GREETINGS, BLOGPHILES!
It is Wednesday, January 20, 2021, at 11:20 a.m., and I am crying like a baby.
I know and understand politics and how elections and inaugurations work. I have been a journalist through many.
But never in my life have I felt the release of the fears adding up over the past four years, and that release being a blossom of hope for our future.
I have always tried never to be caught up in politics, but, instead, to look at what could be.
The United States of America is and always has been the Great Experiment in defining what can be.
We haven’t always been perfect in what we’ve done and how we’ve done it, but no one person or one country is perfect.
Where we have failed has almost always been when politics and unyielding personal beliefs that divided our people have gotten in the way of doing what we all know to be right.
Even the white supremacists know what is right, they just choose to ignore it for what they believe will be personal gain.
When, during crises, Americans have set goals and worked together to achieve them, we have seen great things.
During the Great Depression, Americans came together to help each other.
During the Second World War, many Americans saw it as a sacred duty to enlist in the military, while others served at home to help the war effort through replacing the lost workforce, rationing, and even planting gardens.
Even during the Civil War, although we did see the United States divided, the real Americans who formed the Union, still came together to bring the states who had lost their way back into the nation.
(And this is why it is ludicrous to pay homage to Confederate “heroes” in any way.)
Today, I believe the United States is at a similar crossroads, and I further believe that President Biden is the exact person we need to get us through this latest crisis.
Our new president is truly a man of faith. One who not only “talks the talk,” like his predecessor glibly did, but every day, Biden “walks the walk,” as well, which his predecessor never did.
Over the past four years, we saw the 45th President look for ways to sew division among the American people, because he was only capable of seeing division as the best way to keep his power and his base, even though he had to know that base only represented a minority of Americans.
The 46th President will do just the opposite, in looking for ways to bring others into his camp.
But we have to accept that not all of the things we may want will happen.
America has a lot of rebuilding to do from the past four years. And I have hope that our new President, Joseph R. Biden, Jr. will do just that.
Agree! It was so refreshing to watch the first press briefing last nite. No screaming, insults. No one said anything about “fake news.” (Can we please retire those words?) We can disagree on policy, but I hope we can get back to a set of facts, just facts and not “alternative facts,” in order to have a national conversation. For me, it’s calming to know that competent people, not hacks, cronies and relatives are being nominated for top jobs. (Listen up, Kristi!) Once again, I can look at Old Glory flying in the breeze and feel pride and not a sense of sadness. Cheers, everyone!
It was an eye leaking day, now today we get to see that the trumpies had no vaccine plan at all. I’m sure its just the start of rebuilding the country, Biden is the right person at the right time. Its an enormous job.
I breathed a sigh of relief, too, but I doubt you’ll see that many Republicans agreeing to a set of facts, There’s a whole conservative industry out there manufacturing public relations: fake facts that serve particular purposes. They prop up fake scientists or real economists to generate doubt with “alternative facts.” I follow the Heritage Foundation, and today they are putting out the same BS that they have for decades. This won’t stop. It is more sophisticated than QAnon and attracts a high educated elite and but it’s still around after over a half century of generating lies. Books have been written about this “doubt industry,” nurtured by corporate funders and affiliated think tanks. It ain’t going away.
Rust Limpaw, soon to be a distant memory like long forgotten hemorrhoids, had an interesting take on why the inaugural crowd was so small. He thinks Libs were ashamed to show up because we all know the election was stolen.
Like the Statler Bros once sang, He will go to his grave lying to you.
Come on Donald, the Qs are a sophisticated bunch. They are Star Trek fans after all. They must believe in one world government.
Mike, Rush is dying, you have to give the old boy a break. He’s made it through addiction and his mind is going too.
Thank you. And let’s all be gentle on ourselves for awhile. It takes some time for trauma to fully manifest and resolve after the trauma stimuli are removed.
Last night Sean Hannity told his listeners that Biden’s Inauguration speech was the worst one ever given, along with a myriad of disparging and insulting comments. Now there’s a fellow trying to fan the flames of division in this country, but projecting blame on Biden, other news media, Democrats, Republicans that have questioned the false claims of election fraud, and anyone else he can quote out of context. The story is online for anyone wanting to look for it, but I am not inclined to post links to anything Hannity says. These days it seems like he is trying to join Tucker Carlson to replace Rush Limbaugh and Alex Jones has the most obnoxious public figures on the mainstream media.
I saw a great interview with Michael Moore. His answer to how do we bring the country together was for Democrats to DO what they say they want to do. REALLY DO IT. When people find themselves going to hospitals and not going broke; when people have their kids going to college for free; when we deliver on what we promise, THEN it will be hard for people to be upset with Democrats. That is how we heal and unify.
I agree. Democrats won the election, now govern like Democrats and GET THINGS DONE. If that does not happen, then it is all too easy for states, like the Rust Belt, to slip red again and who knows what nightmare rises from that ember.
Fox News et al will sew the discord, people will need to have results in front of them to turn away from rhetoric.
It feels like Biden is going that direction on the first day.
Agreed. Biden must deliver material benefits to ordinary people. That will help heal the nation and reduce tension.
So well said!!!
Hope has been restored.
So well said!!!
Hope has been restored.
A little humor to end the week.
https://www.politico.com/cartoons/2021/01/22/the-nations-cartoonists-on-the-week-in-politics-000201?slide=0
Hank Aaron as left Turner Field for the final time. Couldn’t outlive racist magat hate. RIP!
“trump campaign used shell companies to provide funds and support for Jan. 6 pre-insurgency rally” Can’t reunite without prosecution of the traitors . https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/1/22/2011148/-Trump-campaign-initiated-and-funded-Jan-6-rally-using-a-network-of-shell-companies
See how they did it. That was a bought and paid for revolt of hired guns.
Hope is restored, but criticism and vitriol will be back, too, and just as angry and impassioned as before, just from the other side. And we must be ready and stay informed and zealous. And I swear I’m gonna get me one of those t-shirts that says “MAKE LIES WRONG AGAIN”.
Hope springs eternal, but integrity comes from surprising sources like Liz Cheney.
Sadly these Republicans are being demonized and face primary challenges for simply doing the constitutional thing. It’s gonna take a lot more than Joe Biden to reunite the country.
hc, there are certain Republicans (not all) who deserve demonization, but more than that, the nation begs for some accountability, including accountability for the former president, and those who aided and abetted and funded the traitors who sacked and desecrated our Capitol and threatened our leaders with assassination.
The whole Republican-Insurrectionist gig since Nixon in the 1940s has been the Democrats are communists.
Noem said the same thing. She called all the voters who voted for Ossoff and Warnock “communists”.
Maybe she should return the over $3 000 000 welfare she received from USDA back to the US Government and pay us back for the Pierre fence.
No matter how many good things Biden and Harris do for our country, the Insurrection Party will always be screaming and calling us names. Their lives are built of ignorance and lying.
When will the Dem Party of South Dakota make an announcement on how soon they will win 80 seats in the Legislature and erase the Rs? Being bipartisan is an excuse for being giving no the microphone to the Republican Insurrectionist Party.
For the Democratic Party in South Dakota staying chicken, voters don’t respect that.
Let’s be Tripartisan——- the whole South Dakota government can be composed of Democrats (center-left), Greens (left-center) and Libertarian (center-right)!
Saying “South Dakota is a Republican State” is terrible, it’s like saying, “ The Party whose members invaded the US Capitol also run South Dakota! “
Say it ain’t so! Insurrectionist Party runs South Dakota, no way!
Republican Party is a burning dumpster fire.
January 6 was a putsch, a grab for power, against the votes for the people.
We can drag South Dakota into the 21st century! Elect Democrats, Greens and Libertarians from now on!