There’s a good deal of pie being thrown about over President Obama. You know that, of course. But in the thousands of comments from the loyalists and the disappointed I’ve yet to see anyone make the point that this fight isn’t really about Mr. Obama.
Okay, for the loyalists it is.
But for the disappointed (at least some of us), it’s much more. It may not be fair, but Mr. Obama is feeling years, even decades, of utter frustration with the Democratic party.
(Humor me, please, and keep reading.)
It’s true that I’m a member of the disappointed crowd. Although I wasn’t part of Obamamania, I did catch some audacity of hope and, after the devastation of the Bush years, I was enthusiastic about the good that an Obama presidency could do. But I became skeptical early on, when Obama embraced the likes of Larry Summers, Rahm Emmanuel and Tom Daschle. It was mostly downhill from there.
So here it is, two years later and I’m disappointed, frustrated and angry. (Yes, I’m omitting any reasons why because they aren’t the point here.)
It was the 2010 election that got me to thinking about why I actually was so disappointed, frustrated and angry. You see, a handful of days after the election, my daughter turned 18. And as I contemplated her entry into adulthood, I started thinking about politics over the course of her lifetime. And the simple truth is that she is coming of age in a world that is decidedly less free than the one I was given.
Around the time my daughter was born, we had national discussions about the glass ceiling, sexual harassment and affordable daycare. Around that time, the Family and Medical Leave Act was passed, and a few years before the Americans with Disabilities Act became law. It’s true the right was building steam, but good things were being done. President Clinton even tried to give healthcare to everyone in the country.
It was mostly downhill from there. I’m not going to bash the whole peace and prosperity thing that Clinton brought about, because that was good. But during that time, the Democrats signed on to welfare reform, NAFTA and the repeal of Glass-Steagell. Since then we’ve watched the Democrats cave on such profound issues as war, spying and torture. It should go without saying that women’s issues have gone without saying.
The end result is that my daughter has become an adult in a world that is, as I said at the outset, decidedly less free than what I was given. Her interests, as a woman, are unspoken save for the left’s desperate attempts to defeat those who would ban abortion in even the most extraordinary of circumstances.
The Democratic party has let my daughter down. No, it has failed her completely. And like so many others, I find my decades-long frustration to manifest in the man that is Barack Obama.
With apologies to the man who is president, I say this to the party: You may no longer take my vote for granted. You may no longer dismiss my daughter’s future. You may no longer assume that our fear of the consequences of Republican victory will compel us to vote for you. It is time for you to stand for us rather than expecting that we will always stand for you.
Thank you for reading (and with the endorsement of my daughter),
VetGrl