This journal is something of a response to the "From Change Agent to Dealmaker" post. Let it be known that by no means am I an Obama apologist, and I would be lying through my teeth if I told you that I agree with everything he's done so far.
But let's address a few issues here with regards to the system "breaking" Obama. To me, the problem isn't Obama so much as it is the voting public. I'm sorry, but Americans have the exceptional quality of being the most proficient first-world demographic in terms of simultaneously bitching about their problems and voting in a manner that will either indefinitely extend or explicitly expand upon those aforementioned troubles.
Americans vote for the change candidate, but they don't want him to change too much, then they get mad that change didn't happen fast enough, then they vote for anti-change (Republicans) in the midterms, then just as things begin to improve slightly as a result of the previous change they complain about the not-enough-change again...do you see where this is going? It's ridiculous.
And you know what the worst part is? It's not African-Americans, Latinos, single mothers, poor urban residents - you know, the demographics that actually feel the impact of remaining mired in the status quo - that are wavering in their support of Obama and flopping back and forth in their opinions of the President like a flaccid elephant penis on a breezy summer afternoon.
No, it's us - the educated, the academic, the white, the male, the atheist, the cafeteria-Catholic, the farmer, the lawyer, the Jewish, the elderly, the middle-aged, the unrealistically nostalgic - it's us that are holding America back.
Oh sure, there will always be the inbred-backwoods social-issues hypocritical knuckle-dragging conservatives amongst us. And we can blame them for a lot - but you know what? Those Paleolithic australopithecines didn't stay at home during the midterms in 2010. They got their asses in gear and voted for the "change" they believed in - for better or for worse.
And don't act like we progressives aren't at fault to some degree. We are the intellectual vanguard of our great nation...yet it seems as if we forget exactly how broken the system has become. We want Obama to stand firm on this. To not cave on that. To show some spine on this. To hold his ground on that.
But when push comes to shove, and Obama makes a compromise - God forbid that compromise include Republican demands - we swarm to criticise him like flies on hot shit. Healthcare reform? "No, not good enough, should've kept the public option". Tax cuts? "Oh, I guess it's neat that families on unemployment continue to get checks...but the fat cats are still getting theirs! Unacceptable." Budget reform? "Hm, good job on keeping our economy from cratering and military families from missing checks...but I'm miffed about these cuts." And in doing so, we totally forget to praise - or at the very least, commend - him for the positive aspects of the deal that he struck.
Look, I can't stand the far-right wing of the Republican party. But do you know what they are? Unified as shit. They don't know what they want, but they sure as hell know what they don't want, and they're willing to put aside personal preferences and differences in order to advance their cause and their candidate to the fullest extent of their ability. Yeah, we're a big-tent party, sure - maybe we can't agree on a specific political endgame. But hell, I've stared into the vacant eyes of death and seen the horror of a Michele Bachmann presidency - that's a strong enough "don't want" for me, and if it isn't for you; then maybe you have some self-reevaluating to do.
Don't get me started on progressives - shit, we can't even agree on how we think the President's doing, let alone make full use our seemingly limitless intellectual capital to champion his cause instead of second-guessing our President at every turn. It's insane.
And don't let a Republican win a close race - oh, lawdy. Nader got around 98,000 votes in Florida in 2000, and we lost that state by a scant 537 votes. Now if you can sit here and tell me with a straight face that only 536 of those 98,000 votes were "protest votes" from progressives or liberals or environmental activists, then I got a whole heap of prime Nebraska beach property I'd like to interest you in. Impractical progressivism - and by that I mean progressive ideology that disregards immediacy and reality for childish idealism - lost the Democratic party the 2000 race.
"Oh, but look at how unfair the recount was! Bush's brother was governor! It was rigged! Votes were flushed! We were robbed!" Yeah, we can say that - the refs gave some calls in favor of the opposing side.
But we missed our free throws, y'all. Goddamn, we missed our free throws.
The ideology and demographics of our country are gradually shifting in our favor. White people are getting old and not having kids. Legal Hispanics are having legal children. Kids are going to college. People are getting ever-so-slightly more cognizant about "socialism" being a pretty damn good deal and not the Russian bogeyman that FoxNews has made it out to be.
But the process is slow, it is ponderous, it is there but not quite there yet; coming but not yet here. We must unify as a base and lead our party to not just victory, but decisive victory in 2012; lest we repeat the mistakes of 2010 and see our country fall to even more harm.