Obama is insane! Obama is a Republican! Give up on Obama!
Obama just got punched in the face! If Obama had only fought for us!
Is Obama disingenuous? Do I give Obama another chance?
Obama is a lame duck! Obama is defeated!
Fed up with Obama? Does Obama speak for the middle class?
Obama is imperfect!
Obama is like Bush!
We pressed the "Obama" button and out came a different Obama!
[RANT WARNING!!]
My dear Kossacks, I pressed the Obama button too, and I also got a different Obama than the one I thought I'd voted for.
But I have to tell you-- as disappointed as I am in some of the things this President has done-- and in some of the things he hasn't done-- all of you who are running around writing alarmist diaries about Obama have got to remember three things:
a) Obama is way, WAY better than the previous walking disaster who occupied the Oval Office (whether or not he's what we'd hoped he'd be), and
b) Obama has only been in office one lousy year, and
c) Obama has to deal with the Congress and Senate he has, not with the congress and senate we'd like him to have.
Point a): Do any of you remember George W. Bush? That ignorant, nasty, conceited, churlish snot who occupied the highest rank in our land for not one year, not four years, but EIGHT YEARS? Do you remember who invaded Iraq? Who brought a level of secrecy and inaccessibility to federal government never before seen? Who lied openly and with impunity to the public? Who was a puppet of Cheney and Rove? Who filled his cabinet with idiots, asskissers, henchmen, cronies and Christo-fascists? Who ran up the biggest federal deficit in American history? Whose arrogance was hateful? Who single-handedly created a new global industry in anti-American terrorist training? Who presided over the FEMA failure in New Orleans, and who sent thousands of US servicepeople to their deaths in Iraq all because he and his buddies felt like starting a war? Who did more active, deliberate damage to our great country than any President, ever?
You do?
Do you remember that he was still in office just a little over a year ago? Do you remember how ready, how ready you were, for him to be out of office and for this country to have some kind of way forward out of the morass he had created?
You do?
Do you remember that he was the worst President in American history? That he did nothing, I mean nothing, for not only progressive causes, but for Democratic or even sane, rational, and humane causes?
You do?
Do you remember how much damage he did to United States endeavors overseas? How much he denigrated other countries with his swaggering, bullying attitudes and lack of diplomacy? How much he set back efforts at curbing the global spread of nuclear weapons?
You do?
Do you remember just how bad, how TRULY BAD it was to have him as our President?
So if you do, then why write hysterical diaries about Obama claiming that he is taking a page from Bush or is a failure as a President? Whaddya whaddya? Sheesh! Do the laundry and take a deep breath and regain some perspective.
Point b): Obama has only been President one year. One lousy year. That's a little over 365 days. Let me tell you how long it takes me to do some things in my own little life. I've lived in our current home five years and I haven't yet painted most of the downstairs or the stairway. I keep meaning to, but other things come up. I promised I'd do it, and I know it needs to be done, but my life is making me do other things first. I don't seem to have total control over whether or not the house gets painted. Days get fucked up. I get sick. I make bad choices on some days. I work hard and then I'm tired. I don't have anyone to paint the house with, and it costs too much to hire someone to paint the walls.
I've been at this for FIVE YEARS. But if someone had told me, after one year in this house, that I was a failure as a homeowner because I didn't keep my promise to myself and my family that I'd paint the rest of the downstairs, I would have been confused. "WTF?" I would have said. "Do you know how many things there were to do in this frakkin' house? Especially one that had rotted floors (as ours did) and rotted windows (ditto) and had been neglected for years and needed a new roof and had 10 dead trees in the yard because they were smothered by ivy? And you're getting on my case because I didn't paint all of the downstairs walls and the stairwell in the first year?"
My point is this: for over half a century, Democrats and progressives have been trying to get national health care of some kind enacted. Obama ran on getting that done as a major part of his campaign. But he has been in office only one year. ONE LOUSY YEAR. You want to give up on him because after one lousy year of a four year term in office he hasn't yet done what hadn't been done in the fifty previous years?
And how about the unemployment rate, and the lack of new jobs being created, and the trillions of dollars in deficit? Do you know how much of what we've experienced in this past year, began building under Mr. George W. Bush? Do you know how much siphoning-off of American jobs took place over the last decade? Do you know how many US corporations were enabled in their tax evasion and in their avoidance of obligations to their employees and the communities in which they operated, by Bush administration policies? Do you know how we got here? It sure wasn't all ushered in by Obama's inauguration.
Put this in perspective. It's not like in the first year in office, he turned around and became an evil villain and attempted to dismantle Medicare or Medicaid. It's not as though he came into office and all of a sudden got medieval on the WIC program. True, he hasn't been as progressive or as bold in terms of health care reform as many of us would have wanted. I've definitely complained about how disappointed I am, in many comments here. But no way am I going to pen a sky-is-falling, unleash-the-hell-hounds, he's-really-a-Republican-in-disguise diary about President Obama being a "failure" after one year in office. 'Cause really, one year just isn't that long a time.
Ever heard the expression "the wheels of God grind slowly, and they grind exceeding small?" (or something to that effect). Well, I want every Kossack to think about it before anyone sits down to write yet another diary about how Obama is a failure and hasn't accomplished anything and it's been one year and there's nothing to show for it and I want my money back.
Point c): I am much angrier at Senate Democrats than I am at the President. Yes, I am very disappointed in what I can't help but perceive as Obama's lack of leadership on some key issues. I am confused and saddened and yes, angered by it. And I don't see how our country can go on without real reform in so many aspects of health care delivery. I feel like crying about it on many days, wondering how we could be at this juncture under this President.
But seriously, I know hardly anything about this issue. If it were easy to solve--- easy to just resolve with a stroke of a Presidential pen-- then I can't believe that more wouldn't have been done by now. Really, I believe that there are lots of variables and forces at work about which most of us know jack squat and we are very presumptuous when we give up and think that we've seen the end times on this issue. The efforts of progressives and activists are more necessary than ever. Nothing is wasted in terms of effort put into hoping and working toward a goal. And those wheels of God-- and of Humanity-- grind exceeding small. One day at a time. One battle at a time.
Here's what really pisses me off, when it comes to short-fuse anger: I am unreservedly angry at "blue dogs" in the House and Senate, and really, positively, freaking MAD at Harry Reid and Senate Democrats. The American people gave Dems majorities in both houses, and what the hell do the Dem majorities turn around and do? They just aren't playing good ball with their team strengths. They aren't pulling out the play book and finding the most effective plays possible to win the games. Man that makes me FURIOUS!!! Is it all Obama's fault that Harry Reid has no spine? Hell no! And don't tell me that this first year in office for this President hasn't been made harder because of the lack of strength and conviction shown by Senate Democrats in particular.
Okay, end of rant. I need to go to bed. Please don't flame me too much in the auto tip jar. Everyone is entitled to express his/her opinion; I'm just expressing mine. Peace to everyone. Good night.