Keep The Lipstick Off The Pig

As we bask in either the glory of making history or the relief that the most loathed global figure since Hitler will finally exit the White House, it's tempting to follow Obama's lead and focus only on the positive, on 'where we agree', and to move past the partisanship of the past eight years.

And who can blame us? Scrolling through the endless slides of ecstatic Americans of every demographic, tears streaming down their faces as they hug their neighbors in jubilation, it's natural to want to forget the fetid stench of Ann Coulter's bile, Donald Rumsfeld's torture, Alberto Gonzales's spying and judicial racketeering, and George Bush's lies.

But this would be a mistake.

However badly we'd love to flush the karmic toilet, we should pause to ask ourselves how likely it is the forces that gave us Enron, Jack Abramoff, economic collapse, millions foreclosed into homelessness, Blackwater, Abu Ghraib, Katrina, waterboarding, economic collapse, abstinence-only education--the list really is endless--has been humbled into changing their venal ways.

Not a chance.

No, the party that still tries to spin Ronald Reagan into 'the Great Communicator' to make us forget his trickle-down economics and unprecedented deficit, nuns murdered by illegally funded contras, and battle stories from a world war he never fought, is already re-branding the rancid old GOP wine into a new bottle, hoping that in your history-making reverie you'll forget the policies that got us into the hole we're praying Obama can pull us out of.

The rewriting of history is already in full swing. For a week now we've been told incessantly Obama won because he ran 'a center-right campaign' in a 'center-right country' when only a week ago he was a Socialist. John McCain humbly delivered a 'gracious and heartfelt' concession speech, when only four hours earlier he was calling Obama a Marxist, a terrorist, a Muslim, and a liar.

And just this weekend, confessed drug addict and ACLU client-wannabe Rush Limbaugh declared the economy 'Obama's recession,' the plummeting stock market caused by a global 'fear of an Obama economy.'

Does this sound like a party suddenly chastised into soul-searching to you?

While you were running down the streets in exultation last Tuesday night, the largest taxpayer bailout to corporate America in history was being administered by no-bid Bush crony Reuben Jeffery, who lost billions of taxpayer cash in Paul Bremer's Iraq.

The next morning, while you mass-emailed cell phone pics of your Obama party to your friends, the Bush Interior Department looked into weakening the laws protecting the Grand Canyon from uranium mining, drinking water from mountain coal mining runoff, and gutting The Clean Air Act.

And just yesterday when Obama met with Bush, the most disliked president in history magnanimously said he'd 'consider' a bailout to the American auto industry if the Democrats in Congress will pas another disastrous 'free trade' pact, this time with Columbia.

Boy, does he sound chastened.

And what about the international joke that is Sarah Palin, do you think she's been discouraged by her two months of ethics violations, hate-baiting McCarthyism and blatant ignorance of American history, world geography, and international politics? Or do you think she's already putting her team together to come back at us in 2012 with a whole new set of Rovian catchphrases and winks?

Still feel like partying?

No, the values voters that booed John McCain when he mentioned the next president of the United States in his 'gracious' concession speech are not going to disappear because you took the time to pull a lever in a voting booth.

The thing we feared most these past few weeks was not that Obama would lose the election but that the Republicans would steal it. This will not change overnight.

So while it's great--indeed crucial--for Obama to appear to be above the fray of the ugly divide-and-conquer politicking that has poisoned this country for the past eight years, it's important for we the people to keep our outrage over these policies alive.

Because America did not end up here via mismanagement, mistakes or ineptitude; we ended up here via exquisitely executed policy. The largest budget surplus in the history of the world became the largest budget deficit in the history of the world, and as bridges collapse, hospitals and schools close and our economy implodes, let us never forget where our money went and how.

The honeymoon is over; not Obama's, but ours. We cried, we yelled, we screamed, we danced. Now we have to get to work.

Now we take that same fervor that lead us to man phone banks, campaign door-to-door, lick envelopes, hang posters, give money and wait for ours in the rain to vote, and we inject it into to Community Board meetings, Town Hall press conferences, and Planning and Zoning hearings.

We go to School Board meetings and address the lunacy of teaching our children in science class the world was created 6,000 years ago. We write letters to the editor correcting factual inaccuracies linking abortion to breast cancer, gay marriage to pedophilia, or global warming to natural causes.

And we correct people in conversation when they link the war in Iraq to 9/11. We complain to the police when our pharmacist won't fill our prescriptions. We immediately march down to the statehouse when a book is banned from or restricted in our libraries.

There is no triangulation with lies, suppression, greed, or discrimination.

Because the loonies will be back, and they will be bucking for the whole appalling mess to repeat itself, with new catchphrases, wedge issues and faces, carrying updated bios that say 'former aide to Stephen Hadley' or 'a key figure in WHIG,' or 'chief researcher for Alberto Gonzales.' There they'll be, delivering the updated, think-tank fresh versions of 'secure the borders,' and 'protect marriage' and 'the ownership society.'

Be ready.

As we embrace The Man Who Will Lead Us Out of Here let us not forgot the The Man Who Dumped Us Here.

And when some wide-eyed triangulator in a bar waxes pseudo-pundit and wistfully wonders if the former GOP presidential candidate might now go back to being 'the old John McCain,' rather than bask in the touchy-feely glow of the new political day dawning, ask him if he means the one from the Keating Five scandal.

Comments

[DeanThoreau]

Amen

[bltmn]

You are exactly right. And let's not forget: THEY STILL HAVE THE MONEY!

Fortunes have been made in this latest gilded age that will remain in the hands of the con-men that have very nearly bled this country dry. The rest of us are going to have to work for years to recreate the wealth that will undo the damage.

Of course, that's what we in the middle class have always done - the real work. The very Reagan-istic idea that the wealthy are the source of all progress and must be untethered from government intervention so they can uplift all of society is the biggest load of bull since Amway.

I'm no communist. I'm all for effective, productive people enjoying the fruits of their labor. Entrepreneurs who create and innovate deserve to be rewarded. But that's not what this is about, regardless of what the right-wing propaganda machine would like us to believe. It's about the abuse of power, unchecked greed, and the complete abandonment of social responsibility among the corporate elite.

[CatfishJohn]

this essay is very necessary and spot on. 56 million of our fellow countrymen- only 4 million less than voted for bush in 2004- wanted to continue the collective plutocratic sociopathy of Bushco. through mccain and "evita the moosehunter" for another 4 years. they have already returned to their in the gutter streetfighting ways with their knives and even though obama need not bring a gun- he has the bully pulpit which i am certain he will use adroitly- these miscreant misanthropes are already at it. for example., limbaugh, less than 72 hours after obama was decisively elected was making uncle ben and aunt jemima references about our new president and his wife on his radio show friday. the venom and warpedness of right wing americans is not going away . america cannot play collective polyanna and 'make nice" in exonerating the grim incompetence and the malevolent Bushco. agenda of these past 8 years.

[DorthyJ]

It would be extremely naive to believe anything has really changed, only the fact that Democrats are now in charge. The thing about Dems is we have a hard time holding a grudge, but we can't forgive and forget We must demand transparency and accountability of our government, and demand investigations of wrongdoing in the Bush administration. The conservatives are making nice because they want something, but their fanatical beliefs have not changed.

For eight years we the people have had 'Bread and Circuses', and soothing lies that if we just gave the rich a little bit more, soon they would have enough to let us have some back. We allowed ourselves to be persuaded that the enemy is anyone except the correct one: the neocon Republican party. Less government may be better for the wealthy, but it is not good for those who must depend on those in power to 'do the right thing.'

[SueEll]

All anyone has to do is look at what our Republican president is doing right now for the millions of Americans losing their jobs, their homes, their life savings. Nothing. He has 2 months left in office and he is doing absolutely nothing. It's the same response he had when New Orleans was drowing.

[EngineerBill]

I've said it before and I'll say it again. We need to hope that Bush doesn't pardon away everybody and, after Jan. 2oth, congress needs to set up a "Truth and Reconciliation Commission". Statements in the congressional record, some would have to be classified for national security, detailing the abuses of this administration will forever officially imprint history. That way the right can't so easily rewrite it.

[shades3]

EngineerBill, I fear that it is too much to hope that the Bush Administration, from cellar to dome, will EVER be held responsible for the monumental obscenity that was reality for eight long years.
Unfortunately, the country is so RELIEVED that they are gone in January that they are willing to let them ankle off, nice pensions in hand, into the sunset.
In some less enlightened countries, leaders like these, along with their minions are lined up and shot. We are civilized, behaviour at Abu Ghraib and the like notwithstanding, and Bush and his cohorts will escape unpunished.
PITY.

[TheWalker]

This country has a short memory and very thick skin. But let's keep a collectively clear head and a sharp mind so that we can help the GOP along on its path of self-destruction. Perhaps in the next century it's name will only resonate as a vague memory in the minds of Poli Sci students like the Whigs or the Know Nothings..­.

[Eidolas]

What a bunch of hyperbole and bias. "Most loathed global figure since Hitler" Riiiiight, Tom. Sorry, the economy and every other issue you complain about ARE President elect Obama's problem - Comes with the job, remember. Or maybe you forgot how 9/11 was Bush's fault 9 months after taking office from a President who dealt with multiple terrorist threats, including the WTC. Yes, the Republicans will be sniping, just as you have: "the forces that gave us Enron, Jack Abramoff, economic collapse, millions foreclosed into homelessness, Blackwater, Abu Ghraib, Katrina, waterboarding, economic collapse, abstinence-only education".

"Millions foreclosed into homelessne­ss." Millions? Really? Economic Collapse? Last time I checked, both the chair of the House and Senate Banking Committees are and have been Democrats yet they blame the current administration for the banking problem. Were they too busy lining their own pockets with lobbyist dollars while turning a blind eye? Only 1 member took less than $1,000,000 in lobbyist money this year. There is more than enough blame to go around and you can look at BOTH sides of the aisle to see the problem! The Democrats have controlled congress since 2006, yet they have no responsibility. Why do the Democrats get a free ride over Iraq, forclosures and "economic collapse"??

I'm sure the Republican partisians on the other side will give just as much credit to the Democrats when things go wrong. So, you'll be able to whine about how unfair it all is while nothing really changes.

[Seldon]

No matter how many times I see this, it still amazes me how Republicans think that since Democrats have had a slight advantage in the house for the last 2 years it means that blame is roughly equal between the two parties, despite the fact that republicans have controlled for 10 of the last 12 years. News Flash! The economy took many years of de-regulation to build to this point.

[Eidolas]

See what I mean about whining?

[magen]

They spit in our faces, disrespected the Constitution and the rule of law, tortured, wiretapped, lied us into war, bailed out Wall St with nothing to help regular Americans in home foreclosure, etc, and made fun of us all the while.

We shouldn't forget any of this.

If we do and they get away with it--------­----------­----- IT WIL HAPPEN AGAIN.

Accountability.

So it can't happen again.

[Springbirdgirl]

Everytime I logon to HuffPo, I see another post that reflects my views and (in this case) fears. Just because "our guy" won doesn't mean we don't have more work to do. The media is sniffing the Palin pheromones (sp?) and her 15 minutes of fame continues. Rush and Hannity still exist and BillO has already announced his decision to look at Obama's policies with a fine tooth comb. Don't sleep people...

[Krikkit]

I think the task you've assigned us will be more difficult than Obama's.

The problem with being an optimistic nation is that people can be so damned gullible. We naturally want to think the best of people, that they are capable of turning over a new leaf at will, that they've learned their lessons. We want to brush aside all the unpleasantness and get on with our lives. We want to believe in the American Dream.

And we should NEVER forget that there are a whole lot of people out there who will use those very qualities against us, to dupe us into complying with their secret agendas. They will rape and pillage this country until there isn't even enough meat left to pick off the bones. They may be going underground for a while as a group, but you can bet they will be spreading their poison far and wide.

I'm reminded of this every time I overhear some nut case that drank their koolaid discussing the blast radius of a nuclear missile that is bound to strike Washington now that Obama is President. How can you talk to people like that?

[PolarBearZ]

Oh yeah. Once you get by the first sentence, the rest of your blog is a good commentary on the enormous challenges that Barack Obama and the American people are going to face in the near future and for the next few years.

I wish you good luck with this.

[djk37]

Thanks for the great blog!

[PolarBearZ]

"the most loathed global figure since Hitler"

That's more than a little over the top.

Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, etc., aren't even on your list. These are men that are directly responsible for the death of millions of innocent civilians. (and not just collateral damage.)

I am not a supporter of George Bush, and he has definitely caused damage and weakened America in many ways, but there is a danger in being too extreme with your rhetoric.

Of course, GW is polling at around a 20% approval rating. If I recall, Stalin, Mao, etc., would usually have approval ratings around 99% in their own countries.

[MassHoney]

You honestly think that Bush isn't responsible for the death of innocent people on a great scale? Where have you been during this "war on terror"? You do realize that our news reports are whitewashed. Many, MANY lives have been lost, all in the name of oil.

Countless American lives have been -- and continue to be -- destroyed because Bush has been asleep at the wheel when it comes to Wall Street. Offshoring, layoffs, ageism, pension plans that suddenly "disappear" have ruined not just Christmas for millions of families in this country...­there are people who will never have time to recover from the financial devastation visited upon them by the Republican administration. And no, not all of these people overreached with their housing mortages and credit card debt. These are average people who went to school, got married, got a job, and thought their lives would be okay if they did the right thing. That thought process was naive. If Hurricane Katrina taught us anything, it's that the government doesn't care about its citizens. It'll bail out AIG and their friends so they can continue to enjoy all expenses paid spa days and hotel events. But the rest of us can go pound sand.

Tom Gilroy is right on the money when it comes to Bush. The real story of our soon-to-be-gone prez will be told in books, and boy, won't we be horrified by the truth that was covered up for so long about him.

[yogilroy]

'global figure' means not just their own countries, but around the world.

hated as they were, you did not walk down streets in small towns in Italy or Serbia or Wales or even Kansas and see anti-Pol Pot graffiti; months before Khrueschev unseated Stalin, he did not speak to crowds of 250, 000 in foreign countries; people did not take to the streets of Australia, Iceland, Norway, France, etc, when Mao passed away.

The world hates Bush; his animus has touched all parts of the globe, inspiring hatred from people from all walks of life.
Despicable as they were--and I would add Mugabe, Savimbi, Aristede, Batista, Ceaucescu to your list-- this was not the case with the others you mention.

[NJTVGuy]

Don't forget how many loathe him around the globe. Not that I don't agree that the since Hitler remark is dangerously overstated. Let's agree he's the least popular american president ever. the ancestors of james buchanon rejoice to move to #2 on worst presidents ever list

[dartagnan]

Bush beat Buchanan for incompetence, beat Harding and Grant for corruption, beat Nixon for mendacity and beat LBJ for war-mongering. It's better than a hat trick -- it's a GRAND SLAM!

[jbl inAZ]

It will be far too easy to sit down and bask in our new collective glow. Mr Gilroy has it exactly right. The real work is about to begin, and we must conduct it with due vigilance.