In the time it takes to think of the future, it's here...

Posted by: prolixous on: December 28, 2012

• In: Future | Open Thread
• 27 Comments

Happiest of holidays Widdershin friends!  Given that the Mayans punked us with their end-of-times false alarm and I’m still on a sugar high from the holiday march toward diabetes, I thought I’d call on our interactive collective to look toward 2013.  First, I’m not loving Twenty Thirteen as a year number — something seems grating about it so let’s call it the plus one to 2012 — that has a nice ring to it.

I’m not a big partier on New Year’s Eve — I figure since I’m out rabble rousing 364 nights a year, New Year’s Eve can be left to amateurs.  I firmly believe New Year’s is the holiday for thought and reflection on the year to come — absolutely no regrets for the year that has been, only positive rumination on the year that will be.

With that, I have a few hopes for the “plus one of 2012” — I have given myself only one paragraph on each and this list is by no means exhaustive, so here are a few of my hopes for next year.

Senator Elizabeth Warren Takes the Country by Storm.  It is time for someone who understands the corporate shell game as well as she understands the plight of the middle class to have a turn at the microphone.  Ms. Warren is as smart as she is unafraid and while her list of victories may not be long during the coming year, her voice will be welcomed by all who have a beating heart and a distaste for all that is the Wall Street corporatocracy.

Wayne LaPierre Just Keeps on Talking.  As CEO of the NRA, Wayne LaPierre has done every sensible mass-killing loathing American a favor by speaking out about his inviolate Second Amendment right to build an arsenal worthy of an Al Qaeda stronghold in the Tora Bora mountains or the Yemeni desert.  He needs to keep talking and he needs to be given every opportunity to lay bare his disreputable spiel as the shill of corporate arms merchants.  With every word gushing from his putrid money-grubbing brain, we are one step closer to inhibiting the senseless loss of 30,000 lives and the wounding and maiming of another 70,000 a year.

The Spotlight Burns Through the Charade of the Tea Party.  The unbridled truth behind the grifters of the Tea Party leadership is slowly beginning to show.  With the armed coup d’etat of Dick Armey at the Freedom Works headquarters along with the financial shenanigans of the “volunteer” leadership just coming to light — where there is the aroma of Earl Grey, there is definitely avarice baked into every crumpet.  We can only hope during the next year we are treated to an ongoing slew of tell-all Tea Party stories and putting to rest the fictitious facade of Tea Party “do-goodery” once and for all.

The Sanity of Rewarding the Health of a Person Becomes Evident.  Within the Affordable Care Act there are numerous pilot projects for compensating the overall wellness of an individual as opposed to compensating procedures.  Most experts believe therein lies the holy grail to bringing skyrocketing healthcare costs to heel.  We can only hope to hear of the success of these experiments without the headline hysterics of the embedded naysayers of the flat-Earth truthers.

In a Year Where We Don’t Vote, May We Remember Why We Do.  Voter suppression and gerrymandering are gifts that just keep on giving — much akin to insidious STDs of the body politic.  There are voluminous instances of voter suppression and redistricting challenges now languishing in various federal District Courts — let’s hope their days in Court are few and they are swiftly brought to languish and shrivel in the sunshine that is the spirit of the Voting Rights Act.

We Remember We Have to Pay Our Credit Card Bill.  The raising of the federal debt limit is a legislative creation that needs to be brought to a quick and unceremonious end.  Raising the debt limit is the equivalent of ordering another big screen teevee on QVC with the announcer telling us we haven’t paid for the one from which we are watching.  As counter-intuitive as it might seem, the debt limit animates itself in a down economy just at the time when we can ill-afford to be held hostage by, at present count, 51 Tea Party adherents who would crash the nascent recovery to prove their baseless wrongheaded economic points.  We need to take this cudgel from them before they hurt us and the world.

Rediscover “We” as Opposed to “Me.”  My greatest hope for this year is that we rediscover the collective “we” as opposed to falling victim to the insularity of the “me” mentality.  Sadly these days it seems as though the only emotion we can collectively share as a country is grief.  It is my greatest hope we might again learn to share in the hope and vitality of one another as if it is our own since at the end of the day, it truly is.  Perhaps the plus one of 2012 can be the year of the “we” instead of the “me.”

What are your hopes for the year?

This is an “all skate” open thread.

About these ads

Tags: 2013, ACA, Affordable Care Act, al qaeda, corporatocracy, Debt ceiling, Dick Armey, elizabeth warren, gerrymandering, Mayans, NRA, Tea Party, Tora Bora, voter suppression, Voting Rights Act, Wall Street, Wayne LaPierre, we versus me