I told him. I told my best friend the Thursday before Obama was elected that his biggest worry would be about the Far Right, that's a known quantity. He'll have to watch is left flank. They Far Left will tear him down if he doesn't do every little thing they want quickly and perfectly. "Watch", I told him, "they'll be the one that will bring him down if he's to be brought down."
And was I right? Unfortunately, yes. The Far Left that tends to ignore any political reality and basically wants Obama to be like Bush. Y'know, The President of the People That Voted For Him. They don't want him to even consider that there is anyone else in this country but the obscenely self-righteous liberal "base". In fact, they want Obama to basically hate conservatives. To do things to spite them. Label them the "other", the cause of all the problems in the world. They want a kind of Liberal Political Purity where only their aims and their views can be realized.....perfectly. And if not, the boy, you got a shit-storm on your hands. It's just like the Tea Pary but on the Left. Lets call it the Latte Party.
And you have your blogosphere champions. The Huffingtons, The Hamshers, The Uygurs, The Sirotas. They bash the President at every turn if something wasn't done sufficiently liberal enough. They've told us for two years how "weak" the President is. How he has no spine. How "he hasn't done anything". They play the "Doesn't Count Game". You don't know that game? It's a game where whenever you bring up a positive aspect of something, the naysayer will tell you why it "doesn't count" as an accomplishment. The easiest example of this is Health Care Reform. That "doesn't count" because it doesn't have a Public Option. In the Latte Party, if something isn't "perfect", it's shit. And you can go down the list. Financial Reform. Consumer Protection Agency. Energy Policy. We still have troops in Afghanistan? Obama's a war-monger. You get the picture.
Of course, these people are masters of ignoring political reality. They put nothing in any context. Obama is KING Obama, able to pass legislation with the snap of his fingers. He's not facing the most hostile opposition party since Reconstruction. Nope. He's just weak. He wasn't dealing with Blue Dog Democrats whose votes he had to charm and coerce out them. Nope. He's just a sellout.
And after two years of this constant chorus of "Obama is weak", "Obama isn't for us", "Hillary would've done better", the more-liberal-than-thou Latte Party finally convinced enough of the "base" that everything Obama.....sucks. Just enough of the "base" stayed home two Tuesdays ago. Their "principles" couldn't allow them to vote for Democrats. The "lesser of two evils" thing wouldn't wash this time. Even the day OF the election, Queen Huffington was on television (the last of a week of this crap) telling people how Democrats didn't DESERVE to keep control of Congress. How Obama "just doesn't get it" (I have yet to know what the fuck she's talking about). Ignoring all of the HISTORIC accomplishments of this President and this past Congress, many of you dumbasses followed Queen Arianna over that cliff.....and the Republicans took back the House. And of course, they blamed Obama for that because Obama's worst enemies were not the Tea Party, it was this Latte Party.
Now the possibility that Obama, in order to save the tax cuts for the bottom 98% will allow the extension of the cuts for the top 2%. And the Latte Party have erupted!
"That's IT! Primary Obama!"
"He's spineless and doesn't care about us!"
"I'm done with him AND the Democrats!"
"Make sure he's a one-term President!"
This is his base
I even read some idiot on Queen Arianna's blog say "why didn't he get this done before the election?" Again, ignoring that he's not a king and Congress has to do their part. And of course they take no responsibility for this. Their endless efforts to tell the "base" how Obama sucks these past two years, basically doing the Republican Party's work for them, has nothing to do with anything. Political reality never factors into their back-patting, "I'm the only one who cares", worldview.
And they want YOU to join them. Join them in ensuring a Republican wins the White House in 2012. This will "teach Democrats a lesson". Join them in voting for some 3rd party wack-job that has no chance of winning, but is so perfectly liberal like them. Join them in ignoring all of the hard work and progress we've made (while far from perfect) and point out and exaggerate only the failures. Join these directionless, whiny, ungrateful CHILDREN in handing our country to a block of racist, homophobic, xenophobic, corporatist, religious fanatics and claim that it's better than sacrificing their principles. You should join them. You should, because I'm not.
Fuck that.
I realize the our President isn't perfect. I realize that he's made mistakes (and he told us all of this the night of his election). I also realize that he's fighting an enemy that is ruthless in their hatred of him and everything he stands for. I realize that those that are supposed to be his supporter are actually the "spineless" ones because they can't play the hardball politics and stand by their guy through thick AND thin. They'll toss him on the fire as soon as he does anything they don't approve of. I realize that our President is a 1000% improvement over our previous one. And watching that a-hole on television this week only reinforces that realization.
I realize that the re-electon of Barack Hussein Obama should be the #1 priority of any liberal with half the brains God gave a tapeworm. And no, not because the alternative (President Romney? President Barbour? gulp President Palin?) is too god-awful to contemplate. But because our President has done an outstanding job with the (piss-poor) hand he's been dealt. Unfortunately, he has to fight not just one misguided, emotion-over-logic, fact-ignoring group of children disguised as adults. He has to fight two of them. Mirror images of each other.
Tea? Meet Latte. May you both not get what you want.
Sorry for the rant, but I'm sick of this crap this morning.