All this week, I’ve been offering an opinion as to what I considered to be the best in terms of movies, political events, technology and sport events of 2009. The list is a personal one and therefore subject to discussion, but not argument.
So far, I’ve looked at the movies and technology events of 2009, today I will look at the political stories that made a different in the past year. That said, let’s roll:
1. The Inauguration of Barrack Obama. In the history of our republic, this has to be the number one event of all time. He’s the first man to be elected President that comes from a state admitted to the union after 1912. Yeah, there’s other things that I could mention where he’s the first, but the state thing is pretty cool and often overlooked. He’s from the last state admitted to the union and his Vice-President is from the first state admitted. Again, a pretty cool fact. As Stan Lee would say, “’Nuff said.”
2. Protest in Iran. In what was supposed to be a rubber stamp election for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, protest broke out when reform candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi was declared the loser “by a landslide.” Fueled by the internet and Twitter in particular, the world saw Iran put down the protest violently. It was a public relation nightmare for Iran, as all appearances of a “democracy” were swept away by the brutality and bloodshed. And the blood is still flowing.
3. The Party of No. The Republican party refused to be part of the Government in 2009. They offered no alternates, no compromise and no ideas. They refused to accept any responsibility for the financial chaos they created during the previous eight years. And collectively have hoped that the fiscal ditch they left the country in, deepens so that they can sing their one note song of “tax cuts” as the cure for the economic malaise in a hoped for victory in 2010. They have been obstructionist all year long. For example, because of senate rules, Senator DeMint, a republican from South Carolina, has been able to hold up Obama’s nominee for the TSA because he didn’t want TSA employees to join a labor union. Now he will be part of the hearings next week to ask why there was a failure at the TSA on the Northwest flight Christmas Day. By refusing to be part of the solution, the party of Lincoln has become solidly identified as part of the problem.
4. Foxnews. This cable network gave up all pretense of being a “fair and balanced” news organization and showed itself to be a political broadcast platform for anyone opposed to Barrack Obama. They gave a pulpit to the birthers, the Tea Baggers and any right wing organization that encouraged revolution. The Australian-born Rupert Murdoch seemed intent on using his American companies (which include Foxnews and the New York Post) to sow the seeds of discontent and distrust of the current White House occupant (before he even took office) and drive up the price of gold which he has Glenn Beck hawking almost daily.
5. Healthcare vote. Just that fact that a bill actually cleared both houses of Congress is a miracle. Is it perfect? No! But once you have a law in place, it is easier to change it, then it is to create it in the first place. For good or bad, the Democratic Party has created something with practically no Republican support that they will own for the next two decades. Healthcare, like Social Security, will be part of the American consciousness as an entitlement from this day forward, despite the efforts of the party of ‘no.’