I won't even bother to link to the numerous stories on the latest silly manifestation of the weird thought now current amongst the Democratic elite that if they were to play the role of abusive husband, the Left would assent to the role of battered wife, a sort of weird twist on "if you build it, they will come", only I would unsurprisingly prefer watching baseball with Kevin Costner than getting punched. Suffice it to say that it is not much of a tactic to get me excited about participating in the elections. I never believed in "change" in the first place, and the 2008 elections were the first I did not participate in.
Still, though, I can't help but believe that all of this bitching about bitching betrays a certain cynicism towards those who actually did believe. And I find it a bit distasteful. I know my expectations are unrealistic, but I also know that, here on the fringes, even though I accomplish nothing, I am still at least, if only barely, holding down my little fort at the edge of the forest, just as tiny reminder that, yes, people used to walk in this part of the woods. But if my cynicism stems from the frustration of knowing my desires will never be realized, Washington's cynicism is towards those who don't realize that desire is just something to be manipulated and forgotten about once it has accomplished its goals. The carrot doesn't exist - what fools so many were to chase it.
Or at least that is the message I get.
Another one is, of course, surprise at the lack of gratitude. Don't us peasants know that it took a lot of catered late-night meetings to hammer out these compromises? A lot of limousines stopped traffic on Pennsylvania Avenue, on Connecticut Avenue, on M Street NW and K Street NW and, of course, Wisconsin Avenue, just so that these "solutions" could exist.
If Obama were really Kennedy, he would understand that huge compromises can be hidden in a larger narrative, that history would be kind to those who kept the fight in the front pages even while making deals behind closed doors. Only the most frustrated among us, dis-including huge swaths of independents, moderates, Democrats, liberals, progressives, Leftists, even, hear Kennedy's name and think only of the Bay of Pigs, Vietnam, and an administration that utilized the (admittedly young) CIA far more than any of his predecessors. Most mostly think of Civil Rights and the famous call to service. He talked of principles even if his practice betrayed them and seemingly did his best to keep the path illuminated even as he strayed from it it.
If it really were to feel that these compromises were the prelude to something greater, battles won in a wider war, then that could only be because our leader continued to ask us to fight and to fight for us. Instead, the victory has been all his. How dare we spoil it.
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