I review this disappointing personal history by way of making a simple point: Barack Obama's presidency represents the first time I have felt truly invested in a political victory. And I've spent the past year learning what that means.

I haven't written much about politics this year, here or anywhere. It's been a long year, and a tough one. Lots of people are hurting, our problems seem bigger than the people who we asked to solve them, and it turns out governing, as George W. Bush would say, really is hard work. Not to say that I haven't been thinking about politics this year. I've had versions of this post written in my head half a dozen times, from late spring to early autumn, but never got further than the title and a couple sentences. Because it's painful, to be honest. Because I'm disappointed, in Obama, certainly, but in my country, too. But I'm still hopeful, and that's why I'm writing this now.

I was with him from the beginning, or before the beginning, really: I included a speech he gave at Knox College in a publication I edited at the SPIN Project in 2005, annotating his vision of American history as a story of shared struggle toward greater equality, prosperity and justice as he made the case for a renewed social contract. Even then, he represented for me the only logical progression for our politics after the division of the Clinton and Bush years, the endless battles of our parents over Vietnam and the '60s writ large.

Obama articulated a vision of America that squared the best of our progressive nature with an appreciation for our traditions, all with a clear-eyed understanding of what America gets right, and what it gets wrong. I supported him in the primaries because I thought he could move us beyond the culture wars (what an awful phrase, and an awful commentary on our society that it is a useful one) toward something more constructive and less ugly. Hillary Clinton, for all of her strengths--her toughness, her focus, her intelligence--could never do that. And once Obama had finally won the primary, I was sure he would be our next president-- our media's fascination with plumbers, maverickiness and angry old people notwithstanding.

And so when he moved into the White House in January, it just felt right to me, logical. I was hopeful about his ability to unite us and get us back on track. And then reality set in.

I think I knew, intellectually, that governing involves compromise. That not every campaign promise will be kept, and that sometimes getting the least bad result is actually a victory. But it didn't take the sting out of seeing Obama do less--far less--than I thought right on investigating torture, to take one example. It is a stain on our honor, and horribly damaging to our national interest, that such actions were taken in our name. It's not Obama's fault that those actions were taken, but he hasn't done enough to right the wrong. He has not invested the time and political capital necessary to undo the damage done.

And yet. How can I fault him for not doing more on this, when he was left with such a mess in January--the economic collapse, the winding down of the war in Iraq, the struggle to find a less disastrous outcome in Afghanistan? How can I fault him for not wanting to engage in a looking-backward, which would be certain to consume his entire term with division, partisan rancor and the kind of contentless angry grandstanding that our media so delights in covering?

And, of course, I should say: even more division, more rancor, and more grandstanding.

Because it's clear that the Republican party of the 21st century has become a party of nihilists--no longer opposed simply to "big government," but opposed to the very idea of governing. Rather than act to try to solve the huge and mounting problems that we face, they've made a political choice to oppose Obama on every step he takes, even those steps that in a different era would have been seen as pragmatic, sensible and uncontroversial (see financial industry reform, if you don't want to take my word for it). At the same time, they've embraced the paranoia, rage and know-nothingism of a small and shrinking part of the population as a central part of their identity, wishing for the failure of our President in the midst of crisis and war.

In this they are abetted by our news media, of course. Anger scans better on the teevee than reasoned discourse, and "he said, she said" is a hell of a lot easier, and cheaper, than real reporting for cash-strapped organizations forced to compete for advertising dollars in a culture that sees pretty much everything through the lens of spectacle and entertainment. That's not a recipe for dispassionate analysis or any kind of thinking that takes more into account than the next 24-hour news cycle.

And that's where I need to remind myself to be hopeful. Obama really isn't playing the same game that his opponents are. I don't mean he's some sort of five-dimensional chess master, just that he's good at letting his opponents win tactical victories in the news cycle while he's focused on the bigger picture. He's trying to foster a generational shift away from 40 years of government for the benefit of the few, of resentment and divisions sown carefully by Republicans to ensure their own electoral success. He's trying to move the center of American politics to a place where community is more important, where government can be seen as playing a positive role in people's lives, where greed is less good and pragmatism is prized above ideology.

It's a tall order. And the outcomes won't be perfect (not so long as we have Joe Lieberman defining the limits of the possible, or partisans on the left accusing Obama of betraying them by breaking promises he never made--but those are posts for another day). Obama will disappoint on many fronts: not strong enough on investigation of torture; too slow on gay rights; not enough to rein in the financial industry.

But 2009 has seen the passage of a far-reaching economic stimulus bill that does much to begin shifting the idea of what government can, and should, do. Health care reform is coming, despite all the forces aligned against it. Our standing in the world has rebounded, and our foreign policy is in the hands of grown-ups who care about our ideals. It's a start.

All of this could go off the rails, of course. If the economy doesn't turn around (and perhaps even if does), if jobs stay scarce, the Democrats will suffer seriously at the polls next year, and return with diminished majorities. The structural obstacles to meaningful change are huge--from the broken media to the massive debt, from our bought-and-paid-for political class to the disloyal opposition and the new all-filibuster-all-the-time norm--but no one ever said uprooting the conservative movement and shifting the political culture of a country would be easy. And if I ever believed it, well shame on me.

What I've learned the past year is that governing-- actually doing the heavy lifting of deciding on a policy that you think will work, selling it to the American people, and rallying the majorities needed in the Congress to pass it-- is a messy business. Politics is called the art of the possible for a reason, and compromise really is the only way you can get things done. It's easy to get caught up in trying to game the news cycle, taking poll numbers as gospel and believing what you read on the Op Ed pages of the Post or, God help us all, Politico. That way lies madness.

Republicans aren't going to be helpful (nor should they be), but that doesn't mean you can just throw up your hands. You've got to try to work with them without letting them take over the debate. Our news media will most honor progressive voices when they decide to trash the President, because that's what sells. And too many progressive voices will be willing to do so, because ideology is more important to them than governing. But we're never going to move this country toward a new liberal consensus without passing legislation that makes people's lives betters. If just being right were enough, it would have happened already.

So what do you do if you're Barack Obama, or someone who wants to see him succeed? Keep trying to pass the agenda he ran on, because it's good for the American people. Fight every inch of the way to get the best bill you can, then cut the deal that will pass it. Be relentlessly pragmatic in the struggle to redefine the role of government in our society.

2009 was a dark year. And our problems aren't going away in 2010. But I believe we made the right choice last November, and I believe Obama is up to the challenge. Governing is hard work, but there's no point in giving in to anger and despair. There's too much work to be done, and we're all in this together.