I have to tell you, Trope, I'm scared to death about what's coming.  My grandkids have been here a week and we have another whole week with them.  Their wonderful presence makes me so happy, and yet I'm terrified when I think about what life will be like for them when they get to working age.

There is a 24-year span between my first and second grandchildren.  Our grandson was born in 1973, when life was still good for the working class, and he was fortunate enough to have had a good education in a blue-collar neighborhood public school.  He went to the University of Michigan on grants and scholarships and loans, and has a good, relatively secure job in Ann Arbor today.  Nothing but his own lack of will would have stood in his way.  The doors were open for him and he was able to take full advantage.

My second grandchild was born in 1997 and my third in 2000.  I can't even begin to predict where their lives will lead them.  The hope is that college is in their futures, but where that will lead, nobody knows.  I try not to be pessimistic, but it's hard not to be when I see how difficult it is for young people today, and how much harder it will be unless a great many things change in incredibly drastic ways. 

The status quo is unacceptable.  The setbacks far exceed any sense of progress.  Our enemies grow in astounding numbers, as does their power.  They will take over if something isn't done.  There is reason to panic, but if reason gives way to panic we're in even more trouble.

I wish I could light a fire under Obama, but I'm not going to do anything that will open the way for the enemy to get hold.  I'll vote for him again.  I'll even work to get him elected again.  But I'll also work to force the Democrats to do what they should have done long ago, and that's to concentrate on jobs and build a strong working class.  I believe we can do that from within.  I know for a fact we won't be able to do it if the enemy wins.

In particular the amount of energy and thought going into generating a primary challenger to Obama is very troubling to me.

Outside a handful of left-wing blogs, there is hardly any energy and thought going into this project at all.  We're already pretty far into the political season, and there is as yet no challenger.  Nor does there appear to be any great left-progressive hope out on the horizon.  The times are abnormally conservative and conformist, and ordinary levels of organized political ferment and discord are absent.

That in itself is ground for worry though.  The gap between progressive dreams and aspirations, on the one hand, and political activity on the other hand, appears to be extremely large.  There is a pervasive sense that many progressives have simply given up hope, and have accepted that they are prisoners in a world they despise, and from which there is no escape.  Everyone around them is consumed by fear, and expressions of dissent and potential disruption are met by, "Shhhh ... be careful ... something bad might happen."  The media present an artificial image of reality that is completely out of joint with people's lived experiences.  The dominant disposition among Democrats is fear and paralysis, made barely tolerable by the double-thinking and morally flaccid irony of popular comedians.

When people's main connection to intellectual relief and reality is through snark and jokes, such as with Colbert and the Daily show, something is deadly wrong with a culture.  Earnest and straightforward expressions of values, and organized political action in pursuit of those values, is regarded as impermissible and unrealistic, so only the jokes are permitted.  I would say this kind of environment is very dangerous and disturbing.  It's like the atmosphere of late Cold War Eastern Europe.

You're worried that if we push things the world might go crazy.   But the world is already crazy.  It's mad as a hatter and as deadly as a serial killer.  How much worse can the death-in-life degeneration and decadence that is 2011 America get?

270,000 Israelis today protested the rising cost of living in their country.  Where are Americans?  The American dream is disappearing; tens of millions of our fellow-citizens are unemployed; communities are evaporating; families are falling apart; the corporate-provided popular culture is morally and intellectually pulverizing; and a Democratic president can't even rouse himself to get extremely angry about these things, much less do anything about them.  What's our response?

"Shhhh ... Michelle Bachman, Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich ... scary monsters ... shhhhh!"

Have you noticed that one conservative crackpot after another comes and goes while liberals spend their time cowering in the corner and pissing in their shoes over the impending wingnut takeover?  When Shirley Sherrod was smeared by a noted Republican hack and liar, the administration moved rapidly to fire her, because she "was going to be on Glenn Beck" that night.  Where is Glenn Beck now?  Not even on Fox anymore; past his prime time shelf life.

The establishment media and political machines elevate these Creature Feature blobs to keep progressives and dissidents in line, and then they move onto someone else.  When the Obama campaign workers called me, they were clearly scripted to say "Michelle Bachman" a few times each.

But how much worse can Michelle Bachman be than the quivering Vichy Democrats who are now caretaking the White House?   Do you think the people who actually own and run the country would actually allow her to do anything significant?

The strong middle classes insured a stable nation, a stable government for that nation.

Sooner or later unhappy peasants revolt!

What is very interesting to me is how strongly some people hold out that a second term for Obama is 'our only hope' or 'our best hope' or the 'only possible way we can win'.

This is interesting because if one takes a step back and looks at so much stacked against him one might just as easily conclude that if we stick with Obama we are likely to lose.

I want a different candidate for many reasons but most of all because I happen to believe it may be our best chance to win.  This is confronting the realities of his presidency, the realities of the republicans that he is not dealing well with, the realities of the economy, and the realities of voter supression laws passed in many key swing states.

We need a base that is fighting for something, not against something.  We don't have that anymore with this president.  I wish that things had gone better than they have and I don't put all of the blame on him but he definitely bears some responsibility.

I believe a new candidate we can rally behind, someone who knows what they are in for and is up to the challenge would be our best chance of inspiring people that there is a real 'choice'.

What I expect from the president is more of the same... and under the current circumstances as much as I like him as a man, I don't think we can afford to keep him as a president.

I too sense a rising tide. My family roots are planted deep in Navy territory and I remember being told by my grandfather (WWII submariner) the following ... red sky at night a sailors delight - red sky at morning sailors take warning.

It's morning in America and the sky is red.

The approaching storm is being stirred up by those in the GOPer camp who've been promised for decades their wants and desires were on the front burner. Seems the front burners were purposefully left off. Anyway, now that they've found to knobs and cranked them hard to the right, their issues are front and center and at a full boil.

The old GOPer guard standing in the rear is allowing those in the front ranks to charge forward. They're half hoping in their zeal, they might accidently open new fertile ground the old Guard can exploit. If not, the rabble rousers will be politically castrated and things will go back to normal.

What the older GOPer's understand is there is a lot of undefined anger amongst the public at the government. Rather than smooth the public's frustration, they'd rather stroke it and encourage people take their wrath out in whatever manner they see fit. Hence the faux debt crisis. However, this undefined anger can be a tool in the right hands of the Democrats to show the public their anger has a cost.

For example, from what I'm hearing, bond holders are asking for more interest ... from 1 basis point (one-tenth of one percent) to 8 basis points (eight tenths of one percent).

With a debt of $14 trillion, a 7 basis point increase is a huge sum on money ... in the billions ... that has become an additional cost to the tax payer. So the question I would ask is ... if the tea-baggers are so concerned about the size of the deficit and passing the cost onto their children and grandchildren, then why did they take political  positions that caused the interest rates on that debt to increase? That increase in interest payments means there's less money available to pay off the principle which means it will take longer to retire it.

The Democrats need to push the issue out into the open and show where the tea-baggers and their debt ceiling debate has caused bond holders to demand more in interest as insurance against future debt ceiling debates. And that cost to service the interest demand comes at the cost of paying off the principle which extents the debt over time, not shortening it.

In short, instead of using freed up revenue resources to surrender debt obligations faster, the debt ceiling debate ends up costing taxpayers more in the form of increased interest demands on the debt owed rather than reducing the debt itself.

People commenting here should follow the In the News link to the NYT article What Happened to Obama? It lays out succinctly why so many (not just us lefties) are profoundly disillusioned in the president.

The practical issue of a primary challenge isn't addressed. And ultimately, it won't matter, because there won't be a primary challenge. But would everyone stop pretending our concerns about Obama  are illusory?

Another Trope,

I like the way you used the Rilke verse. Whatever the right thing to do may be, there is that sense of something coming.