It isn't about Obama. It isn't even about the Democratic Party.

[Tom Rinaldo]

How I react to decisions made or contemplated by whoever happens to wield power in this country at any point in time fundamentally depends on how those decisions will effect my life and the life of others like me, and then on how they effect our country. Beyond seeing to my own needs and those of people I know and love, my larger loyalty lies with the American people and beyond that to humanity and the environment. It does not lie with a particular President or political party.

Perhaps in some other era if a major American political party strongly identified with the substance of its platform, a platform that closely reflected my views on the world, and if that platform was consistently and vigorously pursued, I could have felt real loyalty for that party. The modern Democratic Party isn't like that, and neither is the President Democrats elected. The Democratic Party is a balancing of many competing interests, including many of mine. Some times I see my values reflected by it, other times not so much. I almost never see my values embraced by todays Republican Party.

Social Security and Medicare are bigger than the Democratic Party, though the Democratic Party was the vehicle through which they came into being. Long before the Democrats, the American Socialist Party called for programs like them. The people brought Democrats into power to enact Social Security and Medicare. A strong economic safety net became part of the Democratic Party platform when platforms meant more than they do today.

There are things that I love about Barack Obama as well as facets of him that trouble me. He is a man, he is our President, he is not my guru and I do not and will not follow him; not with my eyes closed, and not with my eyes o;en. The Democratic Party is too limited by its current political constraints for me to accept a binary world view on politics. When I am critical either of it or a leading Democrat that does not mean I implicitly provide support to Republicans. It simply means I disagree with Democrats or a specific Democrat on something. Party unity is not a meaningful enough concept for me to cloak my views in a Democracy for it.

Barack Obama and roughly half the members of Congress may be Democrats, but they are also elected officials put there to represent us all in government. What we may owe to them is less than they owe to us. We can not muffle our voices to them. Not even when a Presidential election is looming.

[OHdem10]

1. Very well said. "When I criticize the Democratic Party or a leading

member that does not mean I implicitly provide support
to Republicans."

[vaberella]

3. Sadly what happens by default is that the Republicans feed off this and win praise.

In a lot of cases people don't vote in November for the same reason and we have shit like Wisconsin and Walker taking over. And it seems Bachmann has more a chance now than ever.

[Tom Rinaldo]

8. Republicans feeding off this is a red herring argument.

If the Communist Party USA issues a statement critical of President Obama no one would automatically confuse that with support for the Republicans. Our responsibility as citizens to advocate for what we believe in trumps our responsibility as partisans to silently fall in line behind a party line or a party leader.

How I vote in any election depends on the choices presented to me in that election. Almost invariably in the current political reality I vote almost exclusively Democratic, and I always vote. What I do and say between election days is exercise my rights as a citizen to take part in the political debate on the issues that matter to me most. If a Democrat is hoping I will praise and support him or her as a political leader, the odds of that happening increase significantly in proportion to their willingness to work and fight hard for the things I believe in.

[Big Blue Marble]

2. The problem is they do not represent us.

They represent the monied interests that keep them there. Our system is broken. We, as we, the people, no
longer have leverage with this crowd on either side of the aisle. They have cleverly gerrymandered the districts,
so few are ever in play, then target their corporate contributions strategically to those few who are.

It has become a shell game, driven by corporate funded propaganda and corrupt media. Our voices are lost in the wind.

[ladjf]

7. It's apparent to me that no one in charge represents us. nt

[Tom Rinaldo]

9. There are some, a minority, who still try to represent us

It is getting harder for them to survive in mega money politics. And there is a larger group who have some sympothy for our concerns, but who always balence that against the needs of their biggest "donors". They can sometimes be influenced to do the right thing, either by a very effective campaign to shame them for doing otherwise, or an even more difficult campaign to scare them that they could be taken out in a primary by the base if they go too far toward upsetting us. The latter tends only to work if they are already heavily dependent on liberals voting for them to win their elections.

The decks are definately stacked by money.

[patrice]

4. This is sane and loyal opposition. I am not sure how representative it is of what

we are seeing here and elsewhere.

[patrice]

5. Much of the opposition that we are seeing ends up siding with the guy who got up at

a county commission meeting yesterday and told a bunch of people who were trying to figure out what to do about pregnancy and STDs amongst 11-13 years olds that we hate and look down upon all marriages that are the result of pregnancy.

And then there was the other guy who got up and said some stuff about Obama's deficit and ended his remarks to the group, which had been working on budgets and talking about demographic statistics, by quoting the old saw about how figures lie and liars figure, thus calling everyone present a liar.

The WRONG kind of opposition to President Obama SUPPORTS these kinds of people.

[patrice]

6. P.S. You should have seen the county commissioners quake in their Fergamos. nt