With Christmas upon us and the New Year celebrations just around the corner, today seems as good a time as any to take stock of 2011. Sifting through all the crazy stuff that happens over the course of any one year in search of a few gold nuggets is a tried-and-true endeavor for correspondents through the ages. What's a liberal's perspective? Here's a few 2011 outcomes worth toasting as we ring in the New Year.
Occupy Wall Street: Power to the 99%
Let's raise our glasses to the courage and perseverance of the hundreds of thousands of individuals who are making the Occupy movement a change mechanism for working people around the world. Though the establishment has used raw power to temporarily evict the occupancy's encampments, the Occupy army's fortitude enduring the hard concrete of Zucotti Park and the hot anger of our entitled Wall Street welfare queens — not to mention our newly militarized, pepper-spray spewing city police forces — during late summer through late fall cannot be underestimated. Occupy has reframed the conversation about the vicissitudes of our global economic fortunes in a profound way. Occupy puts a human face on the growing disparity between the extremely rich 1% and the rest of us. By its use of nonviolence within its provocatively unapologetic mission, Occupy is sharpening public understanding of the high stakes of the economic policy battles to come. The anti-labor, pro-corporate elitist, billionaire-funded far-right Republican Party may have sapped the life from our middle class and deepened the pain for those least fortunate citizens over the last 30 years. But because of Occupy, the battle lines are being redrawn, giving moderates and liberals alike a fighting chance against the greed merchants aligned against us. We truly are the 99%, whose only real demand of our elected leaders is protection from the immoral exercise of wealth and power that, more than anytime perhaps in recorded history, threatens anyone who earns a paycheck. Thanks, Occupy.
Osama, Libya, and Iraq: Who's Tough on Terror?
What a difference a presidency makes. Let's give thanks for having a president who made good on his promise to end a godforsaken eight-plus-year occupation of Iraq that ended with 4,486 U.S. soldiers killed, 32,226 seriously wounded, according to U.S. Liberal Politics — casualties set in motion by one of the most immoral presidential administrations in this nation's history. In stark contrast, here's a toast to the Navy Seal assault team's bravery in bringing the al Qaida leader to justice with a Obama-approved surgical strike and without a single American loss. And, let's not forget one more "Hail to the Chief" for ending another reign of terror, that of Muammar Qaddafi with a truly united NATO military assist for Libya's ragtag rebels. Why we went to war in Iraq may never make sense in hindsight, but the message from the Obama administration in putting an end to the occupation this month, aiding Libya's freedom fighters over the summer, and taking out Islamic extremists throughout the year is clear — a progressive president is no slouch when it comes to protecting Americans from terrorist threats, no matter where they try to hide. Can you imagine where we might be under a President McCain? Yikes!
The Arab Spring: Where Credit Is Due
There are many reasons for the outburst of protests that broke out at the start of 2011 in Tunisia and spread to Egypt, Barain, Syria and elsewhere among the dictatorships of the Arab world. But certainly one key element has been President Obama's clearly articulated call for peaceful progress among Arab nations in 2009, and his words of support for Egyptian citizens who faced armed thugs in Tahrir Square following the downfall of Hosni Mubarak in February. Here's what the president said on Feb. 11 in underlining his admiration for that honorable overthrow:
"For in Egypt it was the moral force of nonviolence, not terrorism, not mindless killing, but nonviolence, moral force that bent the arc of history toward justice once more."
Again, what would a belligerent President McCain be saying in such circumstances? More than likely, "Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran!"
The New Obama: Major Mojo Man
Nobody ever said being president of the United States would be easy, least of all for this country's first African-American president. But the "Hope" appeal that won him that honor also has set up Obama to be held to a different, higher set of expectations — those of conciliator, consensus-builder, and cool customer in chief. Faced with his formidable natural appeal and post-election popularity, Republicans quickly figured out how to take political advantage of the young, optimistic leader: disparage him, call him a liar in front of millions of Americans, question his birth certificate, his love of this country, his management skills, even his blackness. Obama himself abetted them, at first seeming to acquiescence on too many liberal causes. His approval numbers, by the mid-summer showdown with Congressional Republicans over the budget continuing resolution, slid into the low 40% in some polls. Then, remarkably, Obama caught a break in the overwhelming attention paid to Occupy Wall Street protests. The Main Stream Media could no longer ignore the true origins of our economic maelstrom: right-wing, trickle-down economics and tax breaks for the rich hadn't delivered the promised jobs or prosperity, and calls for more of the same began sounding hollow. Facts on Obama's own success in job-creation began countering the right's blatant lies about those successes. By September, Obama wisely put together his broadly popular American Jobs Act and took it to voters to explain its benefits. It fit the new positive economic narrative nicely, while Congressional Tea Party types led Republicans in rejecting Obama's job-creating effort in its entirety, leaving little doubt who is supporting the middle class and wage earners at all incomes. The battle lines have been drawn for 2012. I like our chances.
Happy holidays, one and all! See ya next year.
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