Robert Kennedy was murdered on my seventeenth birthday over forty-three years ago. With his death liberal issues and changes died too. Nixon, Reagan and Bush, Jr were elected and re-elected with the senior Bush serving one term. Thirty-one years of Republican presidents out of forty-three. Liberals are the Chicago Cubs of the political world. We suck royally at politics. We have become a collection of principled losers, year after year. So it is no big surprise to me to see the loony lemmings leading us all to mindlessly hurl ourselves off the cliff again.
I'll put up my liberal resume against anyone's. I worked for RFK after rejecting the values of my Republican household, protested the Vietnam War with vigor after five of my childhood friends died there. I dropped out and lived on a commune. I traveled to and lived in Mexico for nearly a year and witnessed the poverty and suffering of a failed society. I became a social worker with battered boys, operated a runaway shelter for teens, took in foster kids, taught and coached for twenty-six years and have worked for eleven years with the mentally ill in my business-Blackie's Ripples of Hope—named after a line from RFK's famous speech in South Africa in 1966. I don't drink any damn bottled water, ride my mountain bike everywhere, live in a small dwelling and will never give a penny of my money to Wal-Mart.
Well, bully for me. Many others live their values or principles too. Unfortunately, many others talk their principles and live in a world of contradictory abstractions. I have lived with the poor, worked with the poor, been poor myself. Abstractions have less appeal to me than concrete, measurable actions that lead to changes that I can see. I am going to share some of these concrete progressive changes that I have witnessed in recent months. If you will give me the respect and time to do so.
But first, let's look at the debt ceiling controversy. I read it all. I have heard both sides. Most of what is being written on blogs and reported are emotionally charged responses based on misinformation and outright lies. Now with that sentence many of my pals and kindred spirits from the Left turn off their radar and withdraw into the status quo of thinking about what they have been told about President Obama. Hence, I had better hurry before the intoxicating lure of the next negative article makes them all run to the comfort of their mistaken perceptions.
Here are some facts on the debt ceiling:
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Specifically, President Obama's historic investment in Pell grants are totally protected in this deal. Any other reports to the contrary are misinformation.
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Of the 900 billion in cuts—750 billion are cuts over ten years with the other 150 billion coming from savings on interest payments on the national debt which hurts nobody nor curtails any program.
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350 billion are cuts to the base defense budget. Yes, you read that correctly. 350 billion in defense cuts. Why do progressives ignore this? They should be applauding.
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Initial cuts do not include Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, or programs for the poor.
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The bipartisan "supercommittee" of Congress must achieve at least $1.2 trillion in reduction or automatic cuts set in of that amount, spread equally between security (Defense and Homeland Security, mainly) and domestic spending set in.
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Social Security, Medicaid, low-income assistance programs and Medicare benefits are exempt. I know you have heard differently but stay with me, please.
The Controversial Triggers:
This is where President Obama handed the Republicans their asses. In a grand bit of political genius look what these triggers require. President Obama gave up virtually nothing. What?
But I have heard that he is a sell-out, a Capitulator-in-Chief and all the corporate television programs tell me that he is a Republican. Yeah, I heard it all too. But I have this weird habit. I actually read the legislation. Perhaps, you are open enough to hear a different take. I quote from an excellent article on the People's View. Here is a part of the article.
“The triggers - whom are they for, really?
Now let's get to the fun part: the triggers. The more than half-a-trillion in defense and security spending cut "trigger" for the Republicans will hardly earn a mention on the Firebagger Lefty blogosphere. Hell, it's a trigger supposedly for the Republicans, and of course, there's always It'sNotEnough-ism to cover it.
No, the loudest screeching noise you hear coming from Krugman and the ideologue Left is, of course, Medicare. Oh, no, the President is agreeing to a Medicare trigger!!! Oh noes!!! Everybody freak out right now! But let's look at the deal again, shall we? From the White House fact sheet, here is what the President actually agreed to.
Consistent With Past Practice, Sequester Would Be Divided Equally Between Defense and Non-Defense Programs and Exempt Social Security, Medicaid, and Low-Income Programs: Consistent with the bipartisan precedents established in the 1980s and 1990s, the sequester would be divided equally between defense and non-defense program, and it would exempt Social Security, Medicaid, unemployment insurance, programs for low-income families, and civilian and military retirement. Likewise, any cuts to Medicare would be capped and limited to the provider side.
Read that again. That's what the media and the whiners are not telling you. The President agreed to no Medicare benefit cuts in the "trigger." None. The cuts, if they automatically happen, would go to whom? The providers. Who are these providers? Doctors, hospitals, clinics, Medical device makers, service providers, drug manufacturers. Who do you think they mostly donate to in the political season? The entire pressure on these Medicare cuts are on the private medical (and pharmaceutical) industry! So let's ask that question again. The Medicare "trigger" is a trigger really from whom again? As a matter of fact, both big triggers (Defense and Medicare provider cuts) are triggers for the Republicans!”
And some more:
“The triggers and the timing
You see, these so-called "triggers" do not go into effect in 2012. They go into effect in... drumrolls... 2013. Again from the White House fact-sheet:
Enforcement mechanism established to force all parties – Republican and Democrat – to agree to balanced deficit reduction. If Committee fails, enforcement mechanism will trigger spending reductions beginning in 2013 – split 50/50 between domestic and defense spending. Enforcement protects Social Security, Medicare beneficiaries, and low-income programs from any cuts.
So the President gets the debt limit increases now, and the triggers don't even kick in until more than a year from now. The cuts are backloaded. Why do you suppose that is? Yeah, because Congress is notorious for changing its mind when push comes to shove. Oh, and there's this thing that's supposed to have happened by 2013. Oh right, a presidential election will have intervened. Republicans already lost the 4th reddest district by going after Medicare. So anyone who thinks that absent something from this "supercommittee," Congress will not actually block a big Medicare provider cut in an election year please step forward; I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.”
Read the full article here, unless information contrary to your current belief system prevents you from doing so.
http://www.thepeoplesview.net/2011/08/paul-krugman-is-political-rookie-or-how.html
I will end with changes the Democrats and President Obama have done that are measurable concrete measures that have influenced the lives of my clients, friends and myself. I listed these in an article I did and was told how all of these accomplishments are just crumbs. Let's see if you think they are just crumbs tossed to a naïve, blinded supporter. You know, a brain-damaged, dumb motherfucker.
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One of my favorite guys is named Rick. He broke his neck while wrestling with his son one night and became a quadriplegic. We visit each other three times a week. President Obama in March of 2009 signed the Christopher and Dana Reeve Paralysis Act, the first piece of comprehensive legislation aimed at improving the lives of Americans living with paralysis.
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He also provided $12.2 Billion in new funding for Individuals With Disabilities Education Act
http://www2.ed.gov/... -
At the bottom of the totem pole of struggling minorities sits the Native Americans. Three of my clients I see every week are Native Americans. They are the poorest of the poor and are easy to ignore but President Obama has not done so. He has done more for this group that make up a grand part of the American culture than any president in history.
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I fought for years and years against the Republicans who were opposed to granting mental health parity in our health care system to those with mental issues. I heard these type of things:
"Seems like everyone is bi-polar, depressed or schizophrenic nowadays."
"How can a supposed mental illness be on par with a broken leg?"
"It is mostly a matter of personal discipline or a lack of discipline." -
When the health care bill passed mental health parity finally became a reality after years of struggle. This was a great victory few discuss or recognize fully. This was a positive thing for all my clients.
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President Obama also added 4.6 billion USD to the Veterans Administration budget to recruit and retain more mental health professionals.
What President Obama has done that has helped my two sons.
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Significantly expanded Pell grants, which help low-income students pay for college.
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Eliminated subsidies to private lender middlemen of student loans and protect student borrowers
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Made both of the boys eligible for inclusion on their mother's new health care benefits until they become age 26 which will save me personally over $12,000.
He saved my business from bankruptcy by putting in Medicaid funds into the stimulus bill which has allowed me to keep seeing clients even after Idaho slashed the funds allowed for mental health services in my area by half. In my case, a half a loaf was much, much better than none. It made me part of the working poor but at least I am working.
Other moves that President Obama has made that I cheer.
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Increased funding for national parks and forests by 10%
http://www.npca.org/... -
Significantly increased funding for the Violence Against Women Act
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Established Credit Card Bill of Rights, preventing credit card companies from imposing arbitrary rate increases on customers
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Expansion of Medicaid to all individuals under age 65 with incomes up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level
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Signed financial reform law establishing a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to look out for the interests of everyday Americans
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Cut prescription drug cost for medicare recipients by 50%
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Appointed more openly gay officials than any other president in US history
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Signed New START Treaty - nuclear arms reduction pact with Russia
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Signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, restoring basic protections against pay discrimination for women and other workers
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Provided travel expenses to families of fallen soldiers to be on hand when the body arrives at Dover AFB
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Put a 100 billion into Education in the stimulus bill.
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Signed the Children's Health Insurance Reauthorization Act, which provides health care to 11 million kids -- 4 million of whom were previously uninsured
http://themiddleclass.org/... -
Issued executive order to repeal Bush era restrictions on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.
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Killed Bin Laden
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Ended DADT
I could go on with many other examples but I will stop. You either got the point or refuse to consider my perceptions. If these are “crumbs” in your mind then we exist in different worlds.
(full article here....http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/01/27/939301/-I-Think-Obamas-Spine-is-Indeed-Strong-Words-to-the-Doubters
So, here we are again. The Left is committing political suicide because President Obama has not passed the purity test. He is the most progressive president in my lifetime but now many are “disappointed” or whatever. Republicans have a pyramid of power. At the bottom, the base is the partisan think tanks where the ideas are hatched. Up the pyramid are the pundits and Fox News who relays these ideas via talking points and lies. They always speak as one voice. Their coalition of Neo-Cons, the Christian Right, the Military Industrial Complex, Corporations and the rich upper class rarely cracks. They place a figurehead at the top of the pyramid as President and all the bottom layers tell him what to do and how to perform.
The Democrats have no such structure. They tend to make their Presidents into saviors and when they don't perform properly the coalitions that got together splinter and dissolve into dysfunction. This leads to another search for the Messiah, who of course can never be or do enough to satisfy the true pure hearts and principled losers.
I know this culture as I was one of them. I was a McGovern supporter and watched as Nixon got 503 electoral votes against him. But we kept our principles. Nader voters kept their principles and allowed Gore to get defeated. Teddy Kennedy kept his principles and turned down universal healthcare from Nixon because it didn't go far enough in 1974. The result? Thirty-five years of no progress in health care at all.
We have a guy who has finally done things that benefit people and issues that I have spent my entire life trying to get accomplished and we scream like little children when we do get our way. You all do your thing. Keep your principles and write your enraged blogs. Open the door for Romney to walk through and you can kiss any hopes for this country goodbye. Perhaps your precious principles will comfort you but I will hate you for it. Why? Because my people will suffer and you won't even give a care. We elected the smart guy to be President. Let him do his job.
Do you have no sympathy for the toxic economy he inherited and the racist bull he has had to deal with in trying to make things better? I have my criticisms too but I put President Obama's performance as about a 70-30 positive and that is good enough considering our past litany of failure as a progressive movement.
Last, I caution you to exam the Left-leaning sites. The Republicans play hardball and I suspect are infiltrating sites such as the Daily Kos, The Young Turks and Firelake to mention a few. The comments are outrageous and serve to tear us apart.
References-
http://www.nativelegalupdate.com/...
http://whatthefuckhasobamadonesofar.com/
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Comments
Rock on Dr B.
Not sure why so many people think that helping elect a tea party stooge will be an improvement for America...but there are many people here in OS who seem to think that is so...or that electing a tea party stooge will not make a difference!
It will make a difference...a huge difference.
Hope people figure that out before the election.
There are MANY issues he can solve all on his own, no help needed. First, he can stop the immoral wars that bleed us dry and destabilize the mideast further and further each day (Yes I know we shoot and bomb people in the name of stabilization but we do it in reality for money, power and theft of resources.)
He can restore civil rights and stop an out-of-control government from gobbling up more and more power from its citizens. MLK is rolling over in his grave at Obama. Just because most are not feeling the short term effects of this the long term consequences will be enormous and irreversible when the pain does come.
NO meaningful financial safeguards have been implemented. We are in a worse position now than before the 2008 collapse. There is no excuse for this ticking timebomb. Regulations could be passed this very minute to lower oil by $30-40 a barrel and stop the robbery done EVERY day to the working poor who have billions stolen from them by this man's refusal to stand up to corporations. How does that ever help the poor?
Anyone who thinks the insurance companies, big pharma and the Republicans signed off on the healthcare bill because they are filled with the love of mankind is insane. The reason full implementation is delayed because no one wants to take the immediate blame of the raping that will happen. Don't fall for the candy the robber hands you while cleaning out your house.
Even politically one cannot argue Obama has done more to destroy the Democratic party and embolden the Republicans than anyone since Carter. At least Carter was reviled for telling the truth. Obama believes Americans trust in greed and it's that greed he protects. But that greed is the hole in the boat that sinks us.
This is really a statement of fear but you're making yourself ill for no reason. The truth is already known.
Good work. You could be a trial lawyer, for sure.
all the hair-on-fire and, as you point out, misinformation or pure lies that are out there on this and related issues make my teeth hurt. you did the **research** (which took a bunch of time but could have been done, as you also point out, by reading even just a factual account of what's in the legislation instead of someone's repeating what some other furious ex-supporter/former democrat said.
and, not to put too fine a point on it, who didn't see this coming since the midterms? not me. not the progressive thinkers whose factual, reasonable stuff i read. this was *predicted*. and why? because the dems lost the house majority, simple as that. and paul krugman (an economist, not a politician, nor a constitutional law expert, let me remind you) and his ridiculous assertion aside (that president obama could wave some Magic Amendment wand and raise his own debt ceiling with impunity), it has never worked in a party's favor short- or long-term to burn the building down instead of compromising. never.
and just to fling a little more crap out there, i don't like headlines like "President Obama Abandons University Students in Debt Deal" when, as you list in the first part of this article, the deal that was struck actually **protects** Pell grants from reductions under the trigger mechanism and makes only one substantive change: that *graduate* students lose *only* the loan-interest subsidy (which meant that we the taxpayers were paying the interest on all their student loans for the time they were in school instead of them paying it as part of their loan balance) and that some of them would have to begin making payments before the six-month postgrad date currently in effect. for a writer to say that " ... change(d) the basic tenets of the American Dream" is, politely, untrue.
the folks who blame the president for all the things they don't like that congress has done or will do until the elections in 2012 don't understand how laws get passed or how the political system works. i'm not saying i *like* what i know about those two things, but whether i like it or not is irrelevant.
the answer to the current bad situation (if you're a liberal, like me) is to work to defeat the members in the House who are republicans and replace them with democrats. it's that simple.
handing back the soapbox, spud.
I'm for grabbing any incremental beneficial change we can get. I'm realistic enough to see that all benefical change IS incremental in this country.
Highly rated.
Check out what my corrente friend Hugh has to say about Obama's scandals and get back to me. It is over 200 now, the inventory. So great are obama's corporate and war crimes I think he should be impeached not dumped in 2012. But dumping would be a beginning.
http://obamascandalslist.blogspot.com/
From a blog I did at corrente after Obama's budget speech In April in which the apologists of Obama got so revved up once again. Sigh:
http://www.correntewire.com/obama_slides_progressive_mask_2012_“bargaining_phase”_dems_prove_stuck_still_5_stages_grief#more
"There should be a 12-step codependency recovery group for Democrat pseudo progressives who love Obama too much. A few rhetorical, vague crumbs promising reform (do people really believe Obama’s promise of “reform” won’t be REGRESSIVE and betraying?) and many hope-starved pseudo-progressives from corporate AND non-corporate media are declaring happy days are here again???
"There is a metaphor I have used that makes a few fellow women bloggers uncomfortable and I apologize in advance, but it captures my bitterness and outrage at Obama. This country got raped by the Bush administration. Then, in its recent, violated and traumatized condition, this country got “date-raped” by the Obama administration.
"I ask incredulously, WHY IN GOD'S NAME ARE SO MANY READY FOR A SECOND DATE WITH OBAMA? Stockholm Syndrome on steroids?
"From Tom in Paine:
"'... he never means what he says and he never follows through on what he promises. Whether its closing Gitmo, promising a public option on healthcare reform, ending the Bush tax cuts, ending banks investing in derivatives, promising to use public funds in his presidential campagin (sic), he has a history of saying what he needs to say at the time for personal political reasons and then always reneges.'
"It is no longer our government. It has been for a serious while captured by the kleptocrats. Again, our -- their -- President and Congress are pimped by them. That is the simple and ugly reality. They have all made our government empathy-less, integrity-less and law-less. They are not done. Reptilian Republicans and “look how hard we are trying” cowardly, reptilian Dems have brought us to this vulnerable and tragic point.
"Our government should be called “Death-Panels-R-Us”!!!! As madamab cryptically asserted recently in a blog title, AUSTERITY = MURDER!!! We have been murdering abroad for so many years. The murders are about to escalate here at home. Homicide by neglect I think it could be called.
"Joseph Stiglitz revealed that the top 1% of the country controls 40% of the wealth of this country. Nomi Prins claims the cost to the American taxpayer of the banks and stimulus bailouts for the rich by both Bush and Obama is nearly $8 trillion or $8,000,000,000,000. Others say you can double that and add some. Kucinich estimates that the cost of war with Libya is $100 million a day. $100,000,000. $1 trillion has gone to the Iraq War it is estimated. $1,000,000,000,000. Obama’s military budget for this year, sacrosanct to our corporate-war-mongering leadership, will be $719 billion. $719,000,000,000. The deaths and suffering caused by the US leadership is staggering, domestic and global. Its dismantling of the American social net is horrifying.
"But Obama didn’t dwell on these numbers. He stayed in “pig parent” ego state, a subtle one but it was there, chastising us for letting the country get this way. HAH!!! Advising us that we are all expected to SUCK IT UP. And all that grandstanding about getting the rich to pay their fair share, wink, wink. What bullshit. Now that they are thorougly protected by the non-negotiating Republicans.
"Did you notice how Obama even passive aggressively insinuated his own massive wealth. Serious salt in the wound, Barack? About how many seniors -- 33 was it -- paying $6,000 each are required to cover the tax write off for Obama of $200,000. Yeah, Barack, you got your multi-millions the Washington way. You sold your soul and the welfare of the common good for it. Obama’s and Congress’ et al. rich pals have their free tax ride until 2012. And then the tax hikes and loopholes and Catfood Commission kabuki will keep them continuing on, fat and happy. Do you seriously think Obama will ever bite the dirty hands that have been feeding him for so long now?
"David Michael Green recently wrote of the days during the Ike administration when Republicans actually had “a discernable pulse” and Dems were actually liberal. In fact, Green maintains that next to Obama, Ike now seems like a flaming “liberal” himself. Green in his article, "Now, for the Kill":
"'Predictably, a president who stood for nothing during a period of multiple crises got routed in the midterm election. Even still, did it seem to you like he cared very much about that? I’m starting to develop a new theory about Obama. In 2008 I thought he might be a progressive. Then I thought he was such a wimp that it was just easier for him to capitulate at every turn, rather than to fight for progressive values. Now I think he’s truly regressive in his politics, and is purposefully altering his operating environment to allow him to pursue those policies while still remaining the nominee of a party that’s supposed to be devoted to the people’s interests. “Golly”, he can say to stupid Democratic voters, “I really wanted to be progressive on [Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, Egypt, Libya, health care, education, gay marriage, the budget, the economy, the environment, civil liberties, whatever] but those mean right-wingers won’t let me. And now there’s even more of them than there used to be! What can I do but give in even more?” end of Green quote
"Did you catch Obama getting indignant as to how less generous our America is getting? The man who sold his soul to Goldman Sachs. Turned his back on universal health care to give massive profits of taxpayer money to the insurance and drug vendors. The man who shamelessly shifted from the peace president to the war-mongering President without any explanation?
"So Obama sets himself up against loathsome Republican Tea Party poster boy, Rep. Ryan, who is so eager and primed to completely scour out what is left of the common good. Obama assures us he is aligned on the side of the far nobler (bleeeecccchhhhh) Catfood Commission of Bowles and Simpson, et al. You know, those Reagonomics on Steroids boys. It was only a matter of time until their ideas would be presented as palateable next to the Koch brothers' sociopathy.
sorry to take up so much room but it galls me. I have been an activist all my life. Got to shake RFK's hand once shortly before he was killed. I know the real deal from a brand, even one that was put over using America's sweetheart Oprah!
Obama treats the constitution like a suggestion box. has made extrajudicial decisions on assassinations ... that is mafia rule not a republic! Escalation of wars. Escalation of drone use, incineration of innocents. Sell out of healthcare. Manufactured consent for war with libya.
Well, there are a lot of lists, a lot of blogs. You discount them all, apparently.
I respect your right to have an opinion but as a fast becoming fascist state I am losing patience with so-called fellow progressives. Bull shit you are a radical. Not a radical liberal, at least not any more.
IMHO!
libby
If Obama thought that invoking 14.4 was risky, how risky is it having a bipartisan group of congressmen, probably not much different from the Gang of Six. And you know that the Gang of Six wanted to throw Social Security and Medicare to the wolves! So maybe Congress will go along, and maybe it won't. Throw the dice on that one.
And if Congress doesn't want to go along with a bipartisan recommendation to cripple Social Security and Medicare for the protection of the banksters? Well, while "entitlements" and Pell Grants might be safe, what about the US Forest Service, National Transportation Safety Board, Public Health Service, and all of the other countless federal agencies that actually make the web of government work. If automatic cuts go into the myriad of other agencies that we don't even think about, but which this society depends upon, we'll quickly see how fast this country turns into a sixth rate Third World country.
And meanwhile, there's nothing to stop the defense lobbyists from preventing those cuts to DOD and Homeland Security. And there's nothing to stop the TPers and the GOP from making yet more unreasonable demands. And this is all baked into the cake for the next 17 months.
Seriously, do you see ANYTHING even remotely optimistic about the outcome of this Munich Agreement by Obama?
It becomes more and more obvious every day how short-sighted, ideologically driven and just plain wrong are the analyses being offered and accepted by lefty pundits and their unquestioning audience. (In this, they're no different than their opposite numbers on the right.)
No one taks the time, as you have done, to actually read the fine print. Headlines will do just fine, the better to find a position or opinion that coincides with one's own prejudices, theories, suspicions or -- most of all -- ideological positions.
It would explode me to explore any further than you have already so skillfully done the long, sad history of purity tests, the search for the Messiah (and inevitable rejection and crucifixion of) and the wounded sense of "disappointment" that has haunted Obama and helped obscure his many accomplishments.
To that long list of accomplishments I would add his two supreme court appointments. The sooner a third seat becomes available, the better.
I'd also suggest that people read Jonathan Alter's "The Promise," his account of Obama's first year in office, if anyone needs to be reminded of what an intelligent, politically savvy and independent man Obama is.
Owe you one!
In parting I share a quote from another American president:
"Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan 'Press On' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race." ~ Calvin Coolidge
Seriously, do you see ANYTHING even remotely optimistic about the outcome of this Munich Agreement by Obama?
Why so charged on this, Lefty…you are usually a sound thinker?
“Munich Agreement” “by Obama?”
C’mon…what makes you think anybody could have gotten more out of this group? Would you actually have preferred that Obama allow the tea party puppets to bring down our Republic in order to get their way?
Keep in mind that the duty truly belonged to congress…not the president. And the congress…with all the power and strength of its long-term Democratic Party members—and its rules and procedures…was NOT ABLE TO GET ONE PENNY more than Obama was able to wrest from these obstructionists.
Jeez! Why all the venom, hatred, and insults toward Obama?
Surely he is not the first American politician to disappoint you!
What is going on here?
To say I am not radical is a judgment that I will expand upon. How about this one? I have not spent one dollar on gasoline this last year. Or this? I have no bank account and no insurance of any kind. I live in a small half of a duplex in the luxury of eight hundred square feet. I cook for my neighborhood. I donate to my clients. I provide twenty-five hours a month of free services to the community. I travel in the wilderness and fight for the protection of our national parks and forests. I'm 6o and keep myself totally fit. By most measures, my personal life-style would be described as, if not radical, at least very unique. So save your judgments.
I could offer counters to most of what you and your pals write, say and believe. But there is no point. You have at it. I can't stop you. But it is clear to me that you don't care about real people; the kind I live with, around and for. You are the Left's version of the Tea Party. Your world view is the only world view. You have the purity of thoughts, actions and know exactly how the world should and would be if only people would listen to you, act like you, live like you, believe like you. You people are determined to turn progressive politics into a damn religion. Well, let it be known that I will fight you people as righteously as I will fight the idiots on the Right.
What kind of car do you drive? Enjoy your bottled water much? Where is your bank account? How many hours or dollars have you donated to your community? I can guess.
Okay, I will give it all to you. You want to get rid of President Obama and then what? I want to hear an answer...then what?
"The President got what he most wanted, postponing another debt ceiling fight until after the election and without politically damaging entitlement cuts.
"Everything else is eye wash. Most of the spending cuts are in the out years, which is another way of saying it won’t happen. (emphasis added)
"And one more committee to study cuts? Oh please, even if they call it a “super” committee that’s always a Capitol Hill euphemism for doing nothing. Adding so-called triggers for cuts if goals aren’t met also means nothing. Remember Gramm-Rudman?
"Giving up tax increases on the wealthy is probably Obama’s biggest concession, but that fight lives for another day when the Bush cuts are scheduled to expire later on. (emphasis added)
"Even if liberals beat up the President for this deal, he wins. Nothing would help him more in his obvious effort to move to the center and appeal to independent voters for reelection."
More prisons for profit; the end of national parks; selling off of national forests; abortion rights abolished to the back alleys; science abandoned; unions busted; public schools ended and for what? To make purity points? The far left exists in a Dream world.
i worked in politics (for free, in addition to my 70/hr/wk business) for two decades on behalf of a professional organization in CA. to get anything done, to get some of what you want, you have to keep taking little bites whenever you can. and you have to give money (or find people with $$ to give) to the candidates you want to win, and you have to put in the time to help them. and bitching about it when they lose is a waste of time. because all you can do then is switch gears to trying to keep the guy who won (who isn't *your* guy) from doing too much damage. and you work to get your guy elected next time. it's not fun but it ain't rocket science.
thanks for writing this, dude, and letting me spout off in your comment string. peace.
I am approaching 55 with two major pre-exisiting conditions. When I return to the USA I now can at least purchase affordable health insurance, as many on-line teaching jobs do not offer benefits.
And for everyone who is telling Obama to end the wars in the Middle East... just exactly how do you expect him to do that, when the Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld created the mess in the first place? I still want to send them the bill, and believe the citizens of the US deserve a refund from Halliburton, a BIG REFUND! That'll put a few coins in the treasury.
That is if the world court doesn't get them first!
I do have issues with Gitmo and these wars dragging on and on but like a lot of libs, my expectations were always realistic. I did not expect an instant nirvana the minute he took the oath. I knew the best we could hope for was to start the pendulum swinging back the other way and we aren't even there yet.
I think all of us underestimated the sheer audacity and callousness of the right and their willingness to destroy everything around them in their bottomless greed.
Let me just add that folks like Libby make me ill. I've read a few of her rants lately and they are heavy on vitriol and name calling and short on facts. Even when she has legitimate points to make, she's not going to influence many people by insulting them. I've asked her and her friend Art repeatedly what they feel a better alternative is and I've gotten nothing back.
While it would be nice to have a legitimate 3rd or even 4th party in this country, it just won't happen with our current form of government and I will NOT hand the country back to the right like Libby and her ilk did in 2000. We cannot survive another Bush Jr.
Major--The question I think is the proper one is why in the world do progressive causes never materialize into action? It has been 40+ years since LBJ's Great Society programs and since then virtually nothing. Why is that? Well, I think it is because of the purity nuts in our own progressive family. They want to turn it all into a religion, it seems to me. Our views are not the majority views, why can't progressives understand this?
Then there are those who measure him against an abstraction of what an ideal Pres could or might do. And on this ground, like every Pres in their lifetimes, he fails. My dearest friend (has voted Nader three times and counting) , with whom I start my vacation tomorrow, is of this persuasion.
I tried to establish my lefty creds by explaining I favored sharply reduced military spending, sharply higher taxes on the rich, a carbon tax, big boosts in green technology investment, legalization of most drugs, and a single payer 9that would be the government) health care system. That fundamentally the U.S. is grievously undertaxed. And to those progressives opposing Obama, I wondered what was the endgame?
I can understand taking issue with Obama on any number of issues. Fair enough. Critique, complain, vilify - there's plenty of grist for that mill. But given the political system, only two plausible presidential candidates will be produced. And I'm concerned that the critics on the left underestimate how horrendous another Repub administration would be.
So thanks for this post. It's the clearest explanation of the debt deal I've seen. My own objection is that it steers a course mostly premised on spending cuts, when my own view is that more taxes need to be levied. And letting the Bush tax cuts expire (won't happen under Pres Romney) is just a start.
Whoops! My apologies, Dr. Spudman.
Nevertheless, I sincerely thank you for the emotional boost, and for doing the research for writing this post.
I just wish that for once.... after a legislative meeting with Obama that the Republicans would come out reeling, holding their heads and moaning "We got hosed!" I'm really tired of seeing those bastards win and get all the more cocky and insufferable each time. I want them to have to make concessions THEY don't like and for which THEIR constituents will yell at them.
Predicts the ruin of the state.
-Blake
And fuck Obama.
Blake also said: To Generalize is to be an Idiot.
One of the issues is that most OSers aren't poor and aren't really aware of what Obama has done for the poor. Obama has done way better by the poor than by the middle class, a fact that tends to fly under the radar.
I'm neither an ardent supporter nor a purist. I think Obama is certainly left of center but I think he's made some strategic misjudgements and that there are major aspects of what's going on in the economy that he's either ignoring or doesn't seem to see. I think this partially because of policy (including surrounding himself with advisors from banking) and partially because of the cases he hasn't made. This worries me.
One of my biggest issues is income polarization. It's extremely dangerous, not just from a social standpoint (the normal OS left focus) but from an economic standpoint. If regular people don't have money, the business community loses business, and enough of that means everything tanks. I'm hearing a lot from the President about fairness issues but not about the health of the economy being related to this; this is a key reason we need to increase taxes on the upper brackets. So much money is concentrated in the top; the only way to balance anything is to go where the money is. Those who want to reduce entitlements are advocating taking money from where it isn't, and I do credit the President with fending that off for the time being.
I'm not anti-business; I'm in business. Going into austerity because we're not willing to tax those with real money is anti-business. I don't know why the President isn't making that case; after all, the whole rationale behind the recent crisis is that the Tea Partiers think that there is a straight equation expressed as Higher Taxes = Fewer Jobs, an equation that doesn't work in reality. Why the hesitation to tackle that equation?
In spite of the fact that I think the lack of a tax rise on those with real money (private and corporate) is a travesty, I'm not stupid enough to turn into a Naderite. I'm acutely conscious of how different a country this would be if we'd gotten a different decision (by one vote) out of the Supreme Court about the 2000 presidential election. I agree with your contention that anyone who thinks a Republican in office couldn't be worse isn't actually thinking.
I agree with your contention that anyone who thinks a Republican in office couldn't be worse isn't actually thinking.
AMEN!