Was once a podcast with Elwood D. Pennypacker (@oldtimeelwood on the Twitter) that went by the old expression "Punk Isn't Dead, It Just Goes to Bed at a More Reasonable Hour".
Monday, January 05, 2009
Senator Al Franken?
In what is possibly the final part of the addendum of the 2008 Election, if the courts process affirms the presumed final tally, Al Franken - an original Not Ready for Prime Time Player on Saturday Night Live, the comedian who rejoined the show during one of its better eras, the political satirist that sought to be a more reasonable answer on the liberal side to the right wing machine, the guy who made a noble effort at a liberal talk radio network (he succeeded, as did Rachel Maddow, the rest failed), will be the elected Senator from the state of Minnesota, a New York Jew who defeated an incumbent Brooklyn Jew by the name of Norm Coleman - a man who lost to professional wrestler Jesse "The Body" Ventura for Governor 8 years ago, and who won the Senate seat in 2002 after his opponent - the amazing human being known as Paul Wellstone - died in a plane crash and the right wing exploited the fervor of the memorial service to gather opposition to replacement candidate Fritz Mondale.
But like I said, this guy is quite possibly (and now probably) the next Senator from Minnesota:
Always Look on the Bright Side of Life: The Electric Slide Election Edition
He did it.
We did it.
As an American, I don't think I've ever had a happier moment.
John McCain proved in his speech that he still has more class and more dignity than the people he has surrounded himself with the last few months. If the McCain of this speech was the candidate of the campaign, Obama may not have had such an easy electoral college win.
In equal measure, Obama's reference to the old Republican Party is exactly the kind of rhetoric that should bridge and inspire those who are willing to listen.
Great goodness - George W. Bush is not only 70 days away from leaving the Presidency, he was told tonight by a distinct majority of the nation that if they had to do it over again, it would be thanks but no thanks. Vindication.
I wonder what was making Sarah Palin actually cry.
I would like to put into words, the true words, what I feel about Obama, about the moment, about this night, about the future, about what I appreciate, about my country but tonight, Tavis Smiley said it better than anyone (save maybe John Lewis) could:
"All You Fascists" by Wilco & Billy Bragg "American Idiot" by Green Day "Keep on Rockin' in the Free World" by Neil Young
If you're still huffing about 2004, and if Sarah Palin, Joe the Plumber, and the Republican rally mongrels really boil your blood - use these three songs to fume a bit and get some catharsis. You may want to skip this if you want to get right to the excitement and, hopefully, the vindication.
To get through the day and as the early returns come in if it looks close:
"Stay Positive" by the Hold Steady "Mr. November" by the National "I Believe in Miracles" by the Ramones
The Hold Steady one speaks for itself, and the National song - while maybe being a little uncomfortable in its line "I'm the great white hope" - is a real humdinger and has also been dedicated to the candidate by the band, which has endorsed him wholeheartedly. In regards to the Ramone song, see my big mushy final note on the campaign.
If it's a loss... Well as there is no song called "I can't believe this fucking happened (again)":
"Don't Stop Believing" by Journey - for the ever-hopeful "Old Man" by Neil Young - for the resigned "Miami 2017" by Billy Joel - the Obama-loving Piano Man has just the song to console yourself in that drunken sad but rock sort of way "Walk" by Pantera and "Take Off" by Bob and Doug McKenzie with Geddy Lee for those thinking of doing something drastic
If it's a win...
"The Touch" and "Dare by Stan Bush - oh yeah "The Rising" by Bruce Springsteen - of course "Sign Sealed Delivered" by Stevie Wonder - you'll probably hear it from Obamapalooza in Grant Park either at the victory moment or at his entrance or exit "Instant Karma" by John Lennon - good post-hippie liberal party music "Simply the Best" by Tina Turner - for the sports-like atmosphere "City of Blinding Lights" by U2 - Obama's entrance song at the convention; not the best U2 song but it has their stock dramatic opening that they are so damn good at "Yes We Can" by will.i.am and friends - just because, and if you're feeling really sappy
Four years ago, with the specter of the most totalitarian regime in American history keeping its lock on the White House, I was a very manic, paranoid, and angry person. Fortunately, it turned out W. Bush was more of a lazy oaf who just enjoyed winning elections more than he truly believed in what he preached and what was preached on his behalf (though the effects of what he has done on the down low in terms of our rights and freedoms is something that has to be carefully examined in the coming years). For all my screaming and ranting of "DIE NAZIS DIE!", the great Right Wing Balloon just sort of had its air taken out by its own ineptitude. And at the same time, with the breath of distance, I looked at some of my more extreme leftist cohorts and had to take a step away from their even more manic attitudes.
So comes Obama. Suddenly, the raging anti-intellectualism of the decade is made moot. Suddenly, sound judgment, temperament, rationality, reason, all that good stuff, was made acceptable again. While I don't really regret the rage I felt towards the Right Wing in 2004, I do regret not having the grace and composure of Barack Obama.
And while I do still champion progressive, dare I even say "liberal", ideas, I am more infused with the practical realism that Obama brings to the table. To be uncompromising in our ideals, but practical in our application, is as stable and correct one can be in governance, politics, and society. And also, a little dose of "get a grip" is a healthy thing. Now when my like-minded patriots on the left scream "It'll be fascism if McCain wins!", I know better.
John McCain shamed himself with his campaign in the last couple months but I won't hold it against him, in part because - should he indeed lose on Election Day - I assume he will go back to being John McCain of years past, and he will have a spot at the table in the new Washington that Obama will attempt to forge.
I amaze myself that I have consistently avoided a personal repeat of 2004. I don't find myself screaming at the people at the McCain rallies. And even with all the anecdotal and statistical stature of the racist and the ignorant and the hateful and the paranoid, I'm not full of blood boiling rage. I am more about my guy than I am against them (probably a first in my adult political lifetime, and maybe contrary to what I said earlier). And while I do fear, do worry, that all my bitter cynicism following 2004 may very well be justified on Election Day, I still have the hope, the positivity, that this all may very well just happen as it should.
If Obama wins, does he win because the American people saw the light? That except for the extreme nutcases on the right, the great muddy middle finally saw the goodness and nobility of progressive ideas as embodied by Barack? Probably not. Americans are just extremely fickle. But in the grand scope of American history, in all its complicated and multi-layered roads, to be at this moment in and of itself constitutes a little miracle. One doesn't have to believe in anything divine to believe in miracles. When human nature time and again outdoes itself after years of expected behavior, that's a miracle. For all the flaws and hypocrisies, what happened in Philadelphia in 1776 was indeed a little miracle. And despite the horror of what's been done to peoples on this (and other) continents since, every step forward taken by people (as complicated and difficult as they have been and can be), is a miracle. Slowly but surely, despite all our machinations, we continue to show the ability to make progress. Times are very tough right now, and even though the last four years didn't prove to be the second coming of Hitler, America always stands at the danger of not just falling backwards but veering off onto dangerously wrong avenues of thought and action. An Obama win (and of course hopefully a good Obama administration) would not only steer the ship of state back away from those dangers, it would mark another great miracle in the complicated and often tragic story that began all those years ago.
Yesterday, I wrote we're gonna do it for Studs. And we still will. But we're also gonna do it for Joey. Talk about miracles - he got his former friend and political enemy Johnny to play on this song (as well as "My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down"). And even now, as the political and personal background to the sad Ramones drama still plays out, it remains a little miracle that someone like Jeffrey Hyman was able to succeed in his life, a life that was cut way too short. So let's do it for him. And Strummer. And Cash. And for all the rest - Neil, Dylan, The Boss, Billy, Costello, Bragg, John and Exene (and though he disagrees with us, the good spirit that is Billy Zoom because we love him anyway), and all the others who are responsible for me being a pathetic mush I am right now. But above all, let's do it for ourselves and for this country and idea that - at least for me - Barack Obama has made me give one last chance on.
Just four days before the possibility of one of the most significant moments in American history, we've lost Studs Terkel. The great oral historian and personality, the Bronx-born but Chicago-reared Yid, didn't so much say it all about America but had America say it all for itself. He was a true progressive, a lover of folk, Jazz, and blues, a patriot (the good kind), and a blue-collar intellectual. The would-be Secretary of Labor in a faux-Jack Tanner administration, Studs was all about capturing the American Experience in all its imperfections and pockmarks and still coming away with a sense of goodness about the whole damn thing.
The Times Obit and NPR can do him more historical justice than I can, but I'll say this: Let's do it on Tuesday for Studs. For all his naturally cynical worries about any candidate of Obama's stature, the identity of the Obama campaign can be wrapped up in the passion and soul of Studs Terkel. His whole working life, Studs championed the causes and ideas that have led to this moment. And to see a fellow immigrant to Chicago be the one to possibly bring it all home (albeit without Studs' confrontational and relentless political style), that's what it is all about. Furthermore, it is one big step in the chapter of American history and it has been done in great part to the mobilization of, and effort by, a coalition of the People (capital P) - the very thing Studs was about and sought to capture from the voices of the participants.
How impressive is Barack Obama (even with his Jerusalem flip-flop pandering)? He even has Bob Dylan speaking out in support of him, and in uncharacteristically (for Bob) direct, blunt, non-cryptic, non-cynical terms.
Amazing.
Could the Dylan/Springsteen/Bright Eyes/Arcade Fire/Decemberists/M. Ward concert for Obama be not far off from now?
