Perhaps the most encouraging thing about the election, and tomorrows inauguration of, Barack Obama is a return to reality. Since the campaign and election of Ronald Reagan in 1980, this nation has been trapped in a fantasy concocted by wealthy business leaders and power hungry politicos. Reagan was a masterful communicator and schooled by the most hard core capitalist and masters of propaganda and social control. They developed a make-believe world where "Cadillac Queens" ruled the streets, communism was at our door and lefties threatened to destroy everyone with their dreams of peace and love. Reagan was marketed as a hero on a white horse coming to save us from these (invisible) threats.
After tasting success in defeating the hapless Jimmy Carter with the strategy of myth making, Republicans decided to ramp up the fantasy and create a "movement" which would never let facts get in the way of their own dreams of wealth and power. People like Lee Atwater and Karl Rove became expert at dividing Americans based on fear, most often of things that never existed in the first place. Has anyone had their guns taken away? Is the flag still allowed to wave? Are American arrested for saying a prayer? Do we speak Russian? Are gays stealing our children? No, of course not. It was all baloney in the first place.
By allowing - no - encouraging the brushing off "stupid" facts, we allowed the dominant political party convince us that, even though we had less and less each year, we were doing better and better. Ultimately, this national denial allowed our current President to totally fabricate intelligence to send us to war and let the economy spin out of control. So many people didn't even question the very obvious difference between what we knew and what we were being told.
So with the coming of Barack Obama we will change history. Yes, it's important that he is an African American and born of a generation beyond the cultural wars, (started and fanned by the Conservative movement by the way). More important however, it marks a return to reality - a change toward pragmatic solutions to REAL problems rather than predetermined policies toward fictional challenges. To me, that is the biggest positive change to come of the election of Barack Obama. After tomorrows inaguration, we will turn the page on history. Today however, as we stand on the brink of a new era, it is important to take one more look back at the old one and see why it collapsed and why we are buried in it's mounds of debris.
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After tasting success in defeating the hapless Jimmy Carter with the strategy of myth making, Republicans decided to ramp up the fantasy and create a "movement" which would never let facts get in the way of their own dreams of wealth and power. People like Lee Atwater and Karl Rove became expert at dividing Americans based on fear, most often of things that never existed in the first place. Has anyone had their guns taken away? Is the flag still allowed to wave? Are American arrested for saying a prayer? Do we speak Russian? Are gays stealing our children? No, of course not. It was all baloney in the first place.
By allowing - no - encouraging the brushing off "stupid" facts, we allowed the dominant political party convince us that, even though we had less and less each year, we were doing better and better. Ultimately, this national denial allowed our current President to totally fabricate intelligence to send us to war and let the economy spin out of control. So many people didn't even question the very obvious difference between what we knew and what we were being told.
So with the coming of Barack Obama we will change history. Yes, it's important that he is an African American and born of a generation beyond the cultural wars, (started and fanned by the Conservative movement by the way). More important however, it marks a return to reality - a change toward pragmatic solutions to REAL problems rather than predetermined policies toward fictional challenges. To me, that is the biggest positive change to come of the election of Barack Obama. After tomorrows inaguration, we will turn the page on history. Today however, as we stand on the brink of a new era, it is important to take one more look back at the old one and see why it collapsed and why we are buried in it's mounds of debris.
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