5th December, 2008

MICAH TILLMAN

United States

It's been a month since our historic elections here in the States. The fall semester is ending. Final exams are next week.

Everyone's panicking. Students have to “cram” all the information they neglected to study. Teachers can hear the stampeding herd of tests and papers they're going to have to grade.

CONFUSED? Don't worry - you're not alone, says Micah Tillman. PICTURE: PeskyMonkey (www.iStockphoto.com) "Confused? So are we. And that's what's so great about being an American (he said, ironically). Nobody ever has any idea what's going on. "

Parents have to buy all the Christmas presents they've been putting off. If they can find the money.

And if they haven't yet been “let go” by their small-business-owning bosses-who have to figure out how many employees they're going to have to fire this holiday season.

Large business owners, on the other hand, have to figure out how to get Congress to give them billions in loans. (Good luck, GM, Ford, and Chrysler. The very politicians you're begging for money are the ones who spend so much of their time condemning you for global warming.)

And Americans in general have to figure out whether they like the team President-elect Obama is putting together. It seems packed to the gills with “Clinton Retreads” (even Hillary Clinton herself, as Secretary of State!).

Responses on the Left seem to fall into two groups:

1. The press exults, as they see “the Best of Then” and “the Best of Now” coming together. What's not to like about an All-Star team? The Clinton 90's weren't so bad, after all, and they've taken on a kind of Eden-esque glow after The Bush Era.

2. Progressive True Believers, however, are afraid that Obama's apparent capitulations to Team Clinton are harbingers of compromise. Broken promises lie just around the corner. And where will “Hope” and “Change” (Obama's two campaign mantras) be then?

On the Conservative side of things, there's a heated debate over whether the “Social Conservatives” (read: “Conservative Christians”) shouldn't be kicked out.

Individual battles within this war are being fought by Kathleen Parker and Dr James Dobson, and David Brooks and Conservative Talk Radio (that is, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity).

The idea is that social (religious) conservatism is what has cost the Republicans the past two national elections. And, evidently, winning is what matters.

This is not to say that religious conservatives didn't have any wins this election. Arizona, Arkansas, California, and Florida all passed bans on either gay marriage or the adoption of children by gay couples. (Such things are often still issues of state, not federal, law.)

And California is supposedly our most progressive state. It's like the Europe or Canada of America. Go figure.

However, conservatives lost on “life issues”- such as abortion and doctor-assisted suicide - in five states, and on other traditional conservative issues - such as drugs, gambling, and affirmative action - in three.

Confused? So are we. And that's what's so great about being an American (he said, ironically). Nobody ever has any idea what's going on.

The primary issue on everyone's mind is the economy, and even there no one is sure what's happening. Gas prices are way down, which is wonderful, but so is everyone's confidence in our collective financial future.

State, county, and local governments are all experiencing “budget shortfalls,” while the national government keeps giving away more and more money it doesn't really have.

All this, interestingly enough, makes things both harder and easier on the Progressive Christians among us.

It raises the level of need, and thus the urgency of charity. But it also creates the kind of emotional crisis which tends to lead the populace in the Progressive direction.

It brings, therefore, both immediate stress and hopeful speculation.

What we all await with great expectation is Inauguration Day, 20th January. It seems the entire world is on its way to DC to see Obama sworn in.

Maybe then things will start to get better.

Micah Tillman is a lecturer in the School of Philosophy at The Catholic University of America, and the curator of the WEeding Awards.

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