Things Will Not Get Better (regardless of what Obama or Dan Savage says)

Thomas Jefferson, possibly the most revered "founding father" was as affluent and elite as they come. Jefferson was fluent in three languages, had an insatiable thirst for French wine, built a fabulous and fabulously expensive estate, and was as comfortable in a Parisian court as he was in Virginia. Jefferson would have, in fact, preferred that the newly emergent American political and social system he helped create hewed more closely to the French model. Much of the same could be said for Ben Franklin, right down to his francophilic tendencies. Alexander Hamilton was terrified that members of the lower class would have any say whatsoever in the government, and he favored a radically aggressive governmental handling of the economy--this from the United States' first Secretary of the Treasury.

These men would be truly saddened to see how their political experiment has borne itself out, but not in the ways that republicans and conservatives assume. Elitists to the bone, the founders of this nation greatly feared that they risked ceding too much control of the government to the uneducated and the incapable. They knew that the masses were quite easily swayed, that passions inflamed were passions uncontrolled, and that in a democracy passions could be just as devastating as foreign armies. The very notion of the representation that is at the heart of our political system reflects this concern. The "people" are in no way smart enough or knowledgeable enough to run a government: hence the need for representation. It was once assumed that citizens of the highest intellectual talent and possessing the greatest education were naturally superior officeholders. It is truly, truly shocking that this faith in intelligence has actually receded.

The sad truth that republicans now have enough obstructionist power to idiotically wrestle the economy into the next Great Depression is probably less important than the powerful truth that should be evident to progressives nationwide: The United States is doomed. This election was not about anger, it was about fear. Conservatives, by their very nature, are a fearful lot, and they lack both the vision and, quite ironically, the hindsight to recognize their folly. Their desire to return America to a WASPY 1950s heyday will ruin us. Americans, read your British history. There we will find the blueprints for an empire in decay, and, unfortunately, our future.

On a lighter note: I've received some very positive responses to my C.V. from private high schools in the area, and have scheduled several observation days and meetings with faculty. And, mark your calendars, I will deliver my third guest lecture at Berkeley City College on November 15th. The theme will be U.S. economic history in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Also: After a recent viewing of "First Contact" I have declared, definitively, that not only is Jean-Luc Picard officially superior to Kirk, but that Patrick Stewart is the greatest...actor...ever.