The Beginning of Reason

-by Mags

They never "got" democracy in Alaska

And in our national discourse, we pretended that these monsters were reasonable, respectable people. To point out that the monsters were, in fact, monsters, was “shrill.”
-Paul Krugman
 
If I had to come up with a bottom line that describes how I approach the future today, the day after the day we thought might never come, I would borrow that statement from Paul Krugman. The truth is that I thought of this earlier today as I was toting my laundry from my bedroom to the laundry room. What I thought would be the biggest relief? I had a thought very similar to what Paul said. I thought you know at least now the fight is not against the ridiculously twisted talking points that masqueraded as policy statements.

As I listened to Joe Scarborough tonight and Pat Buchanan I thought about it again before I got upset. This is what I thought, I thought… today is the first day that sanity and reason will again be defined in the way that sanity and reason ought to be defined. As spinners spin and pundits pun I believe in the coming days and weeks that our new president and our new majority will be framing the public discourse. It will be ok now to question the illogical and unreasonable. It might well take some time. I am not the only one who is relieved.

I am not sure how many times over the last 8 years I suffered from cognitive dissonance so painful that I felt my brain would give out under the strain. Let me celebrate with Paul Krugman and all other thinking people in these United States that intelligence might again be valued and that critical thinking and competence might be employed in solving our day to day problems. Perhaps we can invest in a government that listens to its people who just demonstrated that they are more than able to participate. And, for once the system was responsive to our efforts.

This election does not signify a battle that is over. It signifies that we can now begin the work. We can begin to speak plainly. Problems can be well defined. Time can be taken to explain the logic and the rationality of what must occur, what is true. As Americans we have been driven nearly crazy with the obfuscation of the facts. Now is the time. Now is the opportunity to restore trust. Now is the time to speak as a nation and expect to be heard. Expect to solve the problems. We can do it. We have just been waiting for someone to tell us we can and for someone to listen in return.

Hope helps us to believe that today is that day, the day after the day.