Later on Inauguration Day, 2021: WE MADE IT!

 

Later on Inauguration Day, January 20, 2021 WE MADE IT! PREVIOUS BLOGS: TERRYBAUM.BLOGSPOT.COM PLEASE FORWARD THIS TO ANYONE WHO MIGHT BE INTERESTED. IF THIS BLOG WAS FORWARDED TO YOU, YOU ARE NOT SUBSCRIBED. I tell you, I just started crying the moment after Biden took the oath. The long nightmare is over. We survived the Presidency of a despicable human being, a narcissistic psychopath. May he get what he deserves in the future. We made it. The Insurrection of Idiots failed, no one was assassinated, no nuclear weapons were deployed. Iran wasn't even bombed! Wow, can I set the bar any lower? I don't think so. Admittedly, we still have to deal with the virus, global warming, a growing movement of white supremacists, severe economic inequality, racism... What else? Surely I've forgotten something. Oh yes. A right-wing very Christian Supreme Court. Oh there's more. I know I know. BUT WE NO LONGER HAVE TO DEAL WITH A PRESIDENT WHO IS AN EMISSARY OF EVIL! SURELY, THAT IS CAUSE FOR CELEBRATION. And even if I wasn't totally crazy about Biden's speech, the whole Inauguration was a class act.

Did you hear Amanda Gorman, the first Youth Poet Laureate? She gave me chills. Click here for the video. Lady Gaga conquering our impossible-to-sing national anthem, the Star-Spangled Banner -- and J-Lo singing This Land is Your Land/America the Beautiful weren't too shabby, either. I heard that Trump was particularly pissed at Lady Gaga appearing.....

... as well he should be. Turns out she's been a BIG supporter of Biden's. The classy inauguration, combined with Biden's promise to stop that fucking XL pipeline -- it all bodes well for the future. Now about this Unity business -- by the end of his speech, I admit I was a bit swayed by the hazy dream. But what the hell does "unity" mean? For the Democrats, it has meant moving to the right, moving to the right, moving to the right in a desperate attempt to grab the coattails of the GOP and beg them to accept a deal. Thus I fear that what unity actually means to Biden is trying to meet the GOP in the middle. And as Obama saw when he moved to the "middle," that middle just kept scuttling to the right. That is NOT what FDR did. He was willing to fight HARD for bold change. The truth is that legislative progress toward freedom and equity is always very hard won. I mean, it was a lot of WORK to pass Social Security and Unemployment Benefits and the Civil Rights Act and the Emancipation Proclamation and the Affordable Care Act (half-assed though it may be). To bring any of these manifestations of social justice to fruition took intense and skillful WORK. And it wasn't about unity. It was about finding your allies, organizing your allies, persuading those who might become allies, pressuring, even twisting metaphorical arms. What about getting the vote for women? I mean, that took a RIDICULOUSLY long time. Seventy-one years from the Seneca Falls convention in 1848 to the first time women could vote in 1919. Were the suffragists interested in "unity" with the misogynists? What, pray tell, would have been the point of that? And Biden didn't seek "unity" with the pipeline people. He just stopped the pipeline. Now, maybe all this unity talk is a TACTIC to get the Right to open up a bit. Did Biden crack open many Trumpers, a few, or even one with his inaugural address? Maybe he did. If so, then Okay. It was good that he blathered about unity. Let the President and the Democratic Congress find UNITY in executing a legislative program that truly changes people's lives in the next two years! Now, THAT'S the kind of unity I can get behind! Two blogs in one day, Bloggelinis! Well, I would say this is a two-blog day if there ever was one. It is hard for me to comprehend that the nightmare --- which was so much worse than we ever imagined it could be and CONTINUED to get worse until the very last moment -- is over. A bleak gray cloud has hovered over my head for four years. It's gone. Terry