Change! Just like the last time!

All happened as we pretty much expected.  The Democrats got whupped in the election yesterday.  The President himself delivered a bloodied-nose address conceding that very fact.  Meanwhile, the Republicans talked of doing something that every opposing party has done for the past few decades and were being snooty about it.

There are very few points where I agree with the Tea Baggers, but here's one of them: "You shouldn't rely on the government to do things for you."  Granted, there are large matters that are out of our hands that we need government assistance for, namely leveling the playing field and the spurring of job growth.  But we tend to keep going through the exact same cycles.  "I'm not getting everything I want and my taxes are too high, so I'm voting you out."  The Republicans take over.  Two or four years go by, the electorate grows unsatisfied, the Democrats sweep into control.  Back and forth the pendulum swings, but what changes?  Not much that I can see.

So what are we the people taking responsibility for?  A goodly portion of our current economic woes stem from people buying houses they couldn't afford, owning three cars when they only needed one, and racking up high credit card debt over things that they couldn't afford but couldn't seem to live without.  In that latter category, I'll be the first to step up and say I'm guilty.  President Obama quickly attained a persona as our own personal Jesus, due in part to his own electoral hype machine.  When the nation's condition didn't change in the span of a week, many were disappointed.  The young super libs went back to their college dorms on their liberal arts campuses, logged on to Facebook and Twitter to immediately post their complaints, and that was about it.

Obama did not run on a slogan of "Yes I Can" but "Yes We Can."  He said in his inaugural address that the work ahead of us would be hard and that he couldn't do it alone.  He declared Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 2009 to be a "National Day of Service."  That was the kind of mindset he was attempting to foster.  So what work have we done to change things in our own communities?  Or are we still relying on a political solution and whining about either expanded government or corporate special interests?

Get involved in something today.  Doesn't have to be big.  It can even be something done online.  Even if you just start reading about what's going on and becoming more aware, that helps.  Knowledge is power and if I accomplish anything with Strange Horizons...besides pimping my own writing...I want to make people think and to expose them to new concepts that don't normally get mainstream attention.  

So man up.  Ain't nobody in any of the political parties who is coming to save us.

Oh screw it.  Turn on TMZ, what's JLo doing?

Follow me on Twitter: @Jntweets