Meat was in a pretty good mood when he wandered in this morning. I wish I could say the same.
"Hey SJ, want to ride toward DC with me today. Tater's at the Womens' march and I want to be close in case she needs to get bailed out."
I eyed him like he'd asked if I wanted to slide down a razor blade naked into a pool of acid.
"No. And who's going to bail you out?"
"Whine whine whine, listen to you whine, you're just like all the rest."
"Well you're the one who ended up in the pokie at the last inauguration."
That wasn't technically true. He was arrested for drunk and disorderly at Obama's first inauguration. He avoided the last one.
In fairness, he was far less drunk than a lot of other folks in DC at the time. He was, however, a great deal more disorderly.
"Do you remember Mr. Show Me Your Birth Certificate?"
"That was then, this is now SJ. I just wasn't ready at the time. But I got over it."
"I'd say so old buddy, you've come a long way."
As it turns out, Meat wasn't the only one who wasn't ready for Barack. From the birther movement, to the muslim innuendo, to the gorilla jokes, a huge number of American citizens simply weren't ready for a black president.
I'm talking about Democrats, too.
The saddest joke of the ultra right delusion is that somehow Obama made the country racist. To prove it they wave confederate flags to remind everyone of a time racism didn't exist in our country.
Too bad they didn't get over it like Meat did. Too bad they didn't see the grand poobah of the Birther lie was full of raw sewage like Meat did, either. Not that Meat is an Obama fanatic, he's got legitimate gripes like many do. But he has health insurance now and he remembers who made that possible.
"You know Meat, what if the guy elected president in 2008 was named Barry Obannon. What if he was the son of an American mother and an Irishman on a student visa, born in Alaska. Everything else he did and said over the next 8 years was the same thing as the guy who got elected."
"What if a frog had wings SJ?"
"You know what I'm saying Meat, you said it yourself. We weren't ready, not enough of us were ready. What would the situation today be if he were white, everything else being the same?"
"What if, what if, what if SJ, that's all you want to do. Nobody knows what if. Here's a what if! What if O had spent more time talking to people in coal country and fighting for our folks not to be left behind? What if he'd gone after the banks who put us in the mess he got elected into? What if? Who knows? I was in a good mood ten minutes ago but not now so I'm glad you're staying home. That's what I know."
So here we are. The day one presidency ends and another begins. Farewell Barack. I don't think the change that is coming is the one a majority of us were hoping for eight years ago.