Time's Up

I have been absent from Prairie Pondering for far too long. I apologize to any who care. I have not been silent for lack of opinions to express. Rather, I have been too demoralized by the hijacking of the democratic process since January, 2009 to find the will to express myself publicly.

I have sat mostly in silence while the GOP adopted a strategy of stonewalling any effort by the Obama Administration and its supporters in Congress to carry out the policies approved by an overwhelming majority of the American electorate in 2008.

I have stewed mutely while, for example, Commandant McConnell led the opposition to the President's announced plan to close the prison at Guantanamo, then belittled the Commander in Chief for his inability to get things done.

I have exercised my eyebrows and neck muscles, but not my typing fingers, listening to FAUX News and its anointed cadre of self-promoting political charlatans repeat one big lie after another with its intended effect.

Not tonight. Time's up. There's an election tomorrow and I cannot allow it to occur without encouraging my like-minded progressives to make the modicum of effort necessary to vote. I cannot allow the election to occur without expressing my sympathy to those drinking the FAUX-Bachmann-Palin-Hannity-Huckabee-Emmer (FBPHHE) Kook-Aid over the tragic loss of their common sense and their abandonment of logic in search of the quick fix.

To the progressives: Get off your butts and vote. He may have been ridiculed for saying it publicly, but Vice President Biden was right. Quit whining. Real life is not a one-hour television drama where the problem presented in the opening is resolved before the final credits roll. This country faces serious social and financial challenges that existed long before President Obama took office. There is no magic fix and, thank God, we elected a president in 2008 who makes it a habit to take the time, and has the mental capacity, to analyze a problem before pursuing a solution. When FBPHHE mock you for blaming President Bush and the Republicans after Democrats have been in office for so long, do not flinch. Blame away. With no meaningful defense for the way Bush/Cheney ran the country into the ground, FBPHHE has no choice but to ridicule those of us who continue to hold Bush/Cheney, and those who would return to their policies, accountable for the mess we are in.

To FBPHHE: Your mindless pursuit of derailing the Obama Administration and steadfast determination to oppose for the sake of opposition is traitorous.

You might hide behind your "America First" rhetoric. You might decry a declining labor market and long for a solution through good old American entrepreneurship. You might gloat over the effectiveness of scaring the electorate with the Big Lies of widespread voter fraud, workable alternatives to health care reform or the possibility of meaningfully smaller government. But the bottom line is that once you've succeeded in winning elections on the strength of inaccurate sound bites, corporate financed attack ads and frightening voters into mindless submission, you have an obligation to actually govern. To date, you have offered no viable solutions to the problems facing our nation.

As you've shown, you don't need a majority to control the flow of legislation. Democrats have NOT been in charge these past four years and if predictions about GOP success tomorrow prove true, FBPHHE will have taken on the moral obligation to participate in the process of solving what ails us. If instead, FBPHHE views the 2010 election as merely a stepping stone to the national elections in 2012 and continues to impede a functioning government, it will create a far greater danger to our children's and grandchildren's well-being than any downside resulting from President Obama trying to keep the economy and financial system from imploding. Hence, traitors.

Here's a link to a op-ed expression by someone making the same point, but who put more time into actually researching the threats we face.

Please vote on November 2nd.