how we keep getting fucked and have no control to change it.
Frank Rich op-ed: here
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I can't imagine anyone on this board, or most liberals I know, are happy with how Obama has handled his presidency. A messy economic bailout with a team of advisers from the banks that fuck us everyday, a watered down environmental bill, the continuation of two wars paralleled with no real plan to fix Israel/Palestine, and now it looks probable the health care bill will be mediocre at best. If his supporters started being critical of his policies maybe we would start seeing some real change that was promised on the campaign trail...and some anger over how he has handled health care reform is a good place to start. But these billionaires just seem to have too much influence for us to even make a difference.
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While there are many things I'm unhappy about concerning the Obama administration, to say we've been punked is a bit ridiculous. I've noticed some of the same sentiments in a lot of young people lately, but I think it stems from the fact that there were many Obama supporters who either consciously or unconsciously ignored that he was running a very moderate, centrist platform. Almost all of his policies were similar or identical to Clinton's. His foreign policy has played out essentially like he promised it would, a slow withdrawal from Iraq with a build up in Afghanistan. You have to go back to his days as a state senator to find Obama supporting the real health care change we need: a single payer system. The environmental bill is painfully watered down, but it was done so by Congress. You could certainly argue that Obama should be using the bully pulpit more to fight against the pussyfooting in Congress, especially on the issue of health care and the environment, and I've been very disappointed that he hasn't done so. And one area where he has gone against campaign promises is governmental transparency, which is disappointing and a bit surprising to me.
I do believe that I'm one of the only people on this blog not enraged at his economic bailout. While not being perfect, an extremely large influx of money being made by the federal government, both in general spending and to prop up failing banks was necessary, and as far as I can see it had to be done in a manner that was unfair-namely that the people who fucked this whole thing up would be getting saved. While being mismanaged, it was large enough and quick enough to get the economy out of a free fall and keep us out of a depression. It will still probably be another full year before unemployment starts going down, in fact, it almost certainly hasn't reached it's worst, but we would be incredibly fucked if a Repub, or even perhaps another Democrat had been in office; cutting taxes instead of spending.
Anyway, I completely agree that people need to be more vocal and active, to keep both Obama's and Congress's feet to the fire. But to claim we've been tricked or swindled into supporting Obama I think says as much about the rose colored glasses supporters were wearing before January as Obama's performance.
i know he ran a moderate campaign and it's mainly his supporters that misinterpreted him (change away from george bush's policies doesn't mean a liberal america and change isn't a synonym for revolution). and granted, foreign policy wise he has lived up to his campaign.
but so far we've still seen a lack of gov't transparency, which was a main issue he talked about on the campaign. he also hasn't truly stepped up to wall street like he said he would. if he had at least put one liberal economist as one of his advisers to at least offer up some different insight, it would have helped. larry summers is a fucking joke if you ask me.
on top of it all, if he is unable to get an affordable public plan passed and have some real reform regarding health care he will have truly let the country down. currently house progressives are stating that they will not vote for any plan lacking a public option that will compete with the private sector. and a part of me sees house democrats writing a bill that will have moderate republicans vote "yay" to make up for the loss of progressives. it will then get more watered down in the senate, and once it reaches obama's desk he will sign...just so some type of health care bill was passed.
of course, the other huge problem is how out of touch most of america is...just watch the glenn beck show or listen to house/senate republicans speak. how do we get anything down with them in the picture?
I guess I'm wondering, why is it such a surprise that Obama is a con-man?
I'm not of the same mindstate, though, that Obama has failed because he's gone more center than left, since so many of the leftist ideas -- from utopian conceptions of human nature (which is an underlying intellectual assumption behind ALL socialist systems, historically) to the potential welfare state -- have been proven outmoded (especially in 20th century Europe).
Obama could be slammed from the conspiracy theory end (i.e., he's a front man for special interests like Goldman-Sachs); but from a practical standpoint, he simply wasn't qualified for this position. Us working folk in the world usually NEVER get hired for a positon which we aren't qualified for -- yet this man recieved a pass. I just don't get it.
The country deserved a transfer of power to the Democratic party, but I just never understood this country's fascination with such a mediocre man.
--HW
to act as if george w. bush was qualified to run the country for 8 years is the biggest joke i've ever heard..
the fascination with obama is that he is a great speaker, young, energetic. the majority of voters in this country know jack shit about the inner-workings of the u.s. political system..
right now my biggest problem with obama is this odd obsession with afghanistan. i'm still confused why the u.s. invaded afghanistan in the first place. we were told it was to capture bin laden and other shitheads but it seemed to me like a means to satisfy american bloodlust. the country is in too much of a hole to continue to waste money in the mid-east..
What, in my last post, indicated that I believe Bush was qualified?
I'd agree with Obama supporters overlooking the inner workings of the American political system -- some, however, just conveniently forgot -- but I also think he's benefited from the naivete of most young people: conservatives, on the whole, are deemed bad -- liberals good (which is why so many just can't come to grips with the fact that Obama is a slave to special interests: so many mistakenly think the left is somehow above all that). It's the system -- and to overlook that is, I think, to forfeit one's integrity.
Ultimately -- and this is why I agree with the term "punked" -- I believe the media took an average guy and convinced the American people he is "great" or "exceptional". The average 21st century American is so perfectly content with mediocrity that it's only expected that people would take a man with a few gifts and deify him. One of greatest con-jobs in the history of this country.
--HW
you're claiming obama is grossly unqualified and my point is that bush is the epitome of unqualified. and he managed to get elected to a second term...
i'll use a bushism and say let's see how history judges obama. because i guaren-damn-tee you he will be viewed in a brighter light than bush and shit head reagan..
Ultimately, I could care little how future generations/historians look at Obama's presidency. The point is, this guy needs to be stopped now.
Take, for example, a recent discussion I had with an Obama-supporting friend: he voted for him chiefly for economic reasons, and never predicted all the cultural baggage that he would bring (i.e., the ambitious reformers in his cabinet that are looking to break down "heteronormative fatherhood" -- which is a direct quote -- as well as established norms of gender). "These people are out of their minds", he now says.
The point, however, is that there's a far more radical agenda that is latent within Obama's message of "change"(which most of his voters would be appalled by, if they knew the extent of it -- socially, politically, economically, and culturally). I wouldn't be surprised if the center-left Democrats eventually distance themselves from him (especially around 2010).
Chuggins, what do you think of the idea of a "civilian national security force", "as strong as the military". Would you join?
-- HW
Ultimately, I could care little how future generations/historians look at Obama's presidency. The point is, this guy needs to be stopped now.
Take, for example, a recent discussion I had with an Obama-supporting friend: he voted for him chiefly for economic reasons, and never predicted all the cultural baggage that he would bring (i.e., the ambitious reformers in his cabinet that are looking to break down "heteronormative fatherhood" -- which is a direct quote -- as well as established norms of gender). "These people are out of their minds", he now says.
The point, however, is that there's a far more radical agenda that is latent within Obama's message of "change"(which most of his voters would be appalled by, if they knew the extent of it -- socially, politically, economically, and culturally). I wouldn't be surprised if the center-left Democrats eventually distance themselves from him (especially around 2010).
Chuggins, what do you think of the idea of a "civilian national security force", "as strong as the military". Would you join?
-- HW
i'm not even going to justify that last excerpt with a response..
obama is NOT a "radical agent of change"! wake the fuck up!
if anything he's a verry moderate democrat who is essentially running the govt. the same way its been run for the last 20 years..
stop with the rhetoric that he "needs to be stopped." not only is intellectually insulting but it's fueling the "assasination" fire. and if you think the country would be better off with obama being killed than stop coming to this blog..(i don't know why you still do although i'm starting to think that most of what you're saying is indeed a joke. not as an insult but that you're some sort of dark comedian..)
dear god..take your nonsense over to the drudge report or some other failing conservative media outpost...
You really think I'd advocate Obama's assasination? Come on, the guy has a wife and two kids.
Dark comedian? I don't understand. Nearly all of your posts and topics I see on this site are character assinations -- NOTHING productive (i.e., logical arguments) just pure, unadulterated identity politics. People like you represent politics of the worst kind.
What's so funny -- that Obama has suggested a national security force; that members of his cabinet believe gender is an arbitrary, social construct (so therefore "manhood" and "womanhood" don't exist); that utopianism is built into the intellectual roots of Socialism? Tell me the joke.
I'd argue, but I don't sense a drop of sincerity in anything you write; so therefore it's useless.
--HW
then why do you continously post and argue?
you must be some sort of convervative superhero, fighting for the underdog...
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