Obama Sux! .... People, go stand in the corner
Obama Rox! .... People, off to the other corner please.
We need to chat.
Before we start though, I need to lay my own cards on the table lest anyone think I am some kind of middle-of-the-road social and economic centerist.
I am not that, never have been and while I may at times hold my cards close to my chest, I basically think that both sides of the aisle are wrong, but the Republican side is so wrong that words short of going full-Godwin on their asses, fail me.
If you want to place me on the compass .... Consider that I am well on the left, progressive side of the UK Labour Party, and the Democratic Party in the US is a rough equivalent of the UK Conservatives. The analogy is not perfect, but it will do.
In the UK there would be another Party well to the Left of the Democratic Party, and they would get my vote. And I would still want them to go further!
The President of these United (sic) States is a slightly left-of-center Social Democrat suffering from the fact that the center has lurched to the far right in the last twenty years.
He freely admits this by going after a Grand Bargain with the current GOP. No bargain is possible with these folk, and trying to get one is not simply an exercise in frustration, it is like looking for the black cat, in the dark room .... that isn't there!
I don't know why a smart guy whose heart is in the right place does this, but I do go back to the idea that you can measure a man by the company he keeps. Barack Obama doesn't actually score too highly by that test, yet as a man and a President, he scores rather more highly with me than either his policies, or the company he keeps, suggest that he should.
Part of me accepts that he is the best we could get. That he is a significant improvement over the alternate choice we were given is undeniable.
If my comments on this site occasionally seem not to fit with my stated beliefs, then that is simply because I want to support the possible, rather than lose that in an attempt to get the perfect. I always know, up front, that I will not be happy with the deal, so I settle for, and support the best deal that could be achieved.
Believe me though ... any deal that falls short of the following is not a deal I like:
Full Universal Healthcare free at the point of delivery
Full restoration of Labor Rights
A twenty dollars per hour minimum wage - enforced!
Free College for all who qualify and want it
A seventy five percent cut in military spending
Tougher legislation supporting the civil rights of everyone
An end to "Right to Work"
A complete ban on lobbying and campaign contributions over $200
A comprehensive welfare state and a living pension for all seniors.
That would be a "good start" in my book, so you can see that Barack Obama and I would have quite a bit to discuss.
I realise that I want a pipe-dream, but dreaming of pipes, and constantly reminding myself that there is a reality out there that needs to be dealt with is okay. It means I can criticize where necessary, and applaud where possible.
What I do not understand is why folk need to engage in either the perpetual criticism of everything the president does, or the equally baffling adulation on the other side. There are no sides in this, just the American people, and helping to meet their needs.
We listened to what he had to say in the Campaign. For the most part we applauded the rhetoric, knowing that the alternative was unthinkable. And that is what we really do need to remember. Barack Obama never has offered a platform that would satisfy progressives. He didn't promise us Universal Healthcare. He never spoke of ending Right to Work for Less. He didn't promise cuts to military spending, a rollback of corporate power and Campaign Finance Reform. He promised none of those things.
He promised to work for the mandate we gave him, and he promised to work across the aisle. That last bit is important because, by definition, he was telling us that he might have to compromise some of the things he campaigned on. Really, we do not have to like the shift to $400k to understand that it isn't the end of the world.
Putting Social Security benefits on the table was a blunder. A gigantic blunder in my view and it was left to Republicans to save him from that embarrassment.
Here is the thing though .... When we criticise the compromises, and I do think he has to take some of that on the chin, let us remember why he feels compelled, wrongly in my view, to make those offers.
It is the Republicans who make that happen. The Republicans who are unable and unfit to govern. It is Republicans who are hell bent on economic disaster because we won't bow to their wishes to close abortion clinics, establish Christianity as the official religion, and further enslave the America people to the corporations who make the GOP dance to it's tune.
The Republicans have stolen the House of Representatives. Without the gerrymandering we would now be facing laws being passed that bring real socialist policies into being. Without Republican tyranny we would get our Public Option (of a sort), we would get a stimulus, we would get a deal that allowed fiscal stability and prosperity for more people.
Congress would listen when we criticise FISA, or the Patriot Act. Rights could be restored as well as impinged and all by a Centerist Democratic Party that is STILL many miles from what I would like to see .... At least I could take comfort from the country heading back in the right direction ... See how that works? Even this dyed-in-the-wool Socialist could applaud that.
Getting Better Democrats is a whole lot easier when you have decent Democrats as the starting point!
I find myself wanting to remind the President of the story of the horse and the scorpion:
A horse and a scorpion found themselves stranded on the bank of a crocodile-infested river. To avoid the danger of the rising water they both needed to cross to the other side.
The horse could swim the river, but would be easy prey for the crocodiles. The scorpion could fend off the crocodiles, but would drown in the water.
They agreed that the horse would be the transport, and the scorpion would provide the protection. A perfect symbiotic relationship, if you will.
They set off, and all was going well until they were halfway across, and without warning the scorpion stung the horse.
"Why did you do that?" the horse asked, "Now we will both die".
"Because it is in my nature" .... said the scorpion.
That is the modern Republican Party. Those are the scorpions that were sent to Washington, and State Legislatures all across this land, to govern us.
It is in their nature to kill us all, at least metaphorically, and a Democratic President without a full majority can hope only to stem the tide of destruction they are bent upon.
I think he could do a bit better, but I am also under no illusions that things could get very much worse and we need to be realistic about that.
.. end rant ..