I really, really wanted to give President Obama the benefit of the doubt. I really, really wanted to believe that this whole thing came around because the GOP refused to budge on unemployment relief and other progressive agenda items.
I’ve changed my mind. History tells us that President Obama is an enabler. He, by his nature, always seeks common ground. He so desperately wants the GOP to sign on to a deal that he will give them ANY deal… just so long as he can be seen in the vast middle as the person who can work with both sides.
But to do that while totally alienating your base? That’s foolish.
This next week will be critical. Will House and Senate Democrats lay face down and bite the pillow in the name of unlubricated bipartisanship? As one who has used the “hostage scenario” to defend the President, I’ve come around to seeing it the other way. If you give the hostage taker what he wants and don’t get the hostage back, then you embolden the criminal to repeat the crime. We give them a break on the estate tax, an extension on tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires, then who knows what they’ll demand the next time?
The person who changed my mind? My new hero. Senator Bernie Sanders. In his marathon speech on the floor of the Senate yesterday, he laid out chapter and verse why it is MADNESS to continue a tax break to millionaires and billionaires, busting the deficit wide open while telling veterans and people on Social Security that the country can’t afford to give them a cost of living increase.
Much of the blame for this belongs to the Democrats. They should have dealt with this before the election. Three months ago. Last summer. With their vacillation and waffling during the health care debate, combined with Obama’s caving on the key points of the reform, what else is the GOP supposed to do but try to bankrupt the treasury and shovel cash to the people who put them in power? Everyone knows the GOP does not have the interest of the average person at heart. They want to please the fat cats and the corporations.
Polls show 33 percent want tax cuts extended for the wealthy. In the vain hope of recapturing the middle, President Obama is caving to the overwhelming pressure of a third of the electorate, ignoring the 2/3 of us who want a sane fiscal policy. Then, in 2012, who will get the blame for the horrible shape of the economy? Not the Republicans! They will blame Obama for the mess, just like they blame him for the fecund stench still emanating from the Oval Office from 8 years of Bush excess.
Like my Daddy always said, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me THREE times? Maybe we SHOULD consider a primary challenger.”
I have no doubt Obama believes he’s doing the right thing for America. He truly seems to believe that what America wants is a deal — any deal, no matter how crappy, as long as both parties sign on to it.
That is not what we want. We want the Obama who campaigned against the very things he now waffles on. The Obama who would END the war in Iraq, not leave troops there to act as referees in the ongoing civil war. The Obama who would DECIMATE the Taliban, not send more Americans over there with the end result of STRENGTHENING the Taliban and INCREASING their numbers. The Obama who would stand up for Main Street over Wall Street. The Obama who would, with a stroke of a pen, end the discrimination against the LGBT community by ending DADT.
I’m really sorry to be writing this. I thought Barack Obama would be a transcendental presence in Washington. But you gotta STAND for something, Barry! You gotta FIGHT for things that you want, especially when the corner bully is bound and determined to steal your lunch money, your milk money, your shoes and the shirt off of your back. When the one extreme is “Give the people who don’t need it everything they want and fuck the poor,” and the other extreme is “Take from the rich to make life easier for the poor,” where’s the middle ground? “Give the wealthiest Americans SOMETHING and give LESS to the people who DO need it?”
Madness.
Democrats. Stand your ground. Call the bluff. Don’t pass this bill. And when the Lame Duck session ends and the GOP takes over the House and narrows the gap in the Senate, STAND IN THEIR WAY! President Obama? VETO EVERYTHING the House passes and the Senate signs. Show them what REAL obstruction is.
Then, in 2012, use the new rules to tell YOUR story… how it was the GOP who said “no tax break for the middle class.” How it was the GOP who said “no cost of living increase for the veterans or Social Security recipients.” How it was the GOP who said, “Fuck the unemployed!”
STAND YOUR GROUND! Then TELL YOUR STORY.
Maybe we can save this presidency. Probably not. And if it becomes clear that it can’t be saved, I hope President Obama does NOT do what President Carter did… cling to a corroding base of support, keeping a real progressive from getting the nomination, ensuring the election goes to a reactionary once considered a clown, a boob, a B-movie actor. Only this time, it won’t be Reagan. It’ll be Gingrich or Palin.
Does anyone seriously think this nation can survive THAT?
Related articles
- Stewart Mocks Obama, Democrats For Saying GOP Took Them Hostage (VIDEO) (huffingtonpost.com)
- Hannity Asks: Does Obama Use Tougher Language On The GOP Than Terrorists? (mediaite.com)
- Tax Cuts Deal: Sympathy for the President (politicsdaily.com)
- Earl Ofari Hutchinson: Progressives and Liberal Democrats Blowing Hot Air Obama’s on Tax Cut Deal (huffingtonpost.com)
- Obama: Letting Middle-Class Tax Cuts Lapse ‘Unacceptable to Me’ (politicsdaily.com)
- Bernie Sanders yields after nearly 8.5-hour one-man Senate filibuster against Obama-GOP tax deal (sfgate.com)
- Letters: A Tax Deal, and a President, Under Fire (nytimes.com)
- Obama-GOP Tax Cut Bill Turning Into ‘Christmas Tree’ Tinseled With Gifts For Lobbyists, Lawmakers (huffingtonpost.com)
- Sherrod Brown: An Open Letter To President Obama (crooksandliars.com)
- GOP: Power players or ‘hostage takers’? (cnn.com)
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