Where Do We Go From Here?

I’ve been asking myself that a lot lately.

I started this blog a little over two years ago – on Nov.  18, 2010 to be precise – with the idea that this would be a place to engage in an ongoing conversation about politics, mostly, with some sports and music thrown in for good measure; but without any more coherent plan than that: Just a place to chat, to hash things out, like you’d do with your friends over an adult beverage or two.

For the most part, I’ve enjoyed the conversations we’ve had over the past couple of years, although most of the time I find I’m just talking to myself. That’s okay, too; My Sainted Irish Mother™ always said that it’s okay to talk to yourself as long as you realize you’re talking to yourself.

Point taken.

But after two years of this conversation (mostly, as I say, with myself), I do wonder whether I’m really doing anything. Anything other than venting, which has a certain therapeutic value, I suppose.

More to the point, I started this blog shortly after the disastrous 2010 congressional elections, at a time when we liberal Democrats were on the ropes and the President’s reelection was hardly a certainty. Much of my focus for the past two years – that is, when I wasn’t bemoaning the fate of my favorite star-crossed baseball team (or my equally star-crossed alma mater), or reliving my misspent youth as a half-hippie/half-punk – has been on the President’s battles, not just with conservatives but with his liberal friends and allies, too. As I’ve noted before, Pres. Obama’s election was quite personal to me, given my parents’ involvement in the local civil rights movement here (and the fact that my father never lived to see the election of the country’s first African American president); and Pres. Obama’s reelection was important to me, too, given that no president can get much done in one four year term, and that, in our country, presidential success is measured not by passing a few bills – even good ones – but by getting reelected. In other words, it wasn’t enough that we elected an African American president. We had to reelect him, too, so that we can always say it wasn’t a fluke; he really was the choice of the American electorate. Not once, but twice.

And we did that. We got that done.

Not that getting Pres. Obama reelected means our work is done – and by “our work,” I mean the work of those of us on the left; those of us who really believe the liberal vision for the country is what’s best for it. Nope. The President has four more years of work to do, and we have a lifetime of work to do if we ever want to see any significant part of that vision become reality.

So – and I’m sorry if you were getting your hopes up – the President’s reelection does not mean that I’m going to stop blogging. Instead, I think the two year anniversary of this blog and the President’s reelection are occasions to refocus my energies; or, perhaps I should say, to focus my energies in the first place.

Unfortunately, while I do plan to maintain this blog and, I hope, improve it, that means I am giving up my work on The Tim Corrimal Show, a show that I was fortunate enough to co-host from shortly after I started the blog in November 2010, through about mid-August 2011; and then, after an extended hiatus, from late June 2012 through the beginning of November. Although I enjoyed doing the show with Tim, I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s not the best vehicle for me to express my views and provide whatever (perhaps meager) analysis I’m able to provide. I’m not necessarily giving up on the idea of doing a podcast in the future, but for the short term I want to expend my energies improving this blog.

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the holiday season. Stop by often; I’ll try to keep posting whenever I can, even while I think about the direction I want to take the blog after the first of the year.

The Tavern may be undergoing renovations, but it’s still open for business.

Cheers.