A "deal" that will live in infamy

First off, the Tweet of the Decade, brought to you by Rep. Emmanel Cleaver II (D-MO):

"This deal is a sugar-coated satan sandwich. If you lift the bun, you will not like what you see."

I don't have Twitter and I've never heard of the Representative before, but that's the best use of 140 characters to come out of Congress in the last decade. Referring to the deal as merely a "shit sandwich" (as MoJo's Kevin Drum just did), though accurate, doesn't hold a candle to that turn of phrase. But that's enough complimenting Congress for one day. On to the juicy stuff.

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I woke up this morning feeling two unfamiliar and extremely disheartening things. First, I finally internalized last night in a way that I've never done before that my generation (and likely the next one) is the first to have been sentenced to live shorter, unhealthier, less-prosperous lives than our parents. And there is virtually nothing we can do about it: even if we instantly re-imagine our economic, agricultural, environmental and political systems such that starting this afternoon we live in a no-growth, happiness-based, organic-locavoric-flexitarian-slow food-eating, carbon-scrubbing, functionally-governing la-la land, I'm not sure we can beat the spread. Some of us -- namely us Hoyas who have money, time and leisure to watch TED talks, stay fit and eat organic/local/flexitarian/slow food -- will surely benefit, and we'd all be able to re-start the American dream for our kids. But can we safely assume that we could rescue all of today's kids, about a quarter of whom are overweight or obese before they can even vote, from the final destruction of the American dream as we knew it this past year?

Second, I awoke today deeply, deeply shamed and embarrassed to be an American. I'm not a blind believer in the exceptionalist gospel, I'm not much of an Americapologist and I've already noted in this space that I can admit that we as a nation are full of shit to about the same degree as everybody else. But this debt-ceiling crisis has left me profoundly disillusioned about our nation's ability and/or desire to be a global citizen. To a frightening degree, these past weeks have shown how unwilling or unable we and our elected Representatives are to acknowledge and accept that we do not exist in some kind of global vacuum. As a good little SFS-er, I've always been for engagement with the world, but after experiencing the wider world for myself in the way that only study abroad can do, the combination of Tea Party myopia and Obama's "lead from behind" doctrine in world affairs now appears so morally and politically broken to me I'm at a loss for words. Though we've enjoyed great security thanks to our relative physical isolation, it is obscene and shameful that we still entertain ideological and emotional isolationism in today's hyper-connected/"flat"/free-trade world. Especially given that the world economy is predicated on the U.S. serving as the global buyer of first and last resort, it is absolutely unconscionable to flirt with committing economic seppuku before the rest of the world's horrified gaze. These days, it's not just our own future we're sacrificing. It's theirs, too, and they've every right to be repulsed by our callousness.

I stand by yesterday's points regarding political grandstanding if the "sugar-coated satan sandwich" passes tonight (anyone who dares to pat him- or herself on the back for getting a deal done at the price of the American dream and American credibility should be pilloried). I'd also like to remind our jilted-lover-in-chief that he's not the only one feeling a little let down these days. You know something, Mr. President? Despite my cynicism and better instincts to the contrary, I decided to buy into your idealism, hope and change. You were the first president I voted for, and when you won, I thought "we'd" won. I ran down to the White House to celebrate your victory on election night. I stood in the freezing cold to catch a tiny glimpse of you at the pre-inaugural concert and at your historic inauguration. I actually thought that the country's first 21st-century "progressive" candidate might bring about a 21st-century progressive politics. Sorry for being so stupid. I've tried to cut you as much slack as I could over the past few years, but leading from behind while the crazies kill the American promise is neither hope, nor change, nor progress nor inspiration. As Paul Krugman wrote immediately after the "deal" was announced, you've "surrendered." And that's what I can't forgive. You can belay the sniffling press conferences already. Your time's already over. Mine's just beginning, and it's already stolen. Sorry it didn't work out between us, but you'll start drawing Social Security in just over a decade. Don't come crying to me about your raisin in the sun of a presidency.

And to the Republicans: at long, long last, have you no sense of decency, sirs and madams? I sincerely hope you are prepared to spend all eternity derided in the history books as the Hoovers of the future who killed the Dream for fear of looking weak. We still vilify Hoover today for feeding cattle while people starved as he doomed the country to the Great Depression. When the Great Recession and its fallout are in the history books, "Don't be John Boehner/Sara Palin/a Tea Partier!" will have replaced charges of Hoover-ism 80 years from now. I hope you all are satisfied with yourselves. And I hope you are secure in the knowledge that the Baby Boomers, offspring of the "Greatest Generation" and originators of the cultural revolution that was going to save the world, have betrayed both the legacy of your parents and the future of your children and your children's children. Look back on your words and actions in this time and know shame.