Year One

January 20th, 2010

It’s pretty amazing the difference a year can make, isn’t it?  Granted, the photo above was taken on election night in ‘08, so it’s a little over a year old, but I don’t think anyone could have imagined then that a Republican would win Ted Kennedy’s senate seat the day before Obama’s one-year anniversary of being sworn in as President of the United States.

It does seem like ages ago now, maybe because ‘09 was such a shit year, but I still remember the hope so many of us saw in the election of our new president.  And truth be told, I still have much of that hope.  I respect Obama for being the pragmatist that he so clearly is, and I do think that when we look back on the big picture, he’ll have quite a lot to show for his time in the Oval Office.  But I’m just as frustrated and pissed off as the next guy.

I’m tired of reading about the billions of dollars in Wall Street bonuses.   I’m tired of a double digit unemployment rate and the thousands of jobs still being lost each quarter.  I’m tired of a Democrat controlled White House and Congress not being able to affect the change they’ve been promising for decades.  I’m tired of Republicans voting no on everything, and I’m tired of people so quickly forgetting that it was the conservative economic agenda that got us into this whole mess in the first place.   I’m tired of the filibuster, and I’m tired of hearing from and about Joe Lieberman.  I’m tired of Obama not getting angry, and I’m tired of him prioritizing bipartisanship over the platform he campaigned on.  I’m tired of self-centered politicians being immediately more worried about the next election instead of focusing on the job they were elected to do in the first place.  I’m tired of being an independent who has to side with a Democratic party that can’t get its shit together.  I’m tired of there not being a third viable political party.  I’m tired of all three 24/7 cable “news” stations, and I’m tired of entertainment, opinion and speculation being regarded as news.  I’m tired of pre-existing conditions.  I’m tired of having to worry about our health insurance, and I’m tired of the fear I live in that we’ll lose that health insurance sooner than later.  I’m tired of feeling like all of this talk of health care reform isn’t going to produce any meaningful health care reform, especially now with the election of some unknown Republican dude in Massachusetts, of all places.

I could go on, but I’m too tired.  So I’m gonna go to bed now and just hope for a better tomorrow…

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