Once again the folks here are debating whether President Obama is great, good, average, below average or just plain lousy. On a personal level, I like him. I like him a lot. But as far as what I`ve seen in policy and the direction of the country, not so much. I have a feeling of deja vu.
I was also hopeful in 1992. A young man from humble roots made it to the White House. Surely, he understood the struggles of every day people. I figured he would do the right thing and turn around what was then a little over a decade of voodoo economics. Surely, he would turn around the trend toward a more and more punitive justice system. Surely, he would turn America on a different course. But no. What we got was NAFTA, welfare reform, repeal of Glass-Stengal, Telecommunications Act, 3 strikes justice, etc. Yes, there were a few good things, but the trend was still toward a more unequal haves/have nots society. So in 96 I voted for Ralph Nader. I became more jaded towards our political system and started to agree with George Carlin about the people having power is only an illusion. Then George Bush came along, and the trend accelerated.
My hope returned in 2008. Once again, a young man from humble roots made it to the White House. As an added bonus, he came from my home town. He spent years on the South Side of Chicago. He absolutely knows the world outside of the gated communities. He has seen first hand what 30 years of Reaganomics and globilization has done. Now I didn`t expect him to be Bernie Sanders (although I think most of us here would align ourselves with his ideology), but I DID expect him to start to bring the country back toward the left. I recognize that he has done some good things, and that he came into office to find a total clusterfuck left by his predecessor. But I`m beginning to feel like I voted for Bill Clinton again. I`ll vote for him next year, but it`s starting to feel like I`ll be going into the voting booth much less enthusiastically than I did in 2008.