I don't often post political diaries, mostly because I often struggle to form my work into the words I want, to find the exact combination of words that describe what is a very nuanced and finely defined view. I do rather enjoy reading about politics because despite all the derision it rather is like chess.
I am (against what is probably my better judgment) going to post a political diary. Because I just do not understand and in truth I am tired of the fighting and while I do not expect us as a community to just magically get along. It would be nice if we could at least recognize that we in general not that different.
I just do not understand, do we as a community want to set back the progressive movement?
Do we want to squander the advances we have made in the name of purity?
The last day really has been insane, bad enough that the bash Obama regardless of what he does meme makes the rec list but Kos too? And the diary about Obama entitled A pattern of Insult and Inaction I found to be more imagined outrage then anything. And I would like to address these perceived insults and inaction.
Now I know what people are going to say, but that memo it's evil and hateful!
And they're right it is evil and hateful as is the law it is defending.
That doesn't change the fact that the DOJ is obligated to defend the law of this nation. For years now people on this site complained about the DOJ under Bush, how it would selectively defend only laws the republicans liked.
Didn't we have enough of that then? Do people not see that if the DOJ is politicized then it is only a matter of time before conservatives regain the White House and just ignore any progressive legislature?
The DOJ must remain impartial, and some times that sucks horrible because the law is not guaranteed to be fair or nice but either we are a nation of laws or not.
Now I can guess the next response, but it was overkill!
Maybe it was, I would point out that it was a Bush appointee that drafted and wrote the response (and I wouldn't be surprised if it was a Bush appointee that signed off on it). Were we not warned about how badly Bush was trying to burrow into agencies over a year ago? Do people not remember how burrowing works?
Now I can again guess the response, but what about torture?
Well what about it? The investigation is ongoing. I understand that some here want vengeance and retribution. But the law is not about that and above all the wheels of justice move slowly. There are multiple investigations going on and we shall see where that goes.
I think people forget that above all any investigation that looks like a witch hunt or partisan bs will not go over well with the American people.
Next I want to address Warren. Now I said this back in December-January (and got tred as a 'homophobe' for it) and I will say it again.
Obama promised to be inclusive now again I must ask for some consistency people. Either you expected him to honor his promise or not.
Personally I think Warren is an asshole and a bigot but at the same time he agrees largely with progressives on abortion and a number of other things. And are we not the big tent party? The party that works with people where we have common agreement? Or are we no better then the GOP who would demand purity tests and complete and absolute agreement on everything?
I thought we were smarter and wiser but now I am not so sure.
The last point I take issue with is prop 8, blaming Obama for prop 8 is about as useful as blaming Obama for the weather. The no to prop 8 campaign sucked badly by all accounts. And that is where the blame should fall. In fact to call Obama's statement 'toothless' seems needlessly incendary, what did people expect? OBama to stop campaigning for the white house and to work on prop 8?
I thought we had elected Obama to do a job and yet we are judging him even before the training period ends? How pointless.
And I personally was drawn to Obama for his ability to take a subject and resist oversimplifying it into partisan black and white. To see the nuance and react to it. Frankly it's something that I think is missing here. Life is not simple and it certainly isn't black and white.
Anyways, that's all I had to say I am sure another diarist would have been more eloquent but I believe I made my points. So I challenge the 'Obama lied/abandoned/screw us etc' crowd to a counter on the merits of the argument made.
Because I just do not understand how people can act how they are.