What Obama doesn't seem to understand is that money is power. I don't give a rat's if Richie Rich

[lib_wit_it]

buys six private jets, three blow jobs a day, and his own fucking island. But in addition to all of that, he will, with continued tax cuts, have even more spare cash to buy more right wing media and more crooked politicians who will then enact legislation to transfer even more of our nation's wealth to himself and his buddies who will then buy more politicians who will... well, you get the picture. But does Obama?

I just listened to our president using about as angry a voice as I ever remember hearing from him, with none of the charming, mitigating laughter he always sprinkles in when he mildly (later-to-be-apologized for) derides a Republican anti-democratic, greedy, injurious plan or move. He thinks I'm being very selfish and short-sighted not to recognize that he's done nearly everything he promised to do, and what he hasn't done he's damn well going to do, just you wait and see.

And he is not at all happy with my short-sighted and stubborn, if not just plain stupid, inability to see that the lame-ass shit he's accomplished will grow and improve just like Social Security, which started off as not much at all. you know, but brother look at it now.

And then I went to my special email account I use just for all of the progressive organizations I support. And they are all, like me, outraged at the way the minority seems to be controlling the agenda and the fact that compromise has now come to mean that the Democrats ask for a quarter of what they want and then bargain it away from there.

And so I sign a slew of petitions and make a few phone calls to insist that my duly elected representatives fight to stop the the Republicans from giving tax cuts to those who already have so much fucking money that they write their own legislation and have it passed. But, even more than for me to express my support for progressive issues, what is really needed from me is another financial contribution.

Even though I have donated more money in the past three years than the total of what I'd previously donated in my entire life, despite my having, five years ago, become unemployed, it has become increasingly clear that if I want my opinion to matter in the least, it's gonna cost me. It takes money, and lots of it, to influence the laws and policies of my country and the enforcement thereof.

Well, you know what? I don't have any more fucking money to help buy politicians and media. So, I guess I may as well just STFU and move back in with my parents. Hey, they're in their seventies and lost most of their retirement savings in the crash, so it'll work out great for all of us. And when my unemployed siblings come to the same conclusion, well, I'll have been there first and claimed the spare bedroom. They can fight over the couch.

[eleny]

1. Well said - k&r

[rfranklin]

2. It'll be like the Waltons...G'night John Boy..."

Can you imagine it?

[lib_wit_it]

6. If only! My parents now live in a cheesy modern condo. That Waltons house was nice!

[aquart]

3. No man should be so rich he has nothing left to buy but his government.

[lib_wit_it]

5. Whoah! That's a good one I never heard before! Yours?

[aquart]

11. Yes. And I say it a lot.

[ixion]

4. He understands this quite well

as is evidenced by his decision to cave into them.

[glitch]

7. And anyone who recognizes it is sanctimonious and overly concerned with purity.

You know how you defend yourself more vigorously when deep down you know you're wrong but you haven't admitted it to yourself yet? More simply, "methinks he doth protest too much..."
Today's press conference exhibits that to me.

[lib_wit_it]

10. Ha! Good point. That almost makes me feel better in a sick, sad kind of way. Well, maybe he'll admit

it to himself eventually and try to make it up to us.

No? Yeah, OK. Probably not.

[lib_wit_it]

8. It feels better to believe that he doesn't understand than to think that he knows this but is still

berating me and my fellow progressives for expecting better of him.

Maybe I'm wrong, but when the Teapers get angry at the Rs, they are not disrespected and called selfish and short-sighted by their party, even though they quite demonstrably are. Even if I'm wrong, I'd like for our all-the-patience-in-the-world-for-those-who-pray-for-him-to-fail president to respect the fact that I, and many of us who were his greatest supporters, are honestly unconvinced that he's fighting as hard for us as he could. If that's ignorance on my part, then educate me, but do not berate me.

It's easy to be satisfied that you've fought hard enough when your and your family's health and financial welfare are not on the line.

[ibegurpard]

9. nice rant

:thumbsup: