Inauguration Day...

Okay, I really, really tried hard not to post about this, but I just can't help myself. This is a really long, really opinionated blog, and I'm sure you don't want to read it. But since I can't afford a therapist, I had to put it somewhere. Come back tomorrow for the entertainment. Still here? Okay, then.

If you know me at all, you know I don't care for our current set of world governments. Not just ours, not just "theirs"--all of 'em. Remember when you were little, and you and your three best friends could play all day and have a blast...until the fifth kid came along and everything was suddenly wacky and weird? You had to play round-robin instead of teams. You had to find another piece for the game. You suddenly had to take turns at four-square. There is a reason the phrase 'fifth wheel' works so well to illustrate the concept 'awkward'. I believe that every organizational structure has a lower and upper population limit--an optimal quantity of warm bodies that it will work well for, and anything larger or smaller makes it unwieldy.

This theory has proven itself in my personal and world-observed life time and again: witness the layoffs at O'Reilly I blogged about just the other day. Witness the collapse of Starbucks when it reached critical mass (another wonderful phrase for 'you just got too damn big'). Our government is in the same predicament. We supposedly live in a representative democracy--but in a group of several billion people, how will *my* desires ever be suitably represented? I am not the first to notice that our representatives and congressfolk are for the most part older, richer, and whiter than most of the population. But I digress.

I didn't vote for Obama. I didn't vote for that other guy, either. I voted my belief, not my fear, not my "hope", out of the understanding that, no matter how broken I believe the system to be, the system is still the system. I am not unhappy that Obama won, but he wasn't my first choice. This is important for you to understand, because I don't want a lot of flak about who I support and all that. It is not what this is about.

What this blog is about is the trend I am experiencing among those I hear around me. There is a large group of very vocal people who *did* vote for Obama. And they are driving me to the brink of something violent.

First, there is the sentiment that the voters are super-important because they voted for Obama. I never really cared for sports fans who speak in the third person plural: "We sold Schottenheimer? Oh, MAN!" "We totally got ripped off on that call!" "We've won the series more times than anyone!!!" Um...'we'? Where were you when those athletes had to get pain shots just to keep playing? When they worked seven days a week on the offseason just to stay in good enough shape to compete? When their coaches/trainers/whoever screamed at them for several hours in a row to work harder, when they firmly believed they were doing their best? I am not a fan of taking credit where it is not due. Obama has worked very hard to get where he is. He was elected, sure, but those who elected him are not owed anything by me or anyone else, in my humble opinion. (Are you listening, Oprah?)

Second, there is an inordinate amount of hype surrounding this man, and I think it is (a) ridiculous in its entertainment base, and (b) unfair to Obama. As an example of the first, I cannot tell you since I have already lost count, how many Facebook status updates I saw this morning about Aretha Franklin, Yo-Yo Ma, and Itzhak Perlman performing at the inauguration. It's like the halftime entertainment and commercials at the Super Bowl--hey, if you don't want to watch the game, don't watch it for cryin' out loud. Rent a movie, or go outside, or something.

As for the second...well. Sure, he preached hope and revival and all sorts of repair and healing. But is he the end-all be-all we have all been waiting for? I doubt it. The executive branch is only one part of a triumverate in our country, and the other two are (in the case of the judicial branch) small and confused and (in the case of the legislative branch) owned by lobbyists and not representative of their constituents. Can Obama single handedly save our country? I didn't agree with everything the previous president did, but I don't believe Bush was the Anti-Christ. And I don't believe Obama is the Messiah.

Finally--for now, at least--I am about sick and tired of the anticipation factor in the hype. I have touched on this already, but just to clarify: I have many friends and associates who said, at the turn of the year three weeks ago, 'boy am I glad 2008 is over. 2008 sucked. I am so excited for 2009. It is going to be a GREAT year.' and so on. Guess what? One week later, many of those same people were already sick of 2009. Is it fair to assume that Obama is going to fix everything to everyone's satisfaction? The press has compared him to the famous "chicken in every pot" sentiments voiced by another president we had not too long ago. But can one man really turn around the crap we have gotten ourselves into? It took years and years to get us where we are. Can he do it in four? What if he can't? What will it do to the hyped-up people who think he can? It won't be pretty, I can assure you. In fact, I would go so far as to say that Obama is in a very bad place. Whatever good the man will do--and I believe he will do much good--it cannot possibly measure up to the vision many people have for his time in office.

Mr. President, you have my hopes, condolences, support and best wishes. May you achieve what you wish for.