Big Change Gives Way to Small Change
January 7, 2009
By Steve Klinger.
I’ve been nudged a couple of times now to host an inauguration party for Barack Obama. Moveon.org says progressives are aching to celebrate and they’d love to come to my house. Maybe it’s time to get that guard dog we’ve been thinking about.
My feeling of relief on election night, which translates into appreciating right now that at least no one is urging me to host parties for McCain and Palin on Jan. 20th, included a few waves of near-elation. The moment was historic, the reversal of national fortune monumental. But two months removed from that lightheadedness, it’s hard to summon the requisite enthusiasm to actually…celebrate.
First, I think we need to get Obama a new slogan; Change We Can Believe In was effective for the campaign, but it sounds a little vapid these days and oh so passé. Let’s face it, Big Change, that sent millions of naïve voters to the polls in November, has given way to small change. With a cabinet full of Clinton appointees (including a very notable Clinton), and an economy that seems to burrow deeper into the shitcan by the day, I think it’s time Change underwent a change.
So here are some suggestions for festive banners and signage on Inauguration Day:
Change We Can Subsist On
Change We Can Panhandle For
Change We Can Spend
Change We Can Borrow
Change We Can Steal
The truth is that while Wall Street got free rides and golden parachutes, the oversight for the financial bailouts has been so lacking that the banks are refusing to tell the taxpayers who wrote the check what they did with the money. They sure aren’t lending it, and the jobs section of the classified has pulled a vanishing act. The auto industry is on life support (as well as fed support), the stock market is still tanking, the newspaper industry is gasping for air, real estate continues to founder, and now the president-elect is talking about reviewing entitlements as the country looks at trillion-dollar-plus deficits. I don’t know how many zeroes that is but I think it means that anyone under 50 can forget about retiring.
Meanwhile, Congress considers an economic stimulus package of unprecedented proportions. If, that is, they can ever decide what to do about Roland Burris and Al Franken, which situation has given Harry Reid a chance to prove once again that he is the majority-leading invertebrate in the Senate and by far the lamest excuse for an elected official among the legions of LMGSC Democrats now in Washington. (In case you already forgot, that’s Large Mouth Gelatinous Spinal Column Democrats.)
All Reid did was bluster about how Roland Burris, appointed to Obama’s Senate Seat by that other distinguished Illinois Democrat, Rod Blagojevich, would never be seated by the Democratic caucus, until he reconsidered, slapped Burris on the back, and tried to pin the problem on the Illinois Secretary of State, who hadn’t certified Burris, no doubt taking his cues from the Senate Democrats. Naturally, if Burris can’t be seated because he isn’t properly certified, the Republicans in Minnesota can use the same justification to deny Franken the seat he now appears to have won from Norm Coleman. Reid wouldn’t even touch that issue, declining to call for a vote on Franken’s seating. There’s a lot more, but Reid isn’t worth the effort to put fingers to keyboard.
Sorry, MoveOn. On Inauguration Day, I think I’ll skip the party and just listen to Rick Warren’s invocation, so I can be reminded again how unified our nation has become as we try to figure out a way to rescue the national Ponzi scheme known as capitalism by exporting democracy to some as yet undiscovered Third World market that doesn’t realize how much it needs Wal-Mart, Starbucks and McDonald’s.
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Wow, I love it when you talk dirty to us! This piece would be a great conversation starter over a few excellent ales.
When are Americans going to realize when it comes to the rapaciousness of our D.C. reps, republicans::democrats = steam::water vapor.
Hence, it’s always small change for the wee folk Moveon.org thinks should be reveling their asses off in house parties across the nation on January 20th as the ‘haves’ and ‘have mores’ are groping one another with gala balls that same night.
Excellent, excellent commentary sir!