Letters to the Editor
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@IngSoc
Unless something changes radically in the USA we are all screwed except for the neocons and the wealthy and the corporations.
I come across this sort of sentiment all the time, and find it to be lacking, and indicative of the sort of naivite and oversimplified view of reality that typifies all too many people across the political spectrum. On the right there are the truly clueless, who think that all is ok and that there's nothing wrong with what BushCo have done, in the center is a sense of things not going so well but not quite in crisis mode, and on the left are many people who realize that we're in a serious crisis, but that there's little to nothing that we can do about it. I.e. Panglossian self-delusion on the right, apathy in the center, and pessimistic cynicism on the left.
And I reject all of it.
Focusing on the left--i.e. people such as yourself, and the sentiments that you expressed in your comment--while I certainly understand, sympathize with and share your anger and frustration, I think that you err in having the apparent expectation that there could be, or could have been, a rapid turnaround to the present crises, as the result of massive protest and action by concerned and outraged people on the left, and in getting fed up and ready to call it quits because nothing appears to have gotten better yet.
For one thing, things have gotten better lately. Perhaps only marginally, but I wouldn't exactly call the Democratic taking over of congress to be for nothing. No, this hasn't changed things a bit in Iraq, but they have managed to pass several important pieces of domestic legislation and conducted some oversight. Not nearly enough, clearly, but at least it's SOME improvement over what we had a year ago, which I view as a sort of beach head that will make possible more impressive and meaningful improvements down the line.
But most of all, like a huge ship that has been steaming steadily in one direction, given the nature of our political process and reality, the problems that have beset our country, simply do not lend themselves to a quick turnaround, and to have expected serious improvements by now was, at best, a very long and unrealistic shot, and the fact that this hasn't happened should not cause people to lose hope and give up. I'm not guaranteeing that things WILL improve as much as we'd like them to, of course. What I'm saying is that if they can improve--and I personally believe that they can--it won't happen overnight, but rather take months, years and likely decades.
It took the right nearly 40 years to cause all the damages that it's caused the country, during which time Dems steadily lost and gave up power and grew weaker and more ineffectual. To have expected them to suddenly grow a spine and develop the sort of ability that would be required to turn this around in less than a year was always a pipe dream. Many of them will be slow in growing that spine and figuring out how to do this. Others will prove unable and/or unwilling to do this, and will need to be replaced. And in any case, spine or no spine, there is a simply massive amount of Republican malfeasance to address and undo that even the most courageous and competent Dems could never have turned around in such a short amount of time. That was simply unrealistic and unfeasible.
Certainly we should be frustrated and upset at Dems who will not do what they need to do, and at the slowness or lack of progress. But that shouldn't cause any of us to give up, but to simply persevere, and be at least somewhat patient--not in the sense of taking it easy on these Dems, but in the sense of realizing that this is going to take a while. We need to pace ourselves as we pressure and exhort them to fix this mess, and not just throw up our hands in resignation because it hasn't happened yet. Rome was not rebuilt in a day.