The people of Massachusetts have apparently had it with Change. Change didn't work fast enough for them, so it's time to go back to the pre-Change days. You know...those glory days of 2007? Things were so much simpler then. Everything was going to shit, but no one was bothering to try to fix anything, so there was nothing to complain about. Then the new guy shows up and ruins everything by trying to clean up the shitstorm with his hoity-toity ideas and reforms and regulations and whatnot. Couldn't he have just left well enough alone? And by "well enough," I mean "pretty fucking crappy."
One year ago today, Barack Obama was inaugurated President of the United States. It was, to any remotely honest observer, a moment of hope. Not Hope: The Campaign Slogan, but the simple, optimistic yearning for better days that has long gone by that name. Things had, quite simply, gotten very bad. There was no debate about that. Remember? None whatsoever. Something - many things - had gone horribly, horribly wrong. We were exhausted. We desperately needed to move on.
And so we did. We set our eyes upon something new, something different, something that made us feel, deep down in the cockles, that maybe all was not lost.
One year ago today, the Tea Party movement began. A small group of disenfranchised cranks suddenly awoke from their eight year slumber to realize that...hark, something was not right in America. Something had to be done now, goddamnit! Politics be damned. This was bigger than politics. This was about restoring America to some vague notion of what the founding fathers may or may not have originally intended, so long as that vision meant no taxes! And DEFINITELY no health care reform!
And thus began the great uprising against the Change that had only just begun. The Republican party set out, in collaboration with the teabaggers, to extinguish the tender, young flames of hope before they could spread. Never mind that this president was actually incredibly moderate and pragmatic, making absurdly reasonable proposals with built-in capitulations. Victory at the polls was the more important, long-term goal than the peace and prosperity of their country.
If the people of Massachusetts can be talked into sacrificing the seat held by Ted and John F. Kennedy to a teabagger who represents the Republicans' opportunity to obstruct health care reform, the lifelong passion of the man they elected nine times, there is very little to hope for. If the people of Massachusetts are growing impatient, after only one year, with the man they elected 62-36%, there is very little to hope for. If this is an indicator of things to come...you can call me hopeless.
