A Weight Has Been Lifted

by: commonweal

Wed Nov 05, 2008 at 11:58:31 AM EST

However, last night, I believe we broke free from the ruins.  But make no mistake about it, that "freedom" is only the beginning of an even larger effort to lift an even more pernicious weight off of our country.  Much damage has been done.  The Bush Administration was really just the culmination and logical conclusion to the Reagan revolution's tenets of unregulated free markets and general contempt and hostility for the rule of law, accountability and sound governance which all rested on an unsustainable energy policy, an unsustainable foreign and military policy, and an unsustainable fiscal policy.  Is it any wonder that it came tumbling down.

Over the coming months and years we need to ensure that we rebuild the damage done by the Reagan era.  Those who cling to its ideology have not gone away.  They will continue to seek ways to divide us based on race, religion and sexual orientation in an effort to bring their rancid brand of politics back to dominance.  We are on the cusp of something new.  Only by remaining vigilant and demanding more from our elected leaders can we ensure that the something new will be something better.  The weight may have been lifted, but now we need to walk toward a better tomorrow.