Silly Me

Silly me indeed! I thought that once the election was over that we’d have a patch of peace. Apparently not. If anything, the diatribes against Obama and the Democrats have notched up to a level of hatred that scares me. Obama has not yet been sworn in and not yet faced down the horrendous economic problems he has taken on, and yet we already have Republicans offering themselves as candidates for 2012. This doesn’t make me believe anything they have to say about bipartisanship.

I also don’t get it. What part of dumped are they struggling with? Eight million more people thought that Obama would provide better leadership than McCain. The whole country said much the same at the last election when Democrats gained control of Congress. Why didn’t the Republicans get it then? People were sick of them. The electorate spoke and the people elected whom they believed. Calling Obama a socialist and a communist only makes me, for one, wonder if these people have any idea what the words mean. We have come closest to a dictatorship with the current administration, yet these people feel morally outraged at having been voted out?

I’m reminded of a Durer print depicting an outraged artist showing his painting that has just been turned down for a major art show. He’s pointing to a very nondescript painting of a candlestick and saying “This the fools rejected.”

It would be funny if not so tragic watching the Republican leadership not learning from this election. “Reaganomics is still a good idea,” the head of the Colorado Republicans was quoted as saying. Well, not very much has trickled down anywhere. We have a class of obscenely rich people who aren’t trickling anything except into their bank accounts and dividends—unless of course buying $12 million houses in Aspen or Beaver Creek can be considered trickling.

What’s troubling me most, though, is not just the wrongheadedness of not hearing what should be obvious, but the actual refusal to accept the will of the people. Some of the vituperative commentaries being spat out at the public through media such as FOX could be seen as inciting violence. Do they really want to see race and class warfare in the streets?

At a time when we should be joining together in a coordinated effort to get this country back on its feet, we are instead hearing just more of the same “petty-mindedness” and “mean-spirited” attack (to quote a would be presidential candidate in 2012). Is this what passes for political dialogue in the red states?

Please. The election is over. The winners won. The losers lost. Let’s get on with doing the work that has to be done and support the man we have chosen to do it.