Happy New Year's Everybody

++The oldest democracy seems to be finishing up counting the votes from true last election. Florida's voter suppression efforts did succeed--over 50,000 people failed to vote because of the long lines and 60% of them were Democrats. But with New York State still counting, President Obama did make history by going over the 51% mark, joining Dwight Eisenhower as the President who last won back-to back elections with 51% of the popular vote. His lead now is over 5 million votes over Mitt Romney.

++Liberals and progressives who rolled this past election are now back in the Obama sold us out mold. Early comments on the Fiscal Cliff express dismay about the Presidents compromise of letting the tax cuts end for only those earning $400,000 or more and his comment that he had put forward the Chained Social Security Plan. By Monday afternoon, Obama betrayed more people by seemingly agreeing to a compromise on the estate tax allowing it to drift upwards to $6 million. Of course,the fact he got the Republicans to agree to raising any taxes is miraculous. The Chained Social Security offer, which has vanished, was linked to an extension of the debt ceiling for the rest of his term. But I suspect we will see dismay with Obama for the next 4 years. Liberals and progressives will have to then ask themselves what comes next?

++Following up on the comment by Chris Hayes about the mini-Golden Age of progressive and radical policy critiques, I recommend watching Chris Hedges' talk in Los Angeles. It is currently posted at www.Democraticunderground.com. Chris Hedges was a classmate of mine at Harvard Divinity School and did not become a Presbyterian minister like his father because he was "called" to become a free lance journalist covering El Salvador. His talk is about the history of suppressing populist and progressive movements in the United States and how we became what we are. 

++President Obama said yesterday that he would pursue gun control legislation if the people wanted it. The recent grotesque killing at Sandy Hook struck a cord with foreigners observing this country from abroad. A pro-American French philosophy and journalist  Bernard-Henri Levy wrote a lament about seeing our country engulfed in gun violence. Howard Fineman, vacationing in New Zealand, heard Kiwis lament how we can no longer govern ourselves both in fiscal matters and with gun violence. The Shining City on the Hill looks tarnished from abroad. 

++This year ends where this blog began with a country so atomized that it can not seem to grapple with the large ,real problems that it confronts. There seems to be little hope on the horizon for a "progressive"energy policy since the fossil-fuel industry has bought up Congress. The House Republican Caucus was bought up by Chevron during the last election. There is little or no hope that the subsidies to the oil companies will be sunset. Any progress in the days ahead will be on the margins.

++The United States will have to start considering the very real issue of poverty once again. It has been over a generation since poverty has made its way into our political dialogue. 

++The war on the social safety net will continue throughout Obama's second term. Virtually none of the discussion to date makes any sense or is based in reality. Expect that to continue. 

++The Republicans are likely to hold the House until 2020 or until a new Census. They are likely to be more obstructionist, not less because they only fear primary challengers from the right. The Democrats will inch upwards in 2014 but not by much.

++We have to hail Nate "The Great" Silver for his great year where he shows that being a Wonk or a Nerd is still worthwhile. Nate deserves his award as "Out" magazine man of the Year. My own special award goes to Sam Wang, who showed that a neuroscientist can know more about politics than the politicians. And Kudos to Allen Richtman for once again calling the Presidential election without even looking at poll numbers. And "kos" of the Dailykos for getting all the elections right with even a better record than Nate Silver.

++Tonight begins same sex marriages in Maryland and Maine has already started. Congratulations to all the happy couples.

++This has been a Bipolar year. You have the triumphs of Elizabeth Warren and Heidi Heitkampf to the U.S. Senate,the election of the most diverse class of Democratic representatives and Barack Obama's smashing victory. But we have seen a rash of mass murders, even extending beyond Sandy Hook, and the devastation of my homeland, the Jersey Shore, with Hurricane Sandy. We have seen the worst drought since the Dust Bowl days in the Midwest and the South. Abroad we have seen the slaughter of the Syrian people, the destruction of Timbukutu, and the reversion to repression in Egypt.

++My hope for the coming year is that this will not become the new normal-environmental destruction,massive human rights violations, and an economy that goes into recession because of our political dysfunction.

++A healthy New Year to all. Prosperity if you can get it.