The Future Is OURS

R.E.M. “Living Well Is The Best Revenge” (Live)

Michael Stipe wrote the lyrics to this song well over a year ago. It’s perfect for this day.

don’t turn your talking points on me

history will set me free

the future is OURS and you don’t even

rate a footnote now

so who’s chasing you, where did you go?

you disappear mid-sentence in a judgment crisis

I see my in and go for it

you weakened shill

you, savor your dying breath

I forgive but I don’t forget

you work it out

let’s hear that argument again

camera 3. go! now!

all your sad and lost apostles

hum my name and flare their nostrils

choking on the bones you tossed to them

now I’m not one to sit and spin

but living well is the best revenge

and baby, I am calling you on that

When it became clear that Barack Obama had won the election, I felt what a majority of Americans felt — elation, pride, hope. I also felt something a bit darker, a bit more shameful: The bitter, smug satisfaction of REVENGE. What happened yesterday was an unequivocal repudiation of the Republican party, and of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney and Karl Rove. I’ll be honest with you: I can barely contain my glee in watching this hideous, cancerous version of a once-honorable party crumble. It’s going to be fascinating over the next several years to observe as the GOP fight amongst themselves and scramble to reinvent their party. My hope is that they can find a way back to being a party with whom I do not agree on a vast majority of issues, but can respect. But in the meantime, they’ve been defeated and humiliated on nearly all fronts, and that is incredible. It took a long time, but we’ve had our revenge.

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