The Status-Quo Sucks (us back under)

posted by Ilyse Kazar

So, McDonnell takes VA and Christie takes NJ. This is just hunky dory. The Conservatives will now be spreading the meme that this is a rejection of Obama.

The distinction that will be lost: This is not a rejection of the Obama who promised to sock it to the special interests. This is a rejection of the glacial pace at which anything has been done along those lines.

If politics in Washington had ridden the tidal wave of sentiment re the little guy suffering at the hands of huge power blocks, if Washington had done a trickle-up bailout of homeowners instead of a fairly useless (to 99.999% of us) bailout of Wall Street, if Obama were pushing harder for the Dems to include a make-no-bones-about-it public option and if his administration had done a better job of selling it to the people, if stimulus money had gone directly to folks who needed to save or wished to start up small businesses, if Congress had immediately enacted some sort of real incentives to encourage Earth-friendly consumption and energy-user habits, if we had not only gone up against Coal but had the imagination to plan re-training, re-tooling and thereby a boost for the employment prospects of folks in areas where Coal has historically been the only employer ... this would not be happening.

I also blame this on all of us. We were all psyched during the election. There were leagues of us talking it up, knocking on doors, standing at tables, organizing and attending rallies.

Where is the march in Washington against escalation in Afghanistan?

Where are the dramatic news-worthy public events in support of universal health care, demanding real action against global warming?

Where are the demonstrations against the subsidies to factory farming mega-corporations?

I mean, shit, in my junior high school we staged a sit-in, complete with black arm bands, against the war in Nam. Where are you, people? In November 2008 we pulled levers, touched screens or punched chads. We poured out into the streets in a spontaneous celebration when the results came in. Then we sat back to watch and complain.

Maybe the election of more Christies and McDonnells is what we actually need. Maybe we simply have not reached that howling pain-point at which we will get up off our duffs. Maybe we needed this dangerous pivot, this wake-up call that if you don't push hard and keep pushing for Change, the Status Quo is whatchergonnagit.

We were going to take back America, remember?