Good morning, Wednesday. It's a gloomy day here in the city of NY but still pretty warm so there's that. I know you read this blog for my musings on how to rock the latest such and such or what hair product is going to change your life, but I have some things to say in the political realm so if you don't like politics (none of us do), then don't read this post. Consider yourself warned, because this post is all about Washington.
As you are all well aware, the midterm elections were yesterday and the results were, well, not particularly surprising but also very much of a bummer for blue types around the country. The Republicans are back in control, and unless I was hearing this incorrectly on the news last night, the Dems won't have a chance to swing it back until 2020. That's a long time. A very long time.
I wrote this past weekend about Taylor Swift becoming the NYC ambassador, and how it made many of us cringe as more and more of the NYC we once loved is disappearing. A New York times piece called this to task and said that although so many of us are mourning the loss of places like Yaffa Cafe, none of us are willing to do much about it from our designer sofas in Brooklyn. I can't disagree, and the notion of "passive nostalgia" is something troubling- that we want things to be the way they were but we don't do anything about it.
It's kind of how I feel about this whole election cuckoo last night.
It's clear that people want change- if more people would look at Obama's presidency, they would see many wins, but it's also clear to me that this country was not ready for the kind of change Obama was bringing about- from his Presidential style to Obamacare to oh, just about everything. I feel that as a nation, we are mired and mucked in a state of passive nostalgia psychosis- the Republicans yearn for the Reagan years while the Democrats yearn for something more reminiscent of the Clintons. I say both are strategically off base and we should really focus on something new, REAL change that embraces who we are as a people now- a people that were invaded on their very own shores, a people whose family structure is very different than what it used to be, a people who need to focus on technology, innovation, and creativity as well as a people who try to repair a terminally ill middle class and encourage small business to thrive and grow as a result.
As a human being, it's hard not to be nostalgic for the past when the present does not look great and thoughts of the future look even worse. And you can't argue with the fact, whether you are red or blue or purple, that we as an American collective have lost a lot. But I feel strongly that we need to stop with the nostalgia and literal interpretations and poison rhetoric. I will never agree with the Tea Party and I hate what they stand for because it's ridiculous to impose values on people that feel positively archaic. The world has changed. The country has changed. We have all changed. I'm concerned with the pedagogy of our whole political system and feel like there needs to be major reform.
But this hatred from both sides of each other is not helping anyone. Isn't this country about justice for all? Why has everything become so incredibly mean spirited? I felt I had to step away from the TV so as not to get hit with the mud being slung back and forth during the midterm.
I grew up in a very Republican home- my father was a Republican because he was a big believer and zealot for Kissinger era foreign policy, not to mention that the Reagan years were good years for him financially. And as a child growing up in the Reagan years, one had the feeling that America was invincible, even if movies like "The Day After" had us all feeling a nuclear attack. There was no stopping us, even the evil Russians couldn't mess with us. But cut to now.
Reagan is dead, the Russians are fucking with us yet again, and we have much to fear right here in America. In all candor, I'm not disappointed in the politicians- they are power hungry Type A's who really don't care about any of us, but care more about their own advancement, so it's not surprising that they are out for blood. I'm disappointed in the people of this country- a country where we enjoy so many freedoms and relative prosperity but we're too afraid to move forward and that we can't seem to organize enough to demand more of our elected officials. I keep feeling like we have no control over what happens in Washington, and that's beyond unsettling. I vote to be part of the process, because I love that process and consider myself lucky to do so.
Sure, I'm mad that myopia is setting in in Washington, and that "yes we can" makes me feel nostalgic and that I feel like we just can't. I guess my hope for the next few years and for the next President is to find a way to work across the aisle, to listen to the voices of the people, and to bring about real change that is reflective of the country and the world we live in. I want the government to run almost like a tech company- always looking for ways to improve, innovate, and be first when it comes to helping people live better and more empowered lives. Hey, Sergey Brin- maybe you should run for President in 2016. You'd probably get my vote, regardless of what party you run for. I don't want the old America back. I want Washington to get better at moving forward vs. looking too far into the past and the way things were. Adapt or die- isn't that a prime tenet of evolution, and really, capitalism and democracy in general? So let's do it and put the past behind us. I'm tired of all of this constant bickering and smack talking and divisiveness. I just want to live in a country I'm proud of that does great things for its people and for the world, without a hint of nostalgia. Just move on and become a government that can bring about real change for a population that is not the same as it ever was. I'm seeing a lot of posts from my fellow Dems that speak of not "giving up the fight" but I think this whole civil war happening down in DC should just stop. I'm tired of being the child of a bad divorce, aren't you?
And that's what's up this once in a lifetime kind of Wednesday in the 212. Yours in down, but never out. XO