Stick a Fork in Us, We’re Done

It’s so over.

Health care, financial reform, pick an issue: they’re all lost, and the depth and breadth of the failure is simply staggering. I find nothing in this article by Michael Brenner (Senior Fellow at the Center for Transatlantic Relations) at Huffington Post to disagree with. In fact, a few days ago I posted and then deleted a similar sentiment out of self-critical embarrassment, but I guess I’m not the only one who feels this way, after all:

Serious health care reform is gone with the wind. It cannot be retrieved. All other domestic issues pale in importance by comparison — except for the financial crisis. On that front, Obama has behaved exactly as he now has done on the health care front. That is to say, viewing the world from the prejudicial perspective of the high and mighty while neglecting his duty to the citizenry and those who put their trust in him. The question: ‘who really is Barack Obama?’ is more compelling than ever. The answer looks to be more and more disheartening.

Meanwhile, the blogosphere will churn and sputter, politicians will preen and strut as a thousand little dictators and saviors bloom, while “normal” life grows harder and harder… I have the strongest intuition that we’ve already passed the cusp of a profound historical and cultural shift that demands we find new ways to live. The old solutions each have millions of adherents, but none of them work any more — especially voting! The trick here, of course, is to see this as a gift…

For my part, I feel little disillusionment or regret. My personal inner discoveries are so overwhelming these days and appear at first glance to have nothing to do with the above, that with any luck at all, I’ll spend the rest of my years making up for lost time. In other words, I have more interesting and compelling things to do, and if I DO them, I may “escape” the collapse of complacency looming over us like a breaking wave. In this regard, the crime of my own upbringing could turn out to be a blessing in disguise.

(Hey, is this thing scalable?)

Related posts:

1. My Great-Great-Grandmother’s Fork
2. Dysfunctional Government, at the Very Least…
3. Thought for the Day
4. Kill the Bill! [Updated]
5. Prelude to Liberation