I've got a mind like a jukebox. If you've got one of those minds, too, you already know what I mean; if you haven't, I mean that seemingly every thought or image or idea across which I come elicits a song, from one of the millions of tunes crammed into my head like a dusty collection of 45s. For a long time, almost every time I read the political news, the song that played in the background was The Jam's Town Called Malice.
But the times, they are a-changing.
Over the past several days, I've read with both wonder and fragile sanguinity the reported plans of president-elect Barack Obama's to make big changes, immediately after he takes office:
The Obama transition team has identified approximately 200 "Bush administration actions and executive orders that could be swiftly undone to reverse White House policies on climate change, stem cell research, reproductive rights and other issues," including lifting the global gag rule which prohibits international reproductive rights groups from discussing abortions as a condition of receiving US aid.
The twice-vetoed (by outgoing President Bush) State Children's Health Insurance Programme, known as SCHIP, is scheduled for "a major expansion" by the Obama administration as early as their first month in office.
Plans are being developed to close Guantanámo Bay, after relocating its detainees to a combination of civilian criminal courts, military courts, and a proposed national security court, abandoning altogether the Bush administration's controversial military tribunals.
The fronts in both of America's wars stand to change dramatically, as Obama has proposed to draw down troops in Iraq and "explore a more regional strategy to the war in Afghanistan," while also re-centering focus on capturing Osama bin Laden and diminishing al-Qaida.
The transition team's technology agenda includes plans to advocate Net Neutrality, create the office of the nation's first chief technology officer, reaffirm first amendment and privacy rights with regard to internet use, increasing citizen access to government via technology, and improving broadband access, among other items.
And then there are the ch-ch-ch-ch-changes that have already happened.
Kathy McMullen reports that sexual orientation and gender identity have been included in a federal non-discrimination policy for the first time on the Obama transition team's job application form: "The Obama-Biden transition project does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, or any other basis of discrimination prohibited by law."
And Rasmussen found that "the percentage of black voters who view American society as fair and decent jumped 18 points to 42%" two days after Obama was elected.
One day after he was elected, I spent the day in Chicago, that toddling town, marvelling at the combination of joy, excitement, relief, hopefulness, trepidation, and unbridled bliss that had taken over the city. It was like every single person in Chicago had been told they had 100 years to live, as I found myself in spontaneous conversations about music, art, food, life, the election, with strangers in elevators, in restaurants, in cabs, on the sidewalk. People were happy and inspired – black, white, gay straight, woman, man, everyone. In one of the most politically cynical cities in the world, whose residents know better than most that politicians are fallible beings who often fail to deliver, frequently in spectacular ways, there was still a tangible sense of what is possible.
It is a risky business indeed to have high hopes for a president. The temptation to expect nothing, in the hopes of being pleasantly surprised, is very enticing, precisely because nothing is so frequently all that we get. But great presidents are forged in part in the fiery bellies of the people who demand greatness of them – and who are willing to show a little greatness themselves.
I used to hear Town Called Malice when I read the news, but I don't anymore. Sometime in the last week, Malice was replaced with John Legend's If You're Out There. I hope I have a chance to enjoy that for a while. I like John Legend.