[By Jesse Parent]
How many times have you heard: “One of the starkest contrasts in terms of America’s overall direction in some time” – perhaps the one thing everyone agreed on. Yet while America has made a choice, and a fairly significant one at that, there are so many issues to be addressed; so at least for me, personally, there is a very different feeling compared to the aftermath of the 2008 election.
I want to take a moment to capture the feeling(s) of the moment, the ‘zeitgeist‘, the state of America and thereby its relation to the global and modern historical context. To do that, I’ll be doing a great deal of thinking and reflecting, as well as (see Learnist) collecting a number of the commentaries, articles, and reflections arising from the aftermath of Election 2012. I want as broad a scope as possible; the aim is to have an accurate sample so as to produce a good illustration of this moment in history.
There is so much to process, and for many, there is a feeling of how different things ‘could have been’ if Mitt Romney was elected instead of the reelection of President Barack Obama. There is a strange sense of confusion yet also re-orientation – it’s something I personally am not sure how to capture or comment on yet, which is why I am starting this project.
The end result will be a full length essay or report, a smaller executive summary, and hopefully, several works cited and even commentary on those works cited.
Likely topics will include: The economy in general, and specifically the coming “Fiscal Cliff“, which has recently stunned or scared the stock markets ; the issue of demographics in America (I’ve never heard so many different news programs say so openly things like “Old, white, angry men aren’t all there is to America anymore”) ; related, social issues like women’s rights, equal pay, marriage equality, immigration, and so on ; climate change and environmental issues (recovering from #Sandy…); energy (see the rest of this site); and the general nature of politics in the US.
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If you have any good stories that would add to the perspective of this moment in history, please leave them in the comments below. I’m working on a collection so far on Learnist, link here.
Stay tuned and make the most of the year 2012…. 2013 is only a little over a month away, now.
- Jesse Parent
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For more of Jesse’s thoughts throughout the week and to see what news he’s following, you are invited to join the conversation via Twitter and Facebook.
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