A reader writes that she and other progressives have been let down by President Obama and goes on to list a number of broken promises made during the ’08 campaign. Diana McGinness responds with a message well worth the read.
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1) if anyone thought Obama was anything but a centrist when they voted for him, that was their unfortunate mistake. It was clear to me he was not the Progressive we wanted, nor was Clinton. This country is not ready to elect a progressive yet. And that’s our fault. We need to educate.
2) Gitmo is still there because of the GOP, not Obama – he tried – I remember well the complete and utter outrage of people like Rep Peter King.
3) you include the privatization of Medicare and SS in your list of failures — I’m pretty up on these things and have no information supporting that. If you do, please share it with us.
4) probably his most important campaign “promise” was to change the rhetoric in D.C. — he tried – and tried and tried — much to the dismay of all of us thinking, just forget it , they will NOT cooperate. And, in fact, they turned that promise against him deliberately — you hear them every day go on about how he was supposed to change Washington? They made the conscious decision to NOT allow that to happen. So brandishing the “hopey changey” thing that Palin spouts is something we should not buy into. When we accept their rhetoric, THEY win. And we’re really good at doing just that. I even hear Democrats call it the “Democrat” Party. It just makes me want to scream when we do this.
5) yes, mistakes were made – what did you expect from a two year Senator not even dry behind the ears when he took over the oval office? His biggest mistake was doing what all Presidents do (and Romney is doing now) choosing advisor from Clinton’s administration. He should have pulled people in from the outside…but the problem with that is that they, too, would not have had an understanding of D.C. politics. So he relied on Clinton’s old group – people like Larry Summers, who should have been kicked to the curb without a thought. The smartest move he made was getting Biden on the ticket – he’d been in the Senate long enough to know the ropes and to have built the relationships that were needed — but even that didn’t help because the GOP REFUSED to lift a finger to help Obama get this country righted again.
6) and when the Tea Party won the House in 2010 – just what was he supposed to do? We sat home and let them take the House – we didn’t have his back. You can blame him, but it was us who gave up. We stomped our feet and got mad because we didn’t get single payer (and as much as i wanted it, it was NEVER going to happen – nor was the Public Option ever going to get through the Senate). If you will recall ACA only passed using reconciliation, not with 60 votes, but with 56 – we’d lost Teddy by then and our Blue Dogs abandoned us.
I’m shocked he’s managed to get as much done as he has, albeit much of major legislation like Dodd-Frank watered down. But they are a foundation upon which to build. And a second administration will give him four more years to accomplish much more. All that needed done could not be done in four years. He’s laid the foundation for more to come. And, like you, I’m willing to give it to him…even with the disappointments. Let’s hope he can rectify some of that with 4 more years! Which is exactly why Wall Street is scared shitless he will be re-elected and the vast majority of them are sending their money to Romney.
Let’s not, however, accept the GOPs revisionist history as our own.
~Diana McGinness
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Thanks for posting this. I marvel with astonishment when I red such and realize how fickle and short-sighted is the American psyche. How soon we forget and how much we did allow into our gray matter? People surely have to know the extent to which the GOP has perpetrated unprecedented obstruction. I often speak of out-right “sedition” as I consider just how much the party on the Right has worked against improving the nations economic well-being. I will also add the party on the Right has worked against the social well-being of the nation.
I’m with you on that, Diana. George Lakoff, who is the closest Democrats have to an anti-Frank Luntz (and how I do wish they’d listen to Lakoff more!), tells us that if we adopt the terminology the opposition is using to frame the issues, we’ve lost the battle and are well on our way to losing the war.
The most egregious example from history occurred when an upstart activist party labeled themselves “The Majority Party” and their (then)-majority opponents “The Minority Party”. The joke seemed to catch on, and before too much longer, the upstarts were the majority. This happened about a hundred years ago, and in the local language, the word for “majority” was “bolshevik” and the word for “minority” was “menshevik”. We all know what happened next..
Diana has the patience of a saint to refute over and over again the revisionist history and propaganda that spews from the republican party and their followers. She is a gem. A brilliant valuable gem!
Sydney, I often feel the same urge; sometimes I give in and write what I hope is a well-though-out treatise, and other times don’t see the use because it’s not going to have any effect. Sometimes, instead of throwing up my hands and giving up, I go for the pithy comment, as I did with George Washington.
I couldn’t agree more with Diana.
I always say that Obama must be doing something right if he is getting criticism from both the left and right. I am more of a Progressive (member since ’95) but I am pragmatic enough to understand that we can’t get everything we want (vote Al Franken in 2016 — LOL).
BUT, we have made progress in 4 years. DAMN!!! Yes we ARE better off than we were 4 years ago! Damn Skippy! I can’t even believe they tried that one. Did they think we could forget that they are the idiots who got us into the big mess?
I am glad the polls are looking good for Democrats this time, but am holding my breath until Obama and Elizabeth Warren and the rest are in the winner’s circle. The Republicans and Tea Party are out of control. They will bring this country to the brink again and never own up to anything. Just like last time.
OK, Diana McGinness for President! I said it.
We might all want to take a moment to remember that on 17 September 1787, the Us Constitution was ratified. It’s been battered and beaten but it’s still here. (this is also the day, in 1996, that Spiro Agnew died. I don’t know if there’s a correlation there).
“Give me Liberty, or Give me Death!” – Patrick Henry
What a brilliant ruling by the United States Supreme Court on the affordable health care act (Obamacare). Stunningly brilliant in my humble opinion. I could not have ask for a better ruling on a potentially catastrophic healthcare act than We The People Of The United States received from our Supreme Court.
If the court had upheld the constitutionality of the individual mandate under the commerce clause it would have meant the catastrophic loss of the most precious thing we own. Our individual liberty. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Supreme Court.
There is no mandate to buy private for-profit health insurance. There is only a nominal tax on income eligible individuals who don’t have health insurance. This is a HUGE! difference. And I suspect that tax may be subject to constitutional challenge as it ripens.
This is a critically important distinction. Because under the commerce clause individuals would have been compelled to support the most costly, dangerous, unethical, morally repugnant, and defective type of health insurance you can have. For-profit health insurance, and the for-profit proxies called private non-profits and co-ops.
Equally impressive in the courts ruling was the majorities willingness to throw out the whole law if the court could not find a way to sever the individual mandate under the commerce clause from the rest of the act. Bravo! Supreme Court.
Thanks to the Supreme Court we now have an opportunity to fix our healthcare crisis the right way. Without the obscene delusion that Washington can get away with forcing Americans to buy a costly, dangerous and highly defective private product (for-profit health insurance).
During the passage of ACA/Obamacare some politicians said that the ACA was better than nothing. But the truth was that until the Supreme Court fixed it the ACA/Obamacare was worse than nothing at all. It would have meant the catastrophic loss of your precious liberty for the false promise and illusion of healthcare security under the deadly and costly for-profit healthcare system that dominates American healthcare.
As everyone knows now. The fix for our healthcare crisis is a single payer system (Medicare for all) like the rest of the developed world has. Or a robust Public Option choice available to everyone on day one that can quickly lead to a single payer system.
Talk of privatizing/profiteering from Medicare or social security is highly corrupt and Crazy! talk. And you should cut the political throats of any politicians giving lip service to such an asinine idea. Medicare should be expanded, not privatized or eliminated.
We still have a healthcare crisis in America. With hundreds of thousands dieing needlessly every year in America. And a for-profit medical industrial complex that threatens the security and health of the entire world. The ACA/Obamacare will not fix that.
The for-profit medical industrial complex has already attacked the world with H1N1 killing thousands, and injuring millions. And more attacks are planned for profit, and to feed their greed.
To all of you who have fought so hard to do the kind and right thing for your fellow human beings at a time of our greatest needs I applaud you. Be proud of your-self.
God Bless You my fellow human beings. I’m proud to be one of you. You did good.
See you on the battle field.
Sincerely
jacksmith – WorkingClass :-)
Oh, tsk, tsk! our president didn’t keep his promises… I guess we all thought that he would be our political savior, rather than the president who is in court defending the assaults on our constitutional rights by his predecessor, the leader who is seeking to institute a security state so cloaked in secrecy that our beloved Republic is in the greatest jeopardy since Franklin declared that he and his colleagues had delivered “…a republic, madam, if you can keep it.”, a president whose vicious assault on whistleblowers gives lie to his promise of transparency in government -what happened to NSA whistleblower Thomas Drake is a prime example; a leader whose military is empowered to arrest fellow citizens without right of habeas corpus. INDEFINITE confinement a la Gitmo. ” And God Bless the United States of America!”
Listen, folks, I really hate to burst your bubble on the “mixed kid” from nowhere who made it through adversity to Harvard and the American presidency, but you would be well-served to recognize that the battle lines are now drawn between those WITH vs. those WITHOUT and that the charming smile belonging to “Bush in blackface” jes’ ain’t on our side!
Mario, you will surprise me if you post this. I hope you do because of the serious need to establish an open mind-set in these most dangerous of times.
Jacksmith….the medical industry has attacked the world with H1N1??? Oh my, so many conspiracy theory’s, so little time.
I have so much to say on why I think this “Liberals attack the stupid, idealistic, ignorant progressives and tell them to lock-step with Democrats” stuff is so unproductive and dishonest, but I don’t want to take up too much time.
The gist of it is:
1.) “Because I could tell Obama was not a progressive, YOU must be stupid.” Gee, thanks. With all that promising about Universal Healthcare, funding program to help against foreclosures, closing Gitmo, getting out of Iraq, ending the Bush Era Tax Cuts, pro-immigrant Immigration Reform, etc., I can see how somebody could make such an obvious mistake. And America not being ready for progressives? …Teddy, FDR, Wilson, Taft, LBJ… … …Yeah, I guess so. And I have to add, in as simple a way possible, most people I’ve heard from the center right to the far left, did in fact think the man was a bonafide progressive. Independents who voted for Bush the previous election and were voting for Obama in ’08 were even whining about it. They wanted out of the “ditch”, to the point that they were willing to risk his “socialism” to do so. And anyone left of those people thought it was a “new day” for liberals realistically, or even a new MLK unrealistically, so…yeah. The only people I’ve heard that said “See, I told you Obama’s a centrist/closet republican!” came in numbers AFTER he took office. Even OBAMA called himself a progressive. *shrug*
2.) Gitmo is a failure. Maybe not Obama’s fault, but it’s still an unfulfilled promise; one that I don’t think anybody’s going to hold against him, though. It simply is what it is. But the wars and economy? He owns it now. And I’m a liberal, and will agree on that. Healthcare? What can I say. I like some things in it, but not everything. A majority of people, left and right, didn’t like it much. But I guess they’re all just stupid, as well as all those Democrats who also ran against Health Care Reform that year (uh-huh, I remember it; most of whom were replaced by bonafide progressive candidates or republican/Tea party ones). And I do agree with a lot of strategists and pundits who are saying that Obama might not want to overplay the “are you better off” thing. Most of us aren’t. That’s just a fact. You can’t spin that. If progressives are ignorant about the realities of politics, then liberals are equally so about the realities of what’s going on amongst the public. We are absolutely hurting, here. AND afraid. Even if YOU aren’t, look at the news, the unemployment, wars, red state defiance of Obama, protesters getting beaten, etc. Have some empathy… Both progressives and liberals need to get together and work that out, and fast.
3.) Rhetoric? Obama tried so hard with the Republicans that he alienated his base. And before somebody attacks me on that, Jon Stewart and Bill Maher were even making fun of it. MANY times. And after a while, the typical “lying politician” mode of the Democrats started up again, and a lot of contradictory things are being said and done by both parties all the time, now. Most people can’t see the difference anymore. The low approval ratings of Congress (and for a time, Obama) are not some kind of stupid mistake. People know what’s going on. Heck, I can’t speak too much on the Tea Party, as to me, they are just Barry Goldwater all over again. But in that same vein, OWS is the Civl Rights Movement, too. MLK had to press Kennedy to do something about what was wrong because not enough was, even though Kennedy was “the good guy who’s trying”. Fits Obama to a tee, right there. If Obama were doing so great on his own, OWS wouldn’t be here, they’d be having an “Thanks For Everything, Obama” party. Let’s just be honest about that. Is simply voting for more Democrats enough to solve the problem? From the antics of both parties, I definitely can see why anyone would say no.
4.) “We let the Tea Party take the House, what was Obama supposed to do?” Ask Clinton. He told Obama what to do, and Obama wouldn’t do it. “You can’t force people to be grateful when they don’t have any reason to be.” Obama, like a lot of center left Liberals, are too proud to admit that things aren’t doing so great in “real life”. All progressives (with their own faults) want is HONESTY. Liberals want Patience, and Progressives want Honesty. That’s what it comes down to. Instead, just like in this article, Obama and the Democrats blamed the failing 2010 primaries on progressives, independents, bloggers and pundits’ cynicism and apathy (instead of the Republicans) without acknowledging their own out-of-touch type of apathy and failure to convince America that they knew what they were doing. Now how cooperative was that? If progressives’ expectations were too high for the Democrats to meet because of Republican obstructionism, then the Democrats’ expectations were too high for the people to ignore the fact that they were actually hurting worse than they intitially were under Bush, with the Democrats saying “OH WELL. GET OVER IT!” That’s just the truth. THAT’S why nobody voted. I suggest that progressives and liberals come to an understanding and work this out too, instead of bickering. But telling folks who see the ineffectiveness of both parties to “VOTE DEMOCRAT, OR ELSE” without a compromise or understanding first WILL breed apathy. Fear is not an effective motivator from Democrats; that’s what Republicans do. That’s why nobody knows the difference.
Indeed: “When too many Americans don’t vote or participate, some see apathy and despair. I see disappointment and even outrage. And I believe that out of this frustration can come hope and action.”-Paul Wellstone. My suggestion from the center-left is to put aside their own condemnation of “stupid progressives” and take heed to this sage advice, because NOT doing so is what’s really hindering the Democrats’ appeal and instead creating independent social activism against both parties.
Now, like I said, I could elaborate on this a lot further until I’m blue in the face (I’ve already said too much), but I’ll spare you all. Most people probably won’t agree with me on here anyway, because I’m a lunatic socialist bum (not really), but I’m not trying to win people over to progressives. I’m just trying to cut through all the “taking sides” B.S. that’s dividing us and saying that there’s plenty of cause for concern, understanding, and compromise from BOTH perspectives, which is what nobody wants to do anything about. Instead of bashing or ordering around any lefty who has a contrary opinion to the Democratic Establishment (which isn’t even so, anymore, last I checked), I’d say either watch or read the transcripts from the Post-DNC debate between Michael Eric Dyson and Glen Ford about the factual effectiveness and past performance of Obama. Any honest and open-minded liberal needs to.
http://www.democracynow.org/seo/2012/9/7/effective_evil_or_progressives_best_hope?skip_mobile=1
Both men make excellent points; Dyson for the “Pro Obama” side, and Ford for the “Disaffected Liberal” side. BOTH of them do. In my view, it was Ford who got to me, and I’m both an Obama supporter and an Independent progressive, as well as a Dyson fan who’s never even heard of Glen Ford. Obama needs his accomplishments and obstacles acknowledged for sure, but the “progressive side” of the argument is not kooky at all. There’s a lot of bad things going on more than just “Obama’s not liberal enough for me, so I’m gonna pout”. My hope is that both sides stop doing this bashing against each other and be honest and patient with each other, and DO something about it cooperatively and PRODUCTIVELY. We are all Americans who want the same things.
-I’M OUT, FRIENDS! And OBAMA/BIDEN 2012!!!
Anthony – I do not think you are stupid (nor did in say that).
I saw what I saw in Obama – a Centrist from day one. My choice was Biden – I thought he’d been around long enough like LBJ he could use the elbows to get done what needed done.
Clinton blew her on campaign and that left Obama. Lots of my Progressive friends did not agree. And, I did not call them stupid either.
I’m just pragmatic – you can dis me for that if you choose – it won’t bother me. My values almost align perfectly with the Green Party – but the Green Party will never be elected.
TR was a Progressive when it came to fighting the money changers, and he fought for the conservation of the country — he did not, however, fight for women’s rights and felt a woman’s place is in the home.
So each of the “progressives” throughout our history have never been completely progressive. They came forward at a time of need in our country — so where is the Progressive candidate today?
If he/she were electable, don’t you think we’d see them in the campaign scoring high in the polls? You won’t – the media controls the polls – the Green Party doesn’t even show up.
So tell me, just how do you think we’re going to elect a Progressive? If you can figure that out, I’ll happily vote for them. You’re going to have to figure out how to get them in Congress, too.
Until then, I’m going to remain pragmatic and vote for the best candidate that will at least push us a few steps forward.
EPIC post. thanks for writing! – james
I thought liberals and progressives were the same people.