part of American history.
this is an odd statement to me. it seems as though you're saying that obama won despite the best efforts of the republicans fear mongering etc and that the democrats didn't participate in that sort of thing. you're 23 and didn't think you'd live to see a black president? that's shocking to me.
It seems theres an ancient Chinese curse to wish that upon an enemy? I have a feeling that they knew something.
