Where's the celebration?

[bos1]

Some incidents lately made me notice a major lack in the public sphere, here and everywhere. Where is the celebration of progressive victories?

The success of public opinion to show Dr Laura that her bigotry has consequences was a victory, something to celebrate in the fight against right wing insanity. The Obama admin going after both the Arizona state gov't and Sheriff Joe Arpaio is another thing to be proud of, real tangible results of having a decent group of people in the White House. These are just a couple recent examples of a constant series of such things, good news in the hope and change department, but I don't see anyone glorying in them, ever. It seems like everyone has forgotten what horrors and absurdity we experienced in the federal gov't just a few years ago, and people focus only on disappointments, both real and imagined.

Can anyone offer some insight into this, and maybe suggest places where people do celebrate the things that should be celebrated?

[scheming daemons]

1. failures are blown out of proportion... successes are ignored.... welcome to the world of DU

...

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

2. Describe this "public sphere."

[bos1]

4. Well, here for example, and any other forum you can name.

I'd be happy to hear about one where people celebrate the victories. We should be going on and on about them, really.

[dionysus]

3. some people want to stay miserable, what can i say...

[Zorra]

5. Maybe it's because republicans got every single thing they wanted and more under Bu$h,

and we have to be content with issues like Dr. Laura getting chastised for racist comments. I guess a bunch of us wonder why this is.

I guess some of us were hoping for something like a transparent, full on fight with corporations and republicans to return control of the government to the people. Or something like a Presidential Order decreeing that the Supreme Court's Decision that corporations are indeed persons and therefore any corporation foreign or domestic could fund political ads represented a clear and present danger and imminent threat to our national security and was therefore overruled. Or a significant Senate Democratic majority having the stones to bust out the nuclear option in order to squelch republican filibustering of every piece of Democratic legislation to be voted on in the Senate. Or strong health care/financial reform bills that could not be overturned by republicans as soon as they retake control of the House and Senate due to the reluctance of Democrats to stand up and crush the obstructionism of the republican minority. Or maybe some little thing, like even a discussion of how it might be a good thing if electronic voting was outlawed, seeing as how it is impossible to determine if vote counting done on electronic voting machines by private right wing corporations is actually accurate and non-partisan.

But hey, Dr. Laura...

"yay". - (Kurt Cobain, "Smells Like Teen Spirit")

Please, excuse my cynical rant, it's nothing at all personal, I think I understand where you are coming from, and things are way better now than they were under Resident Bu*h. (But still, that's not saying all that much; I suppose most anything is way better than hell).
I remember, I was so happy and optimistic, I had so much hope that so many things would change after the 2008 elections.
I guess I'm upset because republicans got everything they wanted under Resident Bu*h with a small congressional majority and the complicity of a handful of Democrats, and what they got was all really, really bad and just about destroyed my country, and Democrats can't seem to pass any type of meaningful legislation unless republicans are permitted to water it down into relative insignificance and then give it their blessing while Democrats wipe their faces off after kissing their republican colleagues asses for their favors. This gets me totally frustrated and upset, because the only explanation I ever get is "republican obstructionism", and I'm not buying it after watching republicans take it all under Bu*h. So I just don't understand why this is happening.

Or maybe I really do understand...and that's way, way worse.

Peace

[bos1]

6. whether or not I agree with all the things you list that haven't happened,

your post illustrates exactly what I am talking about -- focusing on the things that haven't happened or went the wrong way, and not celebrating the huge list of things that go right. If we want those things in your list to happen, then we should start help building support for us going in that direction. The Dr. Laura thing (and countless other victories) could be splashed around as a triumph to make a point to the general public that this garbage is no longer tolerated in the Yes We Can era that was voted in overwhelmingly. The fact that we don't do that is a big part of why we have so much "disappointment" talk around, and why the specter of Republicans winning in November is looming.