Hope

The Republican Party is in a state of total collapse.

It's principle literary energy - The National Review - is without moral compass with the loss of the two Buckleys, one by death (Bill) and the other by resignation (Christopher) after his endorsement of Obama.

Palin continues to flap her wings, a parody of herself.

Mike Huckabee has a new book coming out - click here - but it's full of old ideas. Though he tries to move beyond the ideology and orthodoxy of the GOPalin group, preliminary reviews indicate that the GOP is very tired, and very irrelevant to the times.

He proposes a sales tax rather than income tax. Sound simple? I suppose it is, but it's discriminatory toward the poor, because in a sales tax structure, the poor always pay more than the rich - ten dollars out of a hundred is a whole lot more than a hundred out of a thousand, and so on. The biblical observation holds true: of those who have much, much is required.

And Biden was right - it IS patriotic to pay taxes, just like it's right to pay for your groceries. The Reagan lies - that we can have everything we want, without strings, without cost, without taxes - is the greatest lie every told, and the greater story, however, is that so many of us believed it.

The Greedy Old Party - for now, put it to rest and let it alone. Who knows, in another ten days, Palin will have disappeared from the media - let her hunt moose (hope she misses like she did in the campaign - the moose deserve a better life than being a trophy for her raging ego and limited intellect).

It's time for thoughtful and mostly liberal folks to understand that we've won a major victory, crossed a bridge no one knew to exist five years ago, and it's time for a new vision for America - not an ideological vision, but a NEW New Deal fit for the times - a globalized economy, environmental degradation, wars and rumor of wars on a regional scale rather than some post-Depression world war; the need to narrow the gap between the haves and the have-nots, health care, education and a well-regulated Wall Street.

Toward this end, I believe that Obama will bring a depth of thought and creativity - not to mention, civility - with the persona of authentic conviction long needed in the White House.

It will take years - the New Deal required a lot of time, and incurred a number of missteps along the way, but the New Deal rebuilt the nation - though a World War likely contributed mightily to the renewing of the economy.

As for the bailout, we need to put a lot of cash into the public sector - mass transit, bridges, school, playgrounds - to put folks back to work. Even an auto bailout, with plenty of strings, would be far better than paying the bills of Wall Street's greedy stupidity.

We have a chance.
America has a chance.
The world has a chance.

Let's make it work.