Agnostic

“The many men, so beautiful!
And they all dead did lie:
And a thousand thousand slimy things
Lived on; and so did I.”

The 2008 transition period is a pretty odd occasion. Antsy and anguished. Hopeful and afraid. ‘Tis the season of the tea leaves and card readers. In the end, we don’t know Obama, in the same way as we don’t know ourselves, and have forgotten how to effectively evaluate the world around us. How much has our folly cost us? Are the opportunities we see before us real or wishful chimeras? I imagine this moment in our national life stretched into an eternity. An interregnum. The Christmas/Apocalypse looming on the horizon. A month of endless waiting. What we need is an era of decision. Choices need to be made. Courses charted. Battles need to be won and lost. What we have is endless drift.

It seems obvious that Obama is not a “Third Way” politician like Clinton, even though that experience certainly informs the incoming Obama administration. Definitely he will have to manage a Democratic party that is really two parties (at least) in one. The current Democratic party is both a center left and center right party. Progressive and Blue Dog at the same time, the Democratic party is the classic circular firing squad. The ineffectual Democratic Congressional majority from 2006 on is classic proof of the divided nature of the party. We are talking fellow travelers here. But the fifth column is on the right this time, not the left. These are the Democrats that would be Republicans if the Republican party didn’t decide it wants to be the John Birch Society.

He will also have to deal with the John Birch Society…..Wait, forgive me, the Republican Party. The party who have used hate, intolerance, corruption, and incompetence to reduce themselves to a rump party dangerously close to becoming isolated to their regional strong points in the South. They still have just enough power to obstruct the new administration, if they can keep enough of their fellow travelers in the Democratic Party at least.

That the rump has lost most of its legislative muscle does not diminish the mighty wind they regularly generate. The vast right wing noise machine yet lives, even if it has to currently live on the scraps generated by an immaculate and careful politician like Obama. When they get something they can sink their teeth into, they are still a hurricane force on the American cultural landscape. Limbaugh and Hannity are neutered for the moment. Their genius is two-fold. During the Bush years it was in bullying. In opposition it lies in obstruction. They will have their victories yet.

The Bush administration had a reverse Midas Touch. Everything it touched was broken by them. Foreign policy, economic policy, the politicization of non-partisan governmental functioning, gross cronyism and illegality were the trademarks of the outgoing administration. And not all of these mines have exploded yet. The next year will see more horrible surprises left in the wake of the Bush administration.

We will have our work cut out for ourselves. Herculean effort will be needed to merely avert complete disaster. And even that may not be enough. This nation is in a triage situation. We need to limit the bleeding, avert the worst case scenarios, and in the midst of this chart a course towards a sustainable future. This much is obvious to all. Obama’s cabinet choices appear to all be made with an eye toward effective governance, which is a good thing. All the hand-wringing about how “progressive” he is or how “centrist” I think is a distraction. They are merely the dead end of the Southern Strategy. I don’t think the play here is what we are used to. The Neo-Conservative era is dead. It died finally with the rise of Obama and the death of Bear Stearns.

The rise of Obama is the cultural end of the culture wars. In case you didn’t notice, the liberals won it. Prop 8 and William Ayers was the last gasp of the Culture wars as we have known them. Of course, I have been wrong before, and I could be guilty of confirmation bias. If Ayers continues to be used by the right wing after March of next year then I am wrong.

The Bear Stearns bailout was the end of the economic underpinnings of the Southern Strategy. Once we started shoveling money at bankers every last economic argument the right uses was discredited. Gone by the wayside. As the saying goes, “There are no atheists or libertarians in foxholes.” Economic libertarianism was always a crock anyways.

I suppose all of this is the reason why I just want to wait and see. This eternal interregnum will end to, like all things. Only then will we see where we lie. There is an albatross around our necks. We, as a people, have sinned grievously. What this all means will have to wait for later. Maybe then we will know the significance of the moves being made now. But that is not important. At least not right now. Before the new era begins, the horrible contemplation of our situation makes the most sense to me. We are the Mariner. Alone. At sea. With the albatross around our neck.