Out with the Old, In with the New

It's been quite a while since I've been able to post. Just a quick little diatribe to get back into the swing of things:

When the ball dropped in Times Square, I felt a sense of relief that 2005, an armpit of a year, was finally over. Time to turn over a new page on the calender and try, try again. Imagine my surprise at surfing over to Alternet and finding that they think that 2005 was not all bad. And if you think about it, they're right. Sure in 2005 we had disasters and scandals and scandals about disasters, but, with a one-party government, we of a liberal nature can just sit back and laugh at the implosion of the Repub Party. Suddenly, it's 1994 all over again. Only this time, it's the Repubs who have been absolutely corrupted by absolute power.

Years from now, hopefully, we'll look back at 2005 as the end of an era, the year that the country finally turned a corner, the year that the American public began to see through the game of three card monte that is the Repub platform, the year that the greed and arrogance finally came home to roost. Only the Kool-aid drinkers with blinders on still believe that our president is honest and trustworthy. Compassionate conservatism, WMDs, a humble foreign policy, the environmental president, the education president, torture, domestic espionage, Plamegate, Katrinagate -- the lies are adding up. Most of the American populace has now come to realize that Bush's firmness and resolve is in actuality just arrogance and bullheadedness. Everyday more Americans realize that Bush's Iraqi adventure is nothing but a colossal waste of lives, money and resources. Everyday more Americans finally realize that the Repub trickle-down economic policies don't trickle down very far. Everyday seems to bring a new scandal that drives to the heart of the Repub Party. Everyday more Americans wonder what happened to the America they once knew.

A week into the new year, it doesn't seem like much has changed, but there's a subtle flavor in the air. The latest scandal is the Jack Abramoff plea bargain. Suddenly the man who was the toast of K Street has become Jack Who? Politicians are racing to distance themselves from their former benefactor and return or donate to charity their ill-gotten gains. President Bush can't even recall if he's ever met the former Bush Pioneer who raised a fortune for his campaign. The Repubs are in full spin mode, but this is mainly a one-party scandal and Jack Abramoff is not an aberration. He's the embodiment of a corrupt system of governance.

And we still have a news media that just doesn't seem to get it. One of the biggest stories of the new year was the tragedy at the Sago Mine in West Virginia. We're bombarded with stories about the miners' final hours and the notes they left behind and the health updates on the sole survivor, but told very little about why a mine that had almost three hundred safety violations was still in operation. If it can't be reduced to a soundbite or a touching visual or a "he said, she said" argument, the press barely cares.

But still, it's a brand new year, maybe even a brand new era. People are waking up, looking around, and realizing that they've been conned. Now, in 2006, we can rejoice. It's an election year.

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