Save Us, Jeebus!

It's been a bad week for progressives.

First, there was the republican take-over of the late Ted Kennedy's seat in Massachusetts that is apparently going to lead to a total rolling over by the majority party and the failure to pass health care reform.

Then the frightening decision from the Supreme Court giving corporations even more "personhood" and rights than they already had (which is to say, in effect, more rights than people who aren't corporations).

Then Air America declared bankruptcy.

And now I'm reading that American aid to Haiti was massively mis-guided in that crucial first 72-hour period after the earthquake. By being obsessively focused on "security", we managed to screw up and delay the arrival of actual aid that would have helped.

When I think about where we were as a movement just a year ago -- so full of hope, so expectant -- it makes me sad. I am very disappointed in Obama, though not surprised. He had a huge mess to clean up, yes, but he's also made some very distressing decisions. But even more so, the backlash has been unbelievable.

Literalist Christians of the type who are prone to believing the devil is a person have this thing about how right after a person invites Jesus into their heart and gets born again is when the devil is going to attack them the most. I think that's a pretty good description of where the progressive movement is right now. Let's stay strong and focused on what we know is right and good.