My Biggest Dissapointment With Obama

[mindwalker_i]

And to a large extent, the rest of the Democrats in congress:

Obama is a smart guy. As such, it's very difficult to imagine that he doesn't see the contradictions, hypocrisy, and all the other things that seem so obvious to us. The greatest example is the Republican line about deficits, how we have to curb our spending to "avoid mortgaging out future." The reasoning is so plainly, obviously bullshit that anyone paying the slightest bit of attention, Obama included, can't help but see it.

Yet, he appears to buy into their arguments too often and go along with them. Is it just that he doesn't want to argue, that he believes he can shape the outcome into something better than if he fights against them? I suppose that's possible, and I still think he's done some good stuff. He's a hell of a lot better than I believe any Republican would be; judging from what Republican governors have been doing, the difference is probably even greater.

However, I'm completely sick of the steaming piles that litter the country, left by Republicans and allowed to sit and fester. At some point which I believe has long been passed, our people need to fucking stand up and call them on this shit! Rather than mildly say, yeah, we need to curb spending and let Republicans set the whole tone of the debate (or lack of debate), say, "goddangit, you created this mess ON PURPOSE and have no frigging right to try to fix it, especially when all the 'fixes' are just more of the same policies that broke it!" It's long past time this became a full-fledged, knock-down drag-out war where we fight back as hard as we can and stand up for what we believe in. Tax breaks for the rich? Not, "Well, that would be a bad idea," but rather, "FUCK NO!! That's broke it in the first place, is screwing up the whole damn economy, and it ain't happening no more!"

I get the impression that many here feel this to some extent or another. It's long past time to stop being nice, kick bi-partisanship the the curb, and have the culture war in earnest, out in the open.

:rant:

[TheWraith]

1. Have you considered how voters would react to hearing that?

Voters like the idea that their leader is considering all points of view, and there are a lot of people out there who are supportive of budget cuts. Hell, there are plenty of budget cuts that we DO need to make. And the people who feel that way are more likely to be swayed if they feel that what they think about is being considered, even if it's not actually done.

Getting up and yelling and screaming might please "our people," but it would alienate people who don't already completely agree with us.

[mindwalker_i]

4. Possibly, and not making a clear counterargument

can also alienate people. Look at how many here are pissed off at Obama? Listening to Mike Malloy on the way home, I had to admit that the direction Obama has taken with regard to not prosecuting Bush, extending Gitmo, etc. sucks, and I won't paper that over just to get more people to support Democrats. Don't think it would work anyway.

[Foo Fighter]

8. Well, the voters I know are royally pissed at being "sold out."

That whole "reaching across the aisle and working with members of both parties" line of BS is a load of crock. Always has been and always will be. Did you ever hear Dubya use it? No. It's only trotted out when the Dems are in power in order to make them seem like they're the "reasonable" party when, in actuallity, they just use the whole "bi-partisanship" concept as an excuse to sell out time and again.

Sure, there are "a lot of people out there who are supportive of budget cuts." Hell, die-hard Republicans are in favor of that. But a lot of those that "are supportive of budget cuts" want to see the DoD budget cut, amongst others that are "off the table."

It's one thing to say people support budget cuts. It's a whole 'nother thing to WHAT budgets people support being cut.

[demwing]

12. I think you make two unsupported assumptions

1. That the majority of people understand long term, bi-partisan solutions to complicated issue. I believe that history shows just the opposite. People have short attention spans, and prefer partisanship to fairness and balance. Consider the popularity of Fox News...

2. That a lot of people support budget cuts. NIMBY! If people want cuts, they don't want those cuts to affect them personally. We don't have to start "Getting up and yelling and screaming" to get voters behind tax increases on the wealthiest. 61% of folks are ALREADY there! http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40888787/ns/business-tax_tactics/

As a matter of fact, I question whether we need cuts at all, unless you're talking about the military budget. And if voters need more convincing of that concept, perhaps our President could use some of those world famous oratorical skills of his to frame the issue properly, instead of allowing the Publicans to set our agenda for us...

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

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[Catherina]

3. I just rec'd but still 0. What a shocker n/t

[emilyg]

7. I got it back to 1.

[Catherina]

9. Now 2. I'm sick of the maneuverings to make it appear there's no discontentment

What kind of good is that supposed to do? Thanks emilyg

[mindwalker_i]

6. Being apologist or the opposite are both bad ideas

Obama does a lot of good stuff and not recognizing that is a mistake. But also, not recognizing the things that suck is also a mistake. Not prosecuting torture or economic fraud by the big companies is really is big mistake.

[SoCalDemGrrl]

5. As Randi Rhodes says the Top 1% control the country. Game over unless

there is a a popular revolution.

We thought that by electing Obama we would have "Change We can Believe In", but we ALL underestimated the

extent to which the BIG BOYS have comandeered the system. Things are pretty bleak and OBAMA, although he is our duly

elected President, has very little say in the matter. Sad, but true......

[PufPuf23]

10. POTUS Obama is an attractive personality but has zero integrity to the American People and World.

This is true of the vast majority of his staff and appointments (as well as Congress and Courts at the Federal and State levels with few exceptions).

This makes me very sad.

I do not think a politician in the USA can have integrity and win, or if they win, not be destroyed or marginalized.

I do not know how to fix this situation.

[demwing]

14. We've tried running the country like a business...

...and it has failed. Businesses are neither Democracies, nor Republics. There are no minority rights in a business, nor majority rules. They are Autocracies, with all power given to the owner/CEO/boss, etc.

Perhaps its time we ran this country like a Union.

Strike.

Stope production. Stop the gears of industry. Show those CEOs how little we need them, and how important WE are to their profits. Show the politicians that while the money is held by corporate interests, the power is held by the workers. And we, the workers, must realize that the ability to make good on Obama's promises of Hope and Change rests with us.

I'd love to see the ritual recital of the adapted Pledge of Allegiance be replaced by a collective reading of the Preamble to the Constitution:

We The People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect (say it with me) UNION, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves, and our posterity, do ordain and establish the Contitution of the United States of America.

We're not just a Democracy, we're a Republic.
We're not just a Republic, we're a Union.
We're not just a Union, we're a Democracy.

[gtar100]

22. +1

[pacalo]

11. I'm convinced now that the corporations are running this country.

It's bigger than Obama could handle on his own. Perhaps the answers of what he is facing will be revealed in WikiLeaks. Something is greatly amiss in the harmful direction this country is being taken.

[Kalun D]

13. GET A CLUE

Obama is feeding from the exact same corporate pig trough as the repugs

just look at the banking farce and the BP Gulf spill farce

remember when the tax increase on the rich was going before congress and the two faced predatory corporatist made a back door deal with the repugs and left the dems out?

the banking farce, the bush boy "bailout" of the criminal bankers, Obama helps the bill through the senate and then appoints banker criminals to positions of banking oversight in his admin. Zero prosecutions of the criminal bankers by the Obama "justice" dept.

during the S & L scandal of the 80's the Reagan justice department convicted around 1000 criminal bankers

SO OBAMA IS WORSE THAN REAGAN

[Skittles]

15. CORRECT

[slay]

16. Yes. The scam that has been pulled on the American people has become quite obvious

if you pay attention and connect the dots. Face facts people - Obama is not on our side. I wish he was, but he's not. Dem primary 2012 should be very interesting cause I'm voting for the most liberal person running against Obama. If nobody does, DU will have to re-visit its rules about only supporting Dems otherwise I foresee a MASSIVE banning/tombstoneing fest shortly after 2012 primary time. For now according to DU rules I can pull for a Dem challenger - but once the primary passes, well, hard choices will have to be made here at DU because most of us can not continue to support Obama.

[old mark]

17. K&R- He talks favorably about jobs, workers and middle class, but there is little

actions backing up the talk...between that and his obvious love for the Patriot Act and BHS, I am just sitting out his presidency as I did during any GOP presidency, and as I did for most of the Clinton years.

He is better than the GOP, but that's a poor recommendation when our country needs so much more.


mark

[TBF]

18. The problem is not Obama or the republicans (although I will kick them just on principal

because they are heartless idiots), the problem is the capitalism.

[DutchLiberal]

19. Believing the Democratic Party still works for the people, is deluding yourself...

And believing change can come to the US through the electoral system, is naive. There's one party ruling America: the capitalist party, and it has two faces: Republicans, who are open and transparent about destroying the middle and working classes; and the Democratic party, which pretends to care for the common people but really doesn't. They just delude them with pretty speeches and promises they never intend to keep. They're all corporatists. It's not that Obama doesn't know how to fight Republicans; it's just that he doesn't want to. They're on the same team.

Read Chris Hedges' "Death of the Liberal Class".

[xchrom]

20. it's not just obama -- it's the party at this point -- the party elite -- even academia.

it's just being revealed to us since clinton -- that somebody called in the austrians to put the final nail in FDR's coffin.

the democratic party is effectively the neo-liberal party -- very much like the tony blair's, the sarkozy's governments in europe.

and the defenders, correctors, pragmatists -- should come out and admit it -- like obama, they like like reagan and thatcher just fine.

[Stinky The Clown]

21. Obama is either spineless or in league

[bvar22]

23. Obama has a spine, so you can eliminate that choice.

Obama didn't make it To the Top in Chicago without a spine, or without knowing how to fight.




Who will STAND UP and represent THIS American Majority?
Rhetoric, Empty Promises, and Excuses are meaningless now.

"By their WORKS you will know them,"
And by their WORKS they will be held accountable.