A Somewhat Relieved Citizen Speaks 


The hijacking of the United States of America by the neocons is temporarily arrested. 

Well, what can I say? Rosanda, Stephen and I spent Tuesday evening in front of her new 52" HDTV alternating back and forth between CNN and MSNBC. Rosanda loves Obermann, but we neither can stand very much of the hard-eged Chris Matthews, so then we have to put up with Wolf Blitzer.

The new glass coffee table was arrayed with my dip and taquitos and Rosanda's many delicious snacks. We were prepared to par-tee. I have to admit, I never dreamed that both the house and senate would go Democratic, that the governors would go Democratic, that several states would see the Republican leadership decimated. I was holding my breath with a bare hope for a Claire McCaskill victory here in Missouri. I thought we would just see the long-predicted victory for the Democrats in the House, that's all.

And there were many reasons why I had such low expectations. I will never get over my shock at the U. S. Supreme Court deciding the election between Bush and Gore. My mother, a fairly conservative person, called me on that night and said, "Well, Jimmie, our democracy is gone." My mother said that!

I have never supported the Iraq War (the second one) for even a second. I was in a tiny minority of voices in opposition to this war on our SIUE faculty-staff listserv back when Bush/Cheney was railroading that war through the UN. My position then, and now, is that not even a single death in that war was justified. Now, of course, I feel vindicated. There were no WMD, ever. The terrorists were mainly elsewhere. I marvel that Saddam Hussein is condemned to death for 180 deaths, when it seems to me that thousands of deaths are on the heads of the current stubborn administration. But this unjust and ineptly fought war just seemed to grind on and on with no obvious signs of stopping. What few protests there were paled in comparison to the ones I saw in the late '60s early '70s, and were mostly blocked from TV and other media outlets.

To me, a gay man, America seems filled with vile hatred for me just because of something that is a natural disposition. State after state has been rushing to define marriage as a man-woman thing, in their constitutions, no less. It seemed to me that a majority of the citizens of this country would rather support this war-mongering administration than take a chance that I might be able to legally marry my life partner of 22 years. El bizarro.

So imagine my surprise and delight to see Nancy Pelosi become House Majority Leader on Tuesday night, and find Henry Reid become the Senate Majority Leader on Wednesday morning. Imagine my shock (and disbelief) when George W. Bush replaced Donald Rumsfeld with Robert Gates within 24 hours of this upset. Here is George Bush telling reporter after reporter at a news conference that he wants to find common ground with the Democrats, and that both he and the Democratic leaders love America. Naturally, my first reaction is to be a bit suspicious, since for the previous six years of his administration, he and his cohorts repeatedly practiced a scorched-earth, cut and burn defense against their critics.

I'm just taking this stuff one day at a time. I do hear people talking about political solutions in Iraq. I do hear people talk about allowing the Iraqi people to govern themselves. I do hear Democrats talk about wisely exiting from Iraq while still keeping some semblance of stability in the region. I read that Bush has been dismayed with Rumsfeld for quite a while now, though we would never have guessed it from his public statements. I hear some who are concerned that putting Gates in there is a step into the past. I hear Pelosi and Reid insisting on having input into the "new direction" in Iraq, discussion of which begins on Monday with the release of the report of the Baker-Hamilton Iraq Study Group.

So with that and much else in the background, I guess I really would like to believe in this democracy. Sure, the Democrats organized a good grass-roots campaign with organizations such as Move.On. I know one of my friends has just been elected state senator in Wisconsin with just such a grass-roots campaign. I know the Republicans have been beset with financial and moral scandal, witness the fallout from the Jack Abrahamoff and Mark Foley debacles. A majority of voters now seem very upset with an accomplish-nothing approach in Iraq and rapidly expanding greed and lack of principled behavior in a Republican party too long off the leash of public criticism and control.

It's really too complicated for even the most savvy thinkers and writers to get a total grip on. The total cynicism of the Karl Rovean approach to staying in power. The repeated disrespect shown by this administration for wiser military leaders in matters of armed conflict. The almost inescapable conclusion that this war is all about oil and profiteering, being led by two families who are obviously profiting from it. The blatant and hypocritical pandering to the unpleaseable and insatiable Religious Right. The legions of homeless people that I now see almost every day in the streets and on the corners of St. Louis streets. Billboards that scream abstinence to a rap-possessed youth culture. A Republican Party so terrified of losing that regular vote manipulation seemed like the only responsible thing to do. The changing landscape of the ever continuing culture wars.

Thank God for small victories. We did pass the stem-cell amendment in Missouri. We did pass a minimum wage hike. We do now have one Democratic and one Republican senator in Missouri—a much fairer representation of the voters in this state. Maybe this right-wing Republican rampage has tamped and pushed and shoved just about as far as it can for a while. Maybe this really is a swing back to the center. I hope so. 

Posted: Fri - November 10, 2006 at 09:11 PM          

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