Time to be a downer
But I fear that too many people, across the nation and world, have projected their deepest hopes onto Obama. People see in him what they want to see, think that he believes in all the same things they do, and think that his agenda for the nation mirrors their own. And while I’d love to believe that Barack Obama will do all sorts of wonderful, positive things, I can’t help but remember the similar excitement, hope and belief in “change” that came with the inauguration of Bill Clinton. The Bill Clinton who bombed Iraq, Somalia, and Kosovo, cut welfare, instituted Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, signed the Defense of Marriage Act, maintained the harsh sanctions against Iraq that may have killed half a million Iraqi children, and championed NAFTA and the WTO. One can’t help but notice that Barack Obama has stocked his cabinet with many of the same faces we saw during the Clinton administration, and I can’t help but be fairly cynical.
Please do more podcasts and writing, Jake.
When you mess up, then spend four years saying OH MY GOD WE MESSED UP, then do it again because people managed to convince you that your homophobia was more important than common sense, and then you finally, almost miraculously, manage to get it right, or at least as right as you could under the circumstances, you have not earned the right to pat yourself on the back and throw yourself a party. Even if John Hodgman says you can.
