Having Heard Several People Wonder

What Steve Gilliard might have made of the Obama Phenomenon and the Obama Presidency, I went spelunking around in his archives for awhile. And, having done so, I think it is not unreasonable to guess that his take on "Obama and the Democratic Party: Past, President and Future" would have sounded something like this:

Passivity is no solution


...regardless of a genuine collapse or gamesmanship, there has to be a sustained public outcry, win or lose. There has to be pressure put on the Dems to do whatever it takes to oppose him [then-Supreme Count nominee Sam Alito], and that starts with you calling your Senator.

You know, the rich and the fundies use democracy all the time, they work the Congress like it was second nature. But here, on the left, you have people waiting for the brown shirts to return and inventing excuses to be passive, or even worse, hoping for some pure party to come along and offer easy salvation.

There's a line from the Guns of Navarrone "You're in it, right up to your neck". Well, if you think you'll stop Bush by voting Green or whining or saying he's a dictator, you're wrong. Until the mobs are in the streets, you still have the law and your rights and the right to petition Congress. And if you think last year was ugly, that was nothing compared to what is coming.

You think this is the only fight? You think you can walk away from this one? Shit, this is nothing, because by the end of the year, we may be fighting to reclaim the Republic from, Bush and Cheney. If Congress won't act, it's up to us to try and make them act. And if they want to appease, we find new people for their jobs, if it takes years.

People say I'm optimistic. Fuck no. I know American history. Bush is a piker compared to the people who ran Mississippi in the 1950's. That was a police state, complete with secret police, disappearances and mob rule. Most American have forgotten that, but they shouldn't.

Bush's power came from our weakness and fear, we didn't protect what we should have when we should have. We gave him too much trust and he failed us all. Now, we have to reclaim it and that will not be easy. But is has to be done. Compared to the other challenges Americans have faced, it's not a massive thing, no one has to steal Tory land at gunpoint or dodge German bullets on Omaha Beach or face fire hoses and dogs, but it won't be easy either. But it needs to be done. And no matter how shitty it seems at any one moment, like reading the Times this morning, you don't get to lose heart. Why? Because if you can read this, you probably aren't doing that bad.

The people who need a different America, soldiers, Wal Mart employees, don't get the time to call Congress. We do. So keep in mind, if you do nothing, the people who catch it in the neck isn't you, but someone who's already struggling and doesn't need another burden. You aren't just fighting for yourself. Every time you read about Wal Mart, and get pissed, remember, you're not just protecting your rights, but a lot of people who have no voice. That's why we do this, not just to vent your anger and express your frustration. America has left a lot of people behind, and if no one else want to think of them, it is our moral duty to do so.

Always it came back to moral duty with Steve, and a realistic assessment of our gains and losses (this lovely piece by Ta-Nehisi Coates put me in mind of just that kind of writing today):

The Civil War Isn't Tragic

...
I think that ground is generally accepted by almost everyone, and for good reasons. Six hundred thousand people died in the Civil War, a shocking figure which doesn't really capture the toll that this sort of violence took on the country at large. And yet when I think about the Civil War I don't feel sad at all. To be honest, I feel positively fucking giddy.

And I don't think I'm abnormal because of this. Twenty-two thousand people died in the Revolutionary War, and we celebrate that with hot dogs and hamburgers every year. I'm sure that while Jews feel fairly horrible that the Holocaust happened, very few of them consider the fighting it took in order to liberate the death camps, "tragic." The Holocaust is tragic. Ending the Holocaust is not.
...

Tasty.

In the days after Gilly passed away, there was a lot of fine talk from people higher up the blogger food chain that A Book Must Be Done.

Yes! Yes! Here! Here!

Most of it, as I recall, was done in the passive voice ("Yes indeedy, someone somewhere should certainly Do That") or done by people whose mainspring gets wound up very fast...and who then spins most of that lovely manic energy off into the air until the next awesome thing about which someone should really do something come into view.

Needless to say, nothing at all happened. I'm sure everyone was very sincere and good hearted, but sincerity and good intentions don't get ballots recounted in Florida. In the end, all most of us have is our word, which is why most grownups make large commitments sparingly; because they know how very hard large commitments can be to keep. Which is why I shrugged back when I overheard such passionate talk from Very Important bloggers at Chicago's Netroots Nation just I shrug now: I know about how far I can get on a gallon of Up With People gas, and I know what loose talk that no one ever really, really intends to back up with action sounds like.

(Shit, after leaving a few jobs and liberal organizations behind for precisely those reasons, I ought know the timbre of that jaunty tune by now :-)

As things stand, even sites dedicated to our growing population of web ghosts are, themselves, slipping softly and silently away.

Which is a shame.