To me, candidate Obama left a lot to be desired. You could look it up.
With his upcoming move to Penn. Ave., will I retain my skepticism? Hell, yeah:
1: an attitude of doubt or a disposition to incredulity either in general or toward a particular object
2 a: the doctrine that true knowledge or knowledge in a particular area is uncertain; b: the method of suspended judgment, systematic doubt, or criticism characteristic of skeptics
3: doubt concerning basic religious principles (as immortality, providence, and revelation)
I can't see as how Obama has particularly earned our trust.
Still, skepticism isn't certainty of a bad result, and it loses its weary charm if one puts a thumb on the scale.
There's a new Lucy in town. While the kewl kidz fell in love with her at first sight, she elbowed around the freaks and geeks.
She hasn't yet, however, received the long snap and held the football for us.
My perspective is to hope, but verify.
To be a skeptic is not to be a cynic:
1: captious, peevish
2: having or showing the attitude or temper of a cynic: as
a: contemptuously distrustful of human nature and motives
; b: based on or reflecting a belief that human conduct is motivated primarily by self-interest cynical ploy to cheat customers
Cynics have done extremely well, at least in terms of I-told-you-sos, by taking short positions on politics these last several years.
But cynicism has also led to the notion that there's not a dime's worth of difference between George W. Bush and Al Gore. So, there are limits to the blessings of the Dungeon of Resentment.
For me, I'll approach this new presidency wary but, y'know, a little hopeful. Skeptical, but not reflexively damning.
How about you?
- vastleft's blog
- Login or register to post comments
- 1+[encrypted]+#b94+
Printer-friendly version
Front page
Comments
Yes, hanging my hopes on Obama
will be difficult, but what other option do I have? So yeah, hope but verify works for me as well. I've said pretty much the same in my latest post at BlueLyon Walking and Chewing Bubble Gum and in my pre-Election Day post I Want To Be Wrong.
I'll lead the parade if I'm wrong.
The skeptic reads this:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27640617/
And appreciates the signal toward closing Guantanamo... but worries about whether the "hybrid court" really puts us on the side of the angels.
Well, kinda depends -- will he sic the CSIs on Bu$hco's
offices and minions, as BooMan suggests?
If he's up for even part of my agenda, I'll be willing to suspend my disbelief.
But the thing is, in (admittedly short-focus) hindsight: The Village
, Wall Street, the Main $stream Media, the Republican party and the "we're a center-right country" mouthpieces for Bush's base (the 'investor class' and 'ownership class', the corpocratic hegemony, the high priests, the fundamentalist preachers, the bigots and the assorted other idjits whose hegemony has, please FSM and Ceiling Cat, NOT just gotten another four-year lease on the White House) all remain arrayed against Obama, just as they were arrayed against Clinton (there's even talk over in Freeperland about resurrecting Newtie {shudder}).
They'd've been arrayed against Hillary too (and maybe armed with a built-in decade-long anti-Hillary "public perception" thanks to all the hate they spewed while Bill was President). They'd've been arrayed against Edwards (whose peccadillo would no doubt have thrilled them all silly) or Dodd or Kucinich or Gravel or Biden or Richardson (and Bill Richardson, bless his heart, would've been give the Sarah Palin treatment in an eyeblink: first-term governor from a state named after another country????).
The opposition isn't going away. They've woken up from being thumped over the head last Tuesday night with a cast-iron skillet, and now they're pissed.
My theory is we didn't hit them hard enough. Had Obama come up with, say, 60% of the popular vote and Prop H8 been roundly defeated -- not to mention those idiot initiatives in Arkansas and Florida and Arizona, then yes, we could say that things had changed resoundingly, and we were on a path to make this nation -- and maybe even our world -- a better place.
As it stands, I think we still have a chance to make that happen, but it hasn't happened yet. Some of the blame for that has to lie with "We, the People," because, frankly, we haven't convinced "Them, the Freepers" that they are NOT really "We, the People."
That may be the post-partisan thing Obama's trying to sell. It may not be; but my guess is as long as we're comfortably ensconced in our US vs. THEM mindset, the country's going to stall. Will Obama be able to stop it crashing and burning?
Remains to be seen, but W's doing his damnedest to leave it in a flat spin and losing altitude. He's got all the help he could ever imagine wanting, too.
We can admit that we’re killers … but we’re not going to kill today. That’s all it takes! ~ Captain James T. Kirk, Stardate 3193.0
1 John 4:18
believers, skeptics, or cynics?
Given the choice between the three, there is only one real option, and it's one that most of us here have long since adopted. I guess it always helps to remind others, though, or at least it doesn't hurt to remind.
But, we've always been at war with Eastasia...
Coupons for Koolaid
If we can get permanent price breaks on blue raspberry I'll be good.
http://www.correntewire.com/ye_olde_writ... fiction link
http://www.correntewire.com/ye_olde_writ... fiction link