Lowered Expectations
Posted: November 5, 2008 Filed under: president teleprompter jesus, Uncategorized | Tags: low expectations, My pet goat, Obama speech, president teleprompter jesus 6 Comments
Well, it’s the morning after and it feels like it. I keep hoping I’ll be wrong about what just happened and will happen, but I have a feeling I may not. Let’s just say I’m expecting quite a few “The Pet Goat” moments during the next few years. I didn’t watch the acceptance speech because the wine and the cold medicine had me pretty wiped out by then, but I did hear some excerpts this morning. I’m not sure if you would call it low-key, but I certainly did. I heard a lot of words meant to lower expectations. It’s the politics of usual. Promise the moon and the stars until you actually think you will have to deliver them.
There will be setbacks and false starts. There are many who won’t agree with every decision or policy I make as President, and we know that government can’t solve every problem. But I will always be honest with you about the challenges we faceThe road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even one term, but America – I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. I promise you – we as a people will get there
What has Obama wrought? In the euphoria, can reality reclaim its rightful place? The parameters of rhetorical change are boundless, propelled into the nether-reaches of nonsensicality by hyper-speak and super-wishfullness that can never supplant the real world of entrenched class and race rule. Celebrate good times…COME ON! But at some soon point in time, we must return to the ground. And the need for struggle. Better start as soon as the cold breeze hits you. Like now.
peej
Carissa
bostonboomer
ecocatwoman
mablue2
peggysue22
quixote
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
Caucuses are great. If anything, I’d like to move away from the idea that everyone’s opinion counts equally, that the most misanthropic, greedy, ill-informed trolls (e.g., Dollar Bill Jefferson’s 1 supporters) deserve as much influence as people who are concerned with the long-term situation, with the -general- welfare, and who take the time and make the effort to become informed.
Knowledge, concern for others, and ability to fit the events in the world into a relatively correct conceptual framework and draw relatively correct conclusions from that framework are things that far too many people lack, and though our sentiments tell us otherwise, they do not deserve a voice in the government.
1 Is it just me, or does that guy look distinctly reptilian?
Dear dakinikat,
I understand and I empathize. I realize my informed intuitions about Obama can be wrong and I hope he proves me wrong.
I hope your cold leaves soon.
As promised at The Confluence, the donation should have arrived.
BK – I do not concur. I appreciate the arguments that frame paternalism, but I am too romantically attracted to the idea that if we do not give everyone the same franchise, then everyone will not be given their due consideration when decisions are made.
SM
Well, I should include a short disclaimer that it’s only a thought experiment – I don’t think it’s actually implementable, nor a necessarily good idea.
But, given that some people absolutely refuse to make a fair attempt at becoming “good citizens,” why should they be given equal say with those who do?
It’s an important question, and it needs an answer.
But more importantly – voting-as-self-defense is only needed in a polity where the administration of laws has been replaced by the governance of people. Is that what the United States has become? If so, why?
Respect for the rule of law, and just laws, are one of the traditional cornerstones of liberal republics. Is mass democracy opposed to the sort of republicanism that arose in Europe in the late 19th century? If so, is that a good thing?
After all, the right to vote only becomes relevant when one might be screwed by the political class, or one wants to use the political machinery to screw others (in a word, third-world tribalist politics) – in a state where the rule of law is held sacred, the means by which those laws are administered is unimportant.
Pumas needto begin the education of the American electorate. People have to start taking responsibiltiy for actually reading and researching before they use those hard won rights of suffrage. We cannot start too soon.
all during this election, when i tried to tell people about what I knew about obama and his campaign I was either told that i was only getting my news from fox, or last night, i was told by my oldest that I was a conspiracy theorist …
it’s going to be an uphill battle and the country will be hurt badly before they get their wake up call
I remember being a lone, dissenting voice against the iraq war and being shouted down in a restaurant for being unpatriotic …
the founding parents were right about the role of the fourth branch of government, but now it’s a near monopoly and it hires folks with little substance ..
the only hope is to keep banging away on our computer keys with eyes open and truth spoken
What’s wrong with being a conspiracy theorist?
“It is also important for the State to inculcate in its subjects an aversion to any outcropping of what is now called ‘a conspiracy theory of history.’ For a search for ‘conspiracies,’ as misguided as the results often are, means a search for motives, and an attribution of individual responsibility for the historical misdeeds of ruling elites. If, however, any tyranny or venality, or aggressive war imposed by the State was brought about not by particular State rulers but by mysterious and arcane ‘social forces,’ or by the imperfect state of the world — or if, in some way, everyone was guilty — then there is no point in anyone’s becoming indignant or rising up against such misdeeds. Furthermore, a discrediting of ‘conspiracy theories’ will make the subjects more likely to believe the ‘general welfare’ reasons that are invariably put forth by the modern State for engaging in aggressive actions.”
-Murray Rothbard