|
|
|---|
|
American Politics Journal Atrios Barry Crimmins Betty Bowers Buzzflash Consortium News Daily Howler Daily Kos Democatic Underground Disinfotainment Today Evil GOP Bastards Faux News Channel Greg Palast The Hollywood Liberal Internet Weekly Jesus General Joe Conason Josh Marshall Liberal Oasis Make Them Accountable Mark Morford Mike Malloy Political Humor - About.com Political Wire Randi Rhodes Rude Pundit Smirking Chimp Take Back the Media Whitehouse.org More Links |
Get off my lawn!
My problem with Obama
by Geezer
First off, sorry to come on board and then disappear. I have an
excused absence.
Let’s start with President Barack Obama.
Bart and I disagreed on presidential choices in 2008. You’ll
remember that Bart was all in on Hilary Clinton.
I believed that Clinton was too enclosed inside the Beltway to find the
pulse of America. After hearing Obama’s
speech on racism in America, I felt he nailed the issue. He
seemed to understand what progressives had been
arguing about. But I’m sorry to say that Bart had it right and I
had it woefully wrong.
In fact, Bart was so right that I can’t bring myself to defend Obama,
nor can I bring myself to vote for the man
come 2012. I’ll be clear. If there is another reasonable
alternative come 2012, I’ll vote for the alternative.
If there is no alternative on my ballot, I’ll leave that section blank
or attempt a write-in. That is true even if my
failure to support Obama leads to a Michelle Bachman presidency.
That last statement may turn you off,
but give me a minute. Also, understand that I’m speaking for
myself and requesting nothing from you.
Health care: Obama
gave the public option away to Big Pharma and Insurance criminals in a
back room deal
(i.e., without ANY public debate) and received absolutely nothing for
the American people in the bargain.
The implementation of health care reform is so spread out in time that
Republicans ought to find it very easy
to pick apart and make it nonexistent. It contains enough loop
holes to make the bill impotent.
Iraq and Afghanistan:
We are still dithering in Iraq and Afghanistan is now the longest war
in American history.
Afghanistan is NOT another Viet Nam. It’s worse. He’s now
adding Libya to the mix while continuing tax cuts
for the wealthiest Americans (also given away in a backroom deal with
lobbyists), expecting the rest of us to pick up
the slack with the taxes paid from our unemployment checks.
Justice: The Bush
war criminals are being protected in America, while foreign countries
are pursuing war crime
charges for Bush, Cheney, Rice and others. While Obama has
declared that America does not torture (unless you
are a whistleblower regarding government malfeasance), he cannot fairly
make that claim without prosecutions.
All he can fairly say is that America does not torture right now.
Not one Wall Street tycoon has been charged with anything after the
crimes that caused the world’s financial meltdown.
However victims of the fraud are being threatened with debtor prisons
unless they pay their worthless mortgages.
Labor: Obama
publicly promised that if corporations attacked unionized collective
bargaining, he would put on
his “comfortable shoes” and walk with us. While middle class
working people are being savaged throughout the
Midwest and the South, Obama has remained mostly silent.
While I could go on and on with this, I’ll only add that when Obama was
running, his supporters promised him that
if he fulfilled his promises we would continuously have his back.
Now, when many of us complain that this is NOT
“change [we] can believe in,” the administration slaps us down and
calls us the “whining professional left.”
It appears that he never really had any intention of protecting our
backs.
The ever hopeful among us offer that the Republicans simply won’t let
him get anything done. My own take is that
the Republicans actually like Obama a lot, so they aren’t going to run
anyone more serious than Newt Gingrich and
Michelle Bachman against him. Obama stepped into office with a
vast majority in the House, a majority in the Senate
and a 68 percent approval rating for himself and for Democrats.
He had that window for two solid years.
If you can’t make changes with that, you simply are not attempting to
make any changes.
The Republican strategy to maintain their base over the last many years
has been to inject that base with fear of
what Democrats might do to “family values,” to “weaken defense,” to
“turn America to socialism and contaminate
our Constitution with Sharia law,” to “turn American youth to
homosexuality.” This is now the same approach
offered by Democrats. They are attempting to keep us in fear of
Republicans to insure that we will vote again
for Obama, even if he delivers nothing resembling a promise.
It is time for all Democrats and progressives to stop living in fear of
standing on their American principles.
Right now, even impoverished Egyptians do that better than us.