We Are Still On Our Own

I am NOT as optimistic as most of my academic colleagues seem to be about how completely awesome things are going to be from now on.

Yes, it was a lot of fun to watch Middle America throw the Republican Party down the reactor shaft, screaming and spewing burnt-ground rhetoric, ignorance, and thinly-veiled bigotry like blue lightning all the way down. Nonetheless, Obama is but a man. The expectations on him are ridiculously high, and candy and free money will not really rain from the sky every day of his administration. He is a politician, and politicians lie and manipulate to get elected.

My biggest concern is not that Obama will suck horribly as president; it is that he will simply do a mediocre job without making America into the mythic Land of Prosperity, Rationality, and Good Feelings All Around, and that his supporters will become disillusioned and defensive to the point that they can't be objectively critical of him any more than Bush's supporters were. We can't trust any President under any circumstances; just tolerate him and parcel out carefully rationed praise as long as he seems to be doing a good job.

It might actually be better if Obama sucked. Like, really, really sucked. If the American people get to the point that they would rather slit their wrists than vote for a Democrat OR Republican president, than they might actually give other parties and independents a look. It continuously frustrates me that America won't evolve past being a two party system just because we can't think of it any other way. Whenever I hear someone complaining about "spoilers," I want to [I previous described what I would like to do here, but have removed it due to grammatical errors].

All politicians and political parties suck. It was therefore a real breath of fresh air to find The Beast, a site that holds both the left and right in complete scathing contempt.