Installation in a Cold Gray Place : A View from California

Although it's a bit cloudy today in Southern California, a place where the sun beats relentlessly down on us most of the time, the view I have of DC reminds me of the Soviet Union views I saw on TV for years.

I know it's winter and the trees are not in leaf, and flowers are not loving the cold temperature, but the views of stern men in black coats, black limos, and concrete as far as the camera can see, are not transmitting the "warm & fuzzy" feeling we should have at the swearing in of our leader.

California's mid-winter extravaganza, The Rose Parade, hokey and outdated as it has become, is a much more uplifting event. I know the inauguration events are meant to be serious, but I am old enough to remember a time when they were less....well..."May-Day-ish".

As I sat watching parts of the "parade", it was hard to miss the fact that it's NOT one bit "about the people". The stark reality is this.. Our leader cannot even walk amongst his own people, a few blocks from his residence. Wolf Blitzer raved about how "wonderful" it was that the leader of the free world COULD walk among the people, yet the picture shown was of a president and first lady, gingerly walking a half-block or so...practically touching the tank-like limo, and flanked by so many secret service , that even Alan Specter's magical theory would be seriously challenged in the event of trouble.

The "people" who did manage to wind their ways through the concrete canyons leading up to the "parade route" could not even see the "terrific twosome" because police and additional security were shoulder-to-shoulder, blocking their view.

So the bands play on, the marchers march, the King of Concrete Estates smirks a little,the first lady waggles that crooked gloved hand of hers, both safely ensconced behind bullet-proof plexiglass and out here in Sunny California, our stations have returned to "regular programming". Larry Elder...Jane Pauley...Larry Springer.... and One Life to Live....and the sun is peeking through the clouds.

Tonight the festivities begin, and the republican party will prove once again, that despite their "reserved upper-crusty" aura, they are lovers of excess and of course. bad music. They will enjoy themselves and spend more money in one night than some countries' entire yearly budget, but they feel entitled, so they party-on. The poor folks who supported them and saw to it that "whatever it took" was done , so the parties tonight could take place, don't seem to mind. They will order pizza, pop a Stouffers into the microwave,or make some sandwiches and watch the glitterati whoop it up on tv, and they will pat themselves on the back, and say "Well Done".

Four Down, and Four to go....

Here's hoping that the next four will pass quickly, and we can somehow avoid complete devastation. The republicans will no doubt come out swinging, and continue to prove that they are the best things since sliced carrion.

Well written & insightful.

Even Tricky Dick Nixon's inaguration was more uplifting :)

well, I was only 6 months old anyways.

It was a big deal for us Kansans. so I cannot remember if I saw it afterwards in school, or if I remember seeing it when it happened..

I would have been 4 the first time and we did not have tv, so I'm sure I did not watch that one. The one in 1957 was when we lived in Wyoming for one year, so I may have seen that one.. I rmemebr people milling around, and it was a friendly time..

Not like now :(

"... and the funny thing is I was trying to do to her the same thing he was trying to do to the country."

an old Woody Allen joke.

seriously though, I think the 1st one I really remember was Reagan. I was around for Carter, but not exactly old enough to know what was going on.

I think things have gotten worse from even then...

He had an adminsitration that was about building America UP. It was postwar..there was a boom.. Most people did not dislike him.:)

He was the one who WARNED us about the very people we installed today :(

I've never had anything against Ike. I remember my dad telling me how, in his day in Michigan the Republican party was the progressive party, while the Democrats represented the South and Jim Crow and pretty much what would now be called "conservativism."

I think that a lot of past Republicans (TR, Ike come to mind) would be shocked and saddened if they could see the direction their elephant has wandered off into.

:-)

Of course it also is what led to "suburbia/exurbia" and the dasdtardly sprawl we live with today..

Wouldn't it be nice if we could go back and pick and choose things from our past to re-create...and of course to avoid :(

Hind sight is always 20/20, but our life is long these days, and it should not be a bad thing for us to admit we made a mistake...and then repair the damage.. But we do not.. we just blunder ahead, making even more mistakes :(

interstate was built for fast movement of military vehicles in case of war

so I have read

"used to be" marked.. I still remember them. The unintended consequence is cars...cars....cars....and houses...houses..houses

i had never heard that the Interstates were modelled on something from the Nazis. What I heard was that we learned, from the devastation that we had caused Germany through carpet bombing, that concentrating the population in centers was very dangerous. as socaldem says, the Cold War was on, and in the early days it wasn't so clear that the next engagement would be solely nuclear. So the Interstate system -- and the resulting growth of sub/exurbia -- was started, at least in part, in order to spread the population out so there were fewer target.

were "into" this plan as well. In the 50's, most of the public transportation systems were starting to be "dismantled", so that once the interstate system was "in place", all those new cars would be all that the people "needed". They could have just as easilt, extended the public transportation along with the highways, but they chose the "private" sector....and here we are, 50 years later, totally dependent on the oil companies,car companies, and now that we see the error of our ways, reassembling some sort of public transportation is now in the BILLIONS of dollars that we don't have..

appear, and a torchlight parade after dark.

we would have been treated to a parade full of tanks and missiles and goose-stepping soldiers. Just like May Day back in the USSR.

I was almost 4 at the time, but I remember watching JFK's innauguration and remembering to this day how exciting it was. 4 years later, I firmly remember LBJ's...and again, a special magic was in the air that day. I even built my own little podium (old cardboard box with a crayon Presidential seal) so my friend and I could pretend we were part of the festivities. That was then, this is now.

Thank goodness for the History Channels, our local Public TV station and C-SPAN2 (for showing the demonstrations this morning)...I was very easily able to avoid this travesty of our republic and learn something at the same time (the PBS show on Jack Johnson is another Ken Burn's gem). I know I'm not alone...many others are avoiding the coverage, and our Chicago area stations broke away from this travesty in the middle of coverage to make sure we got to see Jeopardy.

I get a feeling the local ABC affiliate could tell this coronation isn't too popular here, they had a reporter at the travesty describing the protests as much as he was describing the other garbage. Even Repugnicans I know aren't too happy with the money or the largess and hubris being displayed by this coronation...considering this is the "second term" and that we are in "wartime".

But then, after I feel like there's still some sanity in this world, I pop on the radio, and by accident hit Michael Medved...with a caller bitching about how Bunnypants shouldn't have mentioned the Sermon on the Mount with the Koran as it "dirties" Christianity by making the comparison between the two religions (Medved agreed)...then a couple seconds of asshole Hannity who was near orgasmic...and still couldn't take the day off from slandering "libruls". Sheesh...what would make this asshole content?

My feeling is letting them play it up...let them screw things up royal...if this is what "the people" want, let 'em have it full barrels. Let's let this regime go hog wild on civil liberties and destroy the military & the economy...put some real pain in this country...since obviously, we're not hurting hard enough yet to put end the Democratic/left/Progressive circular firing squads and those who support this regime haven't had to attend a funeral or lose their savings or face a serious crisis under this regime. Sadly, it's gonna be a long 4 years, I fear.

That says a lot.. If people PAY for a prime seat, and then don't show up?? What's THAT about??

The real fans get the worst seats...but the corporates weren't going to show unless it was 60 and sunny. They're too busy being seen at the big drinkie drinkie parties and spreading the folding green around. There's lots of graft to spread about in a short period of time.

I couldn't help noticing all the "common folks" the cable networks were trying to shove down viewers throats in their "coverage"...despite all of us knowing that virtually everyone within a block of his royal assholiness has been anal probed to make sure they've drunk enough kool aid and been properly lobotomized so they can enter the boy king's parallel universe.

as a statement:)... That would be "fabulous" (to quote the fearless leader)

Bush only got sworn in today by the striped racist drool-bucket Rehnquist
because Poppy was CIA from the Bay of Pigs through Dallas
through Watergate through October Surprise
through John Hinckley through Iran-Contra through BCCI
through Selection 2000 through 9-11 through Paperless Win 2004.
There IS a vast right wing conspiracy.
The Bush Gang are beneficiaries of it.



Truly outstanding essay, SoCalDem.
Four years will pass quickly.
While the damage he's done will last much longer,
it gives us more to do.
And that's why there are good people to do it.