In the run-up to the 2008 Presidential election, I was one of Obama’s biggest supporters. I donated several times to his campaign, I watched his rallies stream live on the internet, often staying up late at night to watch daytime events live since I was overseas. I talked to everyone I knew about why they should vote for Democrats, and listened to their anger over the Bush administration, or their fears of a young charismatic President with little experience, only to talk to them about hope to sway them. I argued with my Republican friends and family over the leadership qualities of Obama, and wrote diaries on Kos for the first time ever. I even cried proudly on election night seeing the first black President give his victory speech.
A lot has certainly changed in three years. Now, I find myself becoming more and more apathetic about the 2012 Presidential election season. I have watched my party cave again and again and again on almost every issue I held dear. I was under the impression President Obama intended to implement his campaign ideas, not barter them away to pass a watered down version of the original legislation-- even before Republicans held the House.
I feel like the Republicans hold us hostage on almost every issue and we let them. Our elected officials fail to get out the talking points, or fail to sell the ideas to the public properly. I feel like every news article I read or every show I turn on I hear some Republican out there saying things like:
This is the Obama Downgrade
Rarely do I see the Democratic Party sell their talking points in the media.
Over the years my enthusiasm has seemed wash away with every watered down legislation that is absent of almost all progressive ideas. I see those same Republican friends and family excited about their candidates, and I wonder what happened to my own excitement. I was a political junkie, but the repeated giving in I have seen from my party over the last three years has caused me to become more cynical than hopeful.
I have waited for Obama to stand up to the republicans when we had the House and Senate, and push through a more progressive legislation--in fact, still I wait. I hoped to see a strong Democratic Party as a result of winning the White House, but I find myself thinking we are weaker as a party than I have ever seen. I can’t help to think, that if I, a Democrat, as well as many of the Democrats I know are losing faith in our party to some degree, the appeal to independent voters might be less than before as well. So, I am trying to think of what would get me excited about the party again, and I decided to write this diary to look for ideas.
What would get you excited about the election again? While I have nothing against Biden, would a new Vice Presidential candidate bring more appeal to the ticket in 2012? What keeps you excited going into the next election? My fear of some of the Republican candidates certainly makes me want to vote in more Democrats, but I can’t help but feeling I am just voting for the lesser of two evils, rather than a candidate I truly support and believe in.