Hi. I frequent this site, but apparently I am not one of you. I seem to have a penchant for controversy and I post my dissenting views in diaries and comments. Although I am far to the left of most people on this site, my posts inevitably trigger accusations of being some kind of undercover Republican. Usually these brilliant political analysts attempt to insult me with some kind of clever play on the word like, "Rethug." As peaceful as I like to think of myself, being called a Republican for expressing leftist viewpoints usually precipitates a stooping, by me, to the level of name-calling, with "douchebag" being one that I routinely resort to. I'm not proud of this.
But, I am proud that I don't worship Democratic politicians like a kid collecting baseball cards of his favorite players. I care only about progressive policies and I don't care what type of iconic persona a politician is presenting. If they are not actually enacting progressive policies and are instead doing the business of corporate interests, I'm going to have criticism, even if they are named Barack Obama.
I am no Republican. I'm not even a Democrat, although I vote in Democratic primaries to try to get the more progressive candidate elected. I find that the Democratic party too often aligns itself with corporate interests over the needs of working class and middle class people. So, sorry, I don't hold the belief that all things Democrat are good. I guess this makes me a "Rethug" or a "Dittohead," as I've been called.
As far as Obama goes, I'm starting to feel betrayed. I was pretty cynical about politicians. I'm no fan of President Clinton as he gave it all away to the corporations, in my opinion, as has every other president in my lifetime. But suddenly, here was this brilliant, thoughtful guy, really seeming to tell it like it is, and man, could he tell it. I got totally sucked in, donated money to his campaign, hated Hillary during the primary, went to Nevada to watch the polls in the general, etc. I had hope that he would change the way politics were done in America and that a new era was dawning. It could have been a new era.
Now, I'm starting to see that I've been had and I'm pissed. I truly want my money back, because the Obama campaign of Change We Can Believe In was false advertisement. If Obama the president was acting like Obama the primary candidate, young voters and minority voters and Independents would still be energized and their would still be a Democrat governing New Jersey and maybe even Virginia. Instead, in my view, after railing against lobbyists during his campaign, he put a bunch of corporate sympathizers into all the positions of power and now is overseeing a huge shift in wealth and power from the multitudes to the upper echelon elites. In other words, business as usual in corporate owned Washington. Commenters will surely point out how much better Obama is than Bush, but being better than Bush is not really good enough for me. One good thing I can say about Bush, though, is that he campaigned on being a cold-hearted, dumb-ass jerk and that's exactly what he gave us for eight years. Are we getting the Obama we were promised? Not so much.
The reason I was so fiercely behind Barack over Hillary, is because I thought of her as another business as usual, corporate Democrat, like her husband. I thought Obama was something entirely different and someone who would radically alter the way politics were done. I convinced a lot of people to support Obama, but now I'm thinking that maybe I made a big mistake. At least Hillary would be tough and fight and stand up for what she's after. She may be a typical establishment Democrat, but she's a fighter and we need a fighter to fight the lobbyists and the Republicans, who are just doing their damnedest to make sure that we get change in name only, no actual substance.
In my view, the most telling measure of whether politicians are working for the people or the corporations is simply what direction the wealth flows. Under Obama, I think it's being pretty well demonstrated that wealth, over the next eight years (I do believe he will be re-elected) will continue to flow out of the pockets of the majority of the people who are struggling to live a decent life and into the greedy hands of the ultra-rich few. The bonuses are just gonna keep on coming and coming and coming as the American dream becomes a faint memory for most Americans. I guess that makes me a Republican.
UPDATE: Thanks to all the people who recced and tipped this diary. I now realize that there are just some grumpy creepy bullying types out there making noise in the comments but most of you are good people.