The State of the Union upon the Observance of its Birth.

Once again we have come around to July 4th, the day designated to celebrate the glory of our nation. Last year at this time my blog still had a sheen of novelty for me, and I struggled to encapsulate my feelings about our nation. Returning to that post a year later, it is striking just how discouraged I was regarding the direction our country had taken. While my feelings still largely echo those sentiments, there have been some subtle changes over the last twelve months that have been cause for a hint of optimism regarding our future.

The results of the November midterm elections of 2006 were both shocking and refreshing. As the days leading up to that election passed, I became increasingly more pessimistic about the electorate's ability to shift the course of our government. I was absolutely convinced that the voting booths would once again be the scene for widespread corruption and fraud. The ruling party had become so monolithic that I saw its power as near invulnerable. All three branches of the federal government, and the majority of state and local governnments, were in the hands of a disciplined and focused GOP. There seemed to be very little range of perspective within the Republican party, and virtually no effective opposition from outside of it. It seemed like the entire populace had acquiesced to a deeply-flawed and one-sided national policy. But what a difference a single day can make!

Against all probability, the iron grip of control the Republicans had on governance was broken. In state after state, Democrats and Independents rallied together to challenge the status quo. A genuine two-party system was thus reinstated. The conservative leadership, and particularly party strategist Karl Rove, was stunned and depressed by these results. Hidden fissures within the movement began to be exposed. What was once a hegemony of unchallenged position within the right-wing coalition now looked like an uneasy truce. It turned out that very few were satisfied with the way things had been going. Christians, fiscal conservatives, libertarians and neo-cons began to diverge from one another. After a short period of time, it appeared that very real changes in policy were possible.

As Democrats regained the majority in both houses of Congress, the public dialogue was expanded. The media now felt empowered to resume its role of presenting a wider range of opinions, and to once again challenge the Bush administration. Certainly there was a lot of carping from pundits who had allowed themselves to become complacently convinced that they represented the overwhelming will of the American people. But concerns like the environment, criticisms of the war effort, expanded health care, and alternative energy once again claimed spots in discussions of our national agenda.

January brought a flurry of activity from the new politicians in Congress. The Bush administration was actually on the defensive for the first time since 9-11. They no longer had the ability to intimidate all of Washington, and were experiencing notable defections within their own camp. While that initial momentum has largely expired, we are entering a phase of extreme uncertainty. It's remarkable to watch the various campaigns for the 2008 presidential race flounder about in their attempt to track the pulse of the citizenry. The time for indulging an unquestioned authority in a period of marked chaos is now past. The "us vs. them" mentality is becoming less of a possibility because no one can clearly define the sides anymore. And it's for that reason that the future of democracy in the United States looks a bit more promising. This fact alone is reason enough to celebrate the birth of the nation.