When I hear Republican presidential candidates deride the failed policies of the Obama administration at the same time that Obama recently proposed cuts to social security and medicare as part of his grand bargain on the debt limit deal, it makes me sick. I’m not mad that Obama’s policies are not working, I’m mad that Obama policies are the Republican agenda and they're not working!
Obama’s second term will consist of further compromise to the ever crazier Republicans who keep getting what they want and are dictating the policies. Those policies will continue to fail and in 2016 the Republicans will be swept into office by a disgruntled populace that has been convinced by mainstream media and Fox that it was the Democrats fault all along.
I say why wait. If we’re going to get the Republican agenda either way, let’s elect a Republican now so they can own these failing policies. Let them drive the country into the ground to a point that the populous backlash is focused on them. Then maybe we can get the types of true reform we were hoping for with Obama.
Look, Obama was our last best hope to turn things around and he has failed. Bush’s economy is now Obama’s economy; Bush’s wars are now Obama’s wars. Obama had the opportunity to enact some radical changes with regards to our economy, the war on terror, social justice, the drug war, the list goes on. In almost every case he, along with the rest of the Democrats, has continued to move to the right chasing the Republicans.
This sounds like a pessimistic way to look at things; unfortunately I see it as inevitable. I feel like we as progressives have been supporting Democrats for far too long because “they’re not as bad as Republicans.” But it gets back to the definition of insanity; things just aren’t any different.
Now there may be some people, maybe a lot of you, who think I’m trolling; that I’m a right-wing plant. I would respond to you to ask yourself honestly, even if Democrats took back Congress in 2012 along with an Obama victory, what would that change? Would Obama end the wars? Would he roll back domestic spying? Would he reform the tax system by increasing taxes on the rich, inheritances, and capital gains? Bolster the economy with an enormous jobs stimulus? Close Guantanamo? Strengthen Social Security and Medicare? Respond to climate change? Scale back the military and our hundreds of bases overseas? You tell me.
I’m sorry to say it has to get worse before it gets better.