I was an early and strong supporter of Obama's presidential bid.
However, in the wake of the Afghan escalation decision, I have a question.
Can somebody please explain to me what major decision that Obama has made that would not have been made by George W. Bush?
- Give a trillion dollars of taxpayer money to corporate greedheads who broke the economy. Check.
- Refuse to enact meaningful reforms on the financial sector, so that the guilty are rewarded and given tacit permission to do it all again some day. Check.
- Gut any proposal for real health reform in order to make it palatable to wealthy entrenched corporate special interests. Check.
- Gut any proposal for real control of greenhouse gases in order to make it, too, palatable to wealthy entrenched corporate special interests. Check.
- Refuse to change the Don't Ask Don't Tell policy, or keep any other campaign promises to gays. Check.
- Continue the war in Iraq and double down for a "surge" in Afghanistan. Check.
- Do all this while continually savaging progressives as weak, out of touch, unrealistic, and by implication, unpatriotic; all the while spouting mealy-mouthed high-minded blather as rationalizations for wrong-headed policies. Check.
What am I missing here?
This is not change I can believe in.
This is not change.