Security. This may be a tangent into a rant but let's start with at least a couple of facts. As people get older they do worry about their future and hoped for 'retirement' (social security). When we're young we think SS won't be there and we don't really care...it's a ways off. When we're getting there we check the letter from the government and think about it, often worry about it. We may think about surviving until we're on Medicare and can get treatment or at least see a doctor.
Our opposition knows this and that is why they use every fear tactic they can think of to get older people worried and scared. SS is going broke, the deficit, the Dems spending like there's no tomorrow. Forget about yesterday and the tax cuts for the rich while running wars, that has nothing to do with the economy in ruins. Look it's a year later and Obama has done Nothing. The more they can get the left and the right pissed off at Obama, the more they win. Let's see how this plays out....
When Obama was elected we celebrated and looked forward to some mighty big changes. Before he was elected we volunteered, donated, came to rallies, made phone calls, knocked on doors and in general had his back. We talked with our neighbors, we talked with people at work, at the gym, we may have been a little over the top but we were excited.
Now? not so much. We're split. Some defending the President, some attacking, some sitting it out and meanwhile Koch, Rove, Armey, etc just pile on the fear and the lies and push for a Republican majority. Why? So they can launch the investigation committees (Plural) and spread more lies. Why? Because it's all about the money. Not the economy, just who gets the money. Fear and lies, fear and lies until people buy it. Older folks are buying it and that's important because they vote. In mid term elections.
We know the attack is under way (see the Koch brothers, the Glen Becks, the Tea baggers, etc). There are diaries on all these folks. It's about making people scared (especially old people) and getting them to vote. Meanwhile, we carp and complain and carry on like there isn't an election in 9 weeks. We are (for the most part) not out organizing on volunteering in an endangered Congressional district, we're not talking about the good things Obama has done but focusing on the negatives. In short, we're losing.
There have been some great diaries on what Obama has done well and some on what he has not done so well but really, has he changed So Much? I don't think so but having worked for a Governor I can say one of the problems he faces is he is the President and can't wave a wand. there's the whole Federal government which does not exactly march in lock step. There's that bureaucracy thing and it is maddening at times.
There isn't a lot of time left. I suggest we defend what is working Remind ourselves of what Obama has done well ( I thought I had a great diary hotlinked but can't find it) but Lily Ledbetter, student loans, Health Care, keeping economy from going off the cliff, Financial Reform, COBRA/unemployment extensions and a lot more. Give time and money to a Congressional and make the commitment to talk to your retired or soon to be retired neighbors and folks you know. They vote and a bunch are scared.
There's about 9 weeks left and we're looking at waking up in Nov with another change election and we're not going to like it. We're hitting the road so I won't be around if this diary goes anywhere but have a nice weekend, hang in there and fight like hell. Seriously, if the specter of Tan Boehner (or wever his name is) isn't enough to get us going what if FDR had lost his first re-election in a national wave?