A hearty and sincere congratulations to Barack Obama and all of his supporters. The only other thing I have to say about that is to ask you to please reach out to our brothers and sisters in the HRC camp, many of whom have been abused in this process. We are all Democrats, we are all progressives, and we all have a lot of work to do in fixing our sadly and badly broken country.
Even after Obama becomes our first black President (hallelujah!), there are certain overarching circumstances that will not have changed. The right wing dimwits, though weakened, will still be with us plotting against the Constitution. The Military Industrial Complex will still dominate our entire society, foisting their evil brand of insanity upon us all and twisting our democracy into unrecognizable shapes. The media will remain firmly in the hands of those who seek only to brainwash us. Our tax system will still be grossly unfair. Our economy will still be in a shambles. Our response to global warming and the energy crises will still be woefully inadequate at best. Our educational system will still be limping and mortally wounded from the Republican ‘Dumb Down America’ campaign. Our response to the needy will still be underwhelming. Our treatment of veterans will still be shameful. Our children and grandchildren’s futures will still be mortgaged to the hilt. Our streets will still be filled with the homeless. The rich will still be getting richer and the poor will still be getting screwed.
The idiotic and self-destructive ‘drug war’ will still be ruining American lives. Humanity will continue to rot in our prisons, secret and otherwise. Unrestrained greed and capitalism gone wild will continue to run roughshod over us all. Empty-headed superficiality will still be our highest social value. The CIA will still be doing great evil all around the world in your names and mine. People will still be getting tortured – whether it be official or unofficial. We will still be overrun with war profiteers and all the other greed-besotted pigs at the trough. We will still outspend every other nation in the world on our military. We will still be the biggest arms dealers and merchants of death in the world. We will still be the biggest bully on the planet.
I know, I know – electing Barack Obama is a fine start on changing these regrettable circumstances, but it is hardly enough. If that’s all we do, the changes will be (ultimately) superficial – a kinder, gentler machinegun hand as Neil Young might say. That’s not a slam on Barack, that’s a slam on our fucked up system and all of those who stubbornly and stupidly continue to support it.
There will still be feet to be held to the fire. There will still be traitors and war criminals to be prosecuted. There will still be gutless and evil politicians to be admonished, revealed, shamed and banned. There will still be horrible laws to be changed. There will still be horrific weapons to be banned. There will still be people being murdered in our names. There will still be mercenaries employed by our government. Our government will still be spying on us all. There will still be great and grievous wrongs to be made right. Fascism will continue to be a very real and grave threat to democracy.
There will still be much hell to be raised.
There will still be execrable bastards in positions of power and trust who will continue to smile in our faces as they shamelessly tell us damnable lies. There will still be Republicans posing as Democrats and there will still be Democrats in power who have enabled everything that progressives deplore.
May we hold the criminals in our government to account. May we rid ourselves of the traitors, thieves and gutless wonders. May they all get what they so richly deserve.
