I Think I Have B&E Fatigue

As I'm sure my six regular readers have noticed, I've been a bit off of late. Not only have the posts been fewer and farther between, but they've also been of a much lower quality. I'm aware of it, but I'm not sure why I've got such a lack of inspiration for things B&E related.

But hey! Maybe I'll write a post on B&E about it! Isn't that what bloggers do? Me me me me me me me me me me me me me.

When I kicked this sucker off a few years ago, it was largely because I was absolutely disgusted by Republican rule, and I needed a place to vent. Like so many, I feared that a new administration would stifle my desire to continue the regular posting, but I forged onward, undaunted.

There's been plenty to complain about or comment upon during the still-less-than-one-year that we've had a slightly more palatable president and administration.

I never really drank the Obama Kool-Aid the way so many other lefties did. Don't get me wrong: I supported him and voted for him. I liked the soaring rhetoric and decided that it would be refreshing and amazing to have a leader who could actually fucking inspire.

And of course there was the sheer historical value of the moment.

But I also listened to what he had to say, and I always wanted him to be farther to the left than how he actually portrayed himself. I think a lot of progressives thought he was saying what he needed to say to get elected and that his true colors would be revealed upon getting into office.

I think he was being pretty honest, actually. He always said he'd fight the "good war" in Afghanistan. He never pretended (during the election, anyway) that he was going to totally overhaul health care. He was always a "within the system" sort of guy, who spoke all pretty and let everyone project whatever they wanted onto him.

So I don't feel particularly betrayed or shocked by his thoughtful approach, his determination to compromise, his desire to be overly careful, or his differing opinions in whatever the best policy is for any given scenario.

I also think he's a lot smarter than I am. A lot. But hey, I can disagree with people who could wonk me under the table. I just might lose an argument. Not that I've had a conversation with President Obama.

When I find myself disagreeing with his decisions or being disappointed in his lack of fire or willingness to fight, other (also smarter) people than me do a perfectly fine job of expressing my feelings and thoughts on the matter, before I even have a chance to process something. Nothing takes the wind out of the sails of a rant more than the realization: "Gosh, that smart person really just summed up how I feel."

Back in 2008, when all of the various congressional fundraising committees were inundating me with appeals for my money, they were talking about how awesome it would be to have a SUPERMAJORITY! WE'LL BE ABLE TO DO WHATEVER WE WANT TO DO! IT'LL BE THE BEST WAY TO GET SHIT DONE!

Boy, and how.

And now there's progressive infighting over this health care debacle. Some (like Howard Dean and activist bloggers) say fuck it: kill the bill. It's just too damned destructive now. Others (like policy wonk bloggers such as Nate Silver) say killing the bill would be a Pyrrhic victory: many people would still be helped by this bill, as shitty as it may be and killing the bill hurts many of the people the left purports to be fighting for.

I don't actually know where I stand on this issue. My hunch is to say pass this sucker no matter how crappy it is. And then progressives should never compromise again. "That's it. We did nothing but bend over for you to pass health care. Now you have to come to us for everything else." In other words, pass this fucker and then be the biggest pain in the ass possible to anything that comes close to going against progressive values.

Progressives in the House always get ignored. Progressives in the Senate are pretty much limited to Bernie Sanders and Russ Feingold. What little influence they have should be wielded as brutally as humanly possible. After all, the Democrats need Russ and Bernie just as badly as they need Joe Lieberman and Ben Nelson. So fuck 'em.

And that's why I'm not a politician. Politics is nothing but compromise.

Unless you're a Republican. They never fucking compromise about anything. They're playing a different game, it's about ideology over governing, and it's very destructive.

When unified ideology goes head-to-head with weenied fecklessness, the result is very ugly indeed.

So it's been a time of blahs here in B&E country. I feel pretty hopeless about it all. Even though I didn't have the same level of optimism as most Obama supporters when he won the election, my cynicism has still managed to deepen in the past year. If I get any more cynical, it'll be downright nihilistic, and I like the missus too much to wish that upon her.

All this is to say that I don't feel like writing about this shit. It bums me out. I don't see the humor in it (although I still appreciate some of the humor in it when Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert chew it up and masticate). I don't feel the hope of progress.

And who wants to spend time writing about that kind of crap?