So Much for Live Streaming the Inauguration...

Yesterday wasn't my best day.

I started out feeling the history of the moment. I am one for history, and the pageantry of America's traditions is unmatched in the modern world. I did not vote for Barack Obama, but as I've said before, he is my president. Thus I wasn't so pleased with Grace's comment, nor was I that happy about Tim's digs about the "partisanship of hate" at this blog. What really bummed my morning was the darned live streaming online. I should have known better. At first I thought it was just my classroom. But my colleagues told me that servers and video feeds were overwhelmed by demand, so watching the inauguration speech online didn't work. That's what it is. I hadn't planned on making a big deal out of it anyway, but as the morning came and the hour of the oath of office approached, the weight of history was crushing. I had the live feed for my 7:30 class and Representative John Lewis was being interviewed by Brian Williams on MSNBC. As one who stood with Dr. King, and as one who was beaten as a civil rights demonstrator, it's hard to find more authenticity on the subject of overcoming our oppressive history. It was a great learning moment for the students. The 9:00am class wasn't so lucky. The live video wasn't working on any of the big websites. We got a couple of snippets of Barack Obama's speech, and then I shut it down and started my regular class.

I'd say next time I'll get a TV setup for the room, but there won't be a next time like that. We just don't see that kind of mass participation in politics. And if Barack Obama energizes a new generation to engagement in civic life, that alone will be an accomplishment not achieved in either Democratic or Republican administrations in the last 30 years.

I watched Obama's inaugural speech this morning, the whole thing, on C-Span, so that's better. I needed just to sit down and take it in. It was good but not great. He offered a few lines that reaffirmed our exceptionalism, but the address was far from Lincolnian, so perhaps the analogies to Abraham will cease.

Last night, I had to run errands before picking up my youngest son, and I watched a little news before I helped my boy with his homework. So, it was disjointed news day all around. By bedtime, reading online, I was disturbed by the reports of the tremendous disrespect shown to President Bush. And so these last gasps of Bush derangement must really be seen as setting the table for the next four years. Here at my blog and at the nation's capital, folks did not heed Obama's call to transcend the bitter discords of our partisanship. Now that the celebrations are over and the hard work of governing is to begin, folks can jettison the simplistic platitudes of brotherhood and focus on the realism of governing and opposition.

It's the idealism in me that seemed to suggest, by my sense of right, that folks would put rancor aside for the day. But folks were just wicked. The chants of "na na na na, hey hey, goodbye," mocking President Bush, reportedy accompanied by one-fingered salutes, indicate that transcendence is not on the menu for the left's hardliners. Indeed, Code Pink's Medea Benjamin and Desiree Fairooz, sat within 100 feet of President Obama as "The One" delivered his address. How would the most disrespectful protest celebrities, those who disrupted the states of the union and flashed bloody hands in front of Secretary of State Rice be allowed so close to this new president? Members of Congress scored them tickets, it's being said. And for all of those who keep telling me that hardline leftist "don't represent the base of the Democratic Party," we'll ... you can just kiss my ass on that one.

The big lie is over. The nihilist left has their man in the White House now. Racial recrimination got a reprise in the Reverend Joseph Lowery's benediction, said to be "hardly the sort of post-racial note Obama could have wanted." My jaw dropped yesterday while watching Howard University's Professor Daryl Scott on C-Span, who said that President Obama would "grind down" the terrorists like President Bush had not. The reference was to Obama's remark that "for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that, 'Our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken. You cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you'." Where was the leftist solidarity on "grinding" down our enemies when President Bush spoke over and over again of the long struggle before us in defeating the scourge of radical Islam? The grinding down began in 2001, when the Bush administration took the fight to the enemy in Afghanistan, and finished the work of the international community by toppling the murderous regime of proliferation in Baghdad. The left and their historians will try to rewrite the Bush years, but it's not going to work. I won't let it. People of tradition and perspective won't let it. The time to ante up is now, and those who for so long have demonized the conservatives aren't ready to quit, so I say, we'll join you in the arena of partisanship, if that's your play, if that's what you want. The recuperative powers of the nation will work their healing ways irrespective of Barack Obama's accession. He is the great facilitator at this piont, but this nation is too strong and too proud to let the window dressing of black authenticity march as the true source of healing and rebirth. It has to come from within all of us, to move past this second civil war of the last decade. So far the left isn't ready for it.

A commenter at Sister Toldjah's place, Carol, noted this in response to Jeremy Lott piece yesterday at the Guardian:

I’m already tired of people saying we should “give our new president a chance”. I believe President Obama is either a total liar or the best con man ever. Either way the hatred will never stop for President Bush and I’m not going to sit back and keep my mouth shut as proof I’m not just like them. I’m not like the Bush haters. It’s hard to put faith in a man who only cares about polls, not the welfare of this country. Only time will tell who is honest and patriotic. I know I am. Is Obama?

I'm not going to "shut up" either. I will be respectful, and I'll never call for the execution of my president for fighting with all his powers to defend the nation against all enemies, foreign and domestic. But the new era is here - a day of history and wonder now gives way to years of work. Part of that work, that mighty load we bear as conservatives, is to hold our new leadership to the majesty and responsibility of their stations. This country deserves no less.

Photo Update: Tigerhawk.