Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Scars of History

"Come out, come out, wherever you are..."

The Good Witch sang and the frightened Munchkins emerged.

So, too, emerge Americans from the darkness. It is as if so many Americans have wakened to the cowing and the browbeating and the bullying from the far, hard right wing that they've reached a tipping point.

I'm thrilled with the sea change in America. Sure, not one vote has been cast yet, but I can feel a change in the air. It is the smell of accountability, and those who have been in charge for years will soon be accountable for their actions. If the vote goes our way on November 7, then the smell of accountability will turn into a sweetness we can all taste.

But what has America waken up to?

It is the realization that what we call Conservatism has not really been Traditionalism. Today hard right wing are not conservative or traditional. They've revealed themselves to be, in fact, self-serving and hateful. For all their talk of religion, they are aroused by condemnation. For all their talk of community, they eschew the poor and cut taxes at the expense of libraries, schools and basic nutrition for the poor.

It is a linguistic justice that the word "conservative" is now as tainted as "liberal" and so now maybe we can shove both words into an archive next to Whig and move on.

What will have to change is how they made "taxes" synonymous to "evil." This is a watershed year for hearing my Republican friends express astonishment at how cheap and selfish their party has become. Cut taxes, cut taxes, cut taxes is not merely their mantra, it is their compulsion, like the robber baron industrialists who strip-mined entire forests. Just as you can still see from the sky over Georgia the new trees that replaced those burned by Sherman on his war of attrition march to the sea, you'll be able to look back at the legislation of the Bush administration as a charred mark on our history.

But just as after a blaze there emerges new life to repopulate, I am hopeful that after the cheap, selfish, my-way-or-the-highway brutes are booted from power, America will be stronger and prouder, with the wounds of abuse to show its ability to survive through harsh, foolish times, and be ever wiser.