We are hearing some of the most long-faced, long-winded, wet-blanket commentary about American politics, the prospects for far-reaching and much-needed reform, and the charisma and talent of Barack Obama. We are hearing so much of it, in fact, it seems to be the latest fashion trend, with conservatives, liberals, moderates and extremists, all apparently gleeful about having a trend to latch onto, if about nothing else. People are reportedly “weary” and “worried”; polls are showing, or claim to show, that “Americans” —we should remember to ask if polls really are able to define the zeitgeist for us all, or if they only pretend to— think Pres. Obama has “tried to do too much”.

What makes me weary about politics in America today, precisely one year after the most hopeful day of joyous, community feeling tens of millions of people —even Pat Buchanan— say they can remember in any context of politics or civics, is that the fashion is now cynicism and naysaying, and not aspiration and thoughtful problem-solving. This is not the fault of Barack Obama, but of all those people, supporters of his or not, who lack his energy to keep working at the hard problems, to keep imagining brave solutions to systemic, generational crises.

Obama tapped into something; as he often said, “Something [was] happening in America”; people were waking up, and wanted to do their part. But somehow, people have lost their will to participate: liberals quickly began to demand, as if it were up to the chief executive alone to rule by diktat, that he immediately correct all of societies ills, or there would be trouble; conservatives adopted the fundamentally disingenuous attitude that unless he did everything they wanted and abandoned his own goals, he was not “truly bipartisan”. This loss of will amounts to a collective turning away from productive civic engagement.

I am fatigued not by Pres. Obama’s lofty goals or thoughtful language, but by the apparent mass exodus from the project of improving our nation. I have rarely seen such a willingness to engage in self-fulfilling prophecy, to express exhaustion about topics people have hardly begun to explore, let alone work for; it’s as if we have entered a perverse, parallel universe, where we elected a man with a bold vision to enact comprehensive reform, and then we decided to base 99% of our political discourse on flagrantly ephemeral opinions unrelated to fact and entirely counterproductive in their aims.

One year into the presidency of Barack Obama, the Republicans have steadfastly refused to participate in any initiative whatsoever, except the ramping up of US military activity in Afghanistan, and the Democratic leadership seems genuinely confused about whether they should be pushing for the vision of Obama or that of his Republican opponents. When I speak to liberals, they are beside themselves and despairing over what they see as weak-willed, ineffective leadership in Congress; and when I speak to conservatives, they are beside themselves and despairing over entirely fictional threats that have nothing to do with Obama’s agenda.

What is lacking is any cohesive strategy to bring stakeholders to the table, as was done at the outset of the healthcare reform debate last spring. Pres. Obama has been incredibly adroit at bringing factions with opposing views to the table to at least open dialogue, but momentum for such actions has waned as Republican obstructionism has pushed most Democrats and liberals to demand their representatives freeze the Republicans out until they're desperate to come in from the cold, and will make concessions.

The result of Republican obstructionism, incredibly, is that the Republican party is less popular than even one year ago, when it lost a second consecutive wave election and the presidency by a landslide, yet Republicans are winning races! This is illogical in the extreme, and seems to reveal a fundamental paradox in the American political psyche: change and reform, the correction of abuses and the prevention of their recurring, are all desired, but no one wants to do the work or wait while it’s done. This great democratic nation has suddenly fallen in love with a woodland-sprite political philosophy: just wave a wand, and make it happen, or we’ll turn on you.

There has to be something more, a deeper reserve of commitment to the hard work of making this nation better than its lowest common moral and economic denominators. Or doesn’t there? While people who believe that casting one vote on one day during their adult life should be enough to fix all the injustices of the world sit home and indulge in false complaints about subjects about which they know far too little to make any informed judgments, reforms our nation desperately needs —regardless of ideology: on healthcare, financial regulation and energy— languish, and people working for those reforms are punished by an unscrupulous media environment less interested in fact than in fanning the flames of false controversy.

Major political leaders in the party of opposition are condoning and even praising radical extremists who talk of revolt and carry loaded weapons to political rallies, spread propaganda and make threats against innocent people. And this goes without any substantive negative repercussion for those unscrupulous enough to do so: the media rewards any figure who helps to produce a story that can be used to create false controversy where without it, talented investigative reporters would be required.

This is all very exhausting and could drive any serious person to despair, but the real harm comes not from the fact of it all, but from the side-effects: the turning off of the American political mind, the mythologizing of propaganda and the irrational rejection of the very things that will make a better future for one’s children. There is less quality information filtering through than there should be, and this is owing to the generalized easy acceptance of faux news coverage and quote-only TV journalism.

Journalists need to do more work, and they need to care about doing more work. The philosopher Richard Rorty wrote in the preface to his book Philosophy and Social Hope: “My candidate for the most distinctive and praiseworthy human capacity is our ability to trust and to cooperate with other people, and in particular to work together so as to improve the future.” That sentiment is part of what makes him an American pragmatist, and it’s something everybody in politics needs to remember in 2010.