We went to our first Drinking Liberally last night and had a blast. There were some lively people there, discussing things both political and non-political. I got into a rather intense discussion with a fellow named Maurice we'd met previously and who was previously working on a senator's campaign, and is now working on the campaign of Rand Knight in an attempt to unseat Saxby Chambliss.

As I write this (and you read it) let me just say that a lot of this came from Maurice (quite the student of history), so I'd like to give credit to him in advance. To some extents, I am acting simply as a stenographer here...

There were two major memes to the discussion: political cycles and empires. Of empires, he pointed out that most nations that are older than us (Greece, Italy, England, France) have gone through the pain of the collapse of their empires, and their reticence towards violence and acceptance of a certain amount of socialism reflects that. The U.S. has not; thus it rejects socialism as interfering with growth motivation, and still embraces violence as means to an end. Micheal Moore's movie "Bowling for Columbine" asked the question "why are Americans so prone to gun violence?"; it seems our pre-collapse mindset might be the answer. We have not yet been humbled.

The other interesting aspect of the discussion revolved around Obama and the current political zeitgeist. He used the example that back in 1980, the country had just gone through the Equal Rights movement, the Women's Rights movement, and a social revolution that brought "accepted" drug use and rampant sexuality. The country - he asserts - was ready for a change, for the pendulum to swing from the left to the right, and Reagan was the right person at the right time to provide the promise of that change (and to some extent deliver it). Clinton gave us a slight reprieve in the middle of it, but it's been said (and repeated last night) that he was the best Republican president we've had in recent history.

So now it's been nearly 30 years of conservative rule, and the country is ready for the pendulum to swing back to the left. We've seen the results of conservative rule - disenfranchisement, greed, a heartless callousness to the poor, control through fear, and just general nastiness. Our collective spirit needs to be cleansed; we need to feel like we are helping each other rather than hoarding.

The time is now and Obama is the man for the time. His message of "change" and "hope" aren't just campaign slogans, they are the reflection of the desires and demands of the American people. Maurice feels that Obama is smart enough to recognize the swing of the pendulum, and know that he is the one that can actually make that change occur. If he could be transported back in time 8 years, it's unlikely that he would enjoy the same success because we weren't ready.

We are ready now. We are ready for change. We are ready for hope. We are ready for the swing of the pendulum.