Don’t blame President Obama for the Tea Party’s win on the debt ceiling fight. If you’re looking for a scapegoat start with the apathetic voters in all the Congressional districts during the 2010 mid-term elections who stayed home and allowed dozens of “Teahadists” to get elected against incumbent Democrats.
Don’t hate on the President for negotiating, compromising and taking what he could get from the pigheaded Neanderthals on the other side. Heck, not even the Senate Minority Leader (aka Sen. Geriatric Mutant Ninja Turtle) or the Speaker of the House (aka Rep. Orange Suntan Man) could make them budge from their hard line stance.
The President had to get something done to prevent a default and the economic disaster that would’ve followed. Short of the 14th Amendment option, there wasn’t much the President could do to circumvent or overrule Congress. And if he’d used that option, it most likely would’ve been overturned by the conservative dominated court. And then, Mr. Obama would probably face the very real prospect of being impeached by the House of Representatives, much like President Clinton was. We’re already teetering on the brink in this country. All America needs to be pushed over the edge is a constitutional crisis, followed by ugly impeachment proceedings. The President is smart enough to realize that. He loves this country too much to put it through that.
Instead of being mad at the President, progressives should be mad at themselves and fellow progressives for allowing so many Tea Party-backed fools to win seats in Congress. How could we allow a dynamic representative like Alan Grayson lose his seat, while a crackpot like Allen West wins a seat?!
This is still a democracy, albeit a somewhat disappointing one to many of us right now, but that’s the great thing about democracies: If you don’t like it, you can change it. The way to change it is not blasting the President like Arianna Huffington did on MSNBC Aug. 3 saying: "I think he (President Obama) needs intense therapy, to explain to himself first of all why he did what he did, because there is no rational explanation. There is no economic explanation."
I beg to differ. There is a rational explanation: This is not a dictatorship. President Obama can’t just say what he wants and “Poof!” it happens quicker than you can say “Chairman Mao.” What alternatives did he have? What was he supposed to do? Veto the bill? Use the 14th Amendment nuclear option? Get real.
Now is not the time to be angry with the President and start ripping him or worse yet, get disillusioned and fail to vote in 2012. Remember how disgusted you felt about what happened during this debt ceiling fight and use that anger as the spark to get motivated and mobilized for the fight to run those right wing Teahadists out of Washington next year.
We'll get the chance to do in 2012, what we should've done in 2010: Elect a Congress that will work with our President to help him bring change to America, not do everything possible to see that he fails.