I'm 63 years old. I was in 10th grade geometry class when Kennedy was killed. People I went to high school with were killed in Vietnam. I've lived on the edge of the midwest, in New England, in the south, and on the west coast. I canvassed for McGovern and donated to Dean. I went to college at night while raising my kids and working a full-time job. I've been an entrepreneur and run a small business. I've worked for a defense contractor. I raise hay. I am an American. I am being betrayed by the man who seemingly represented our best hope to get our country back, and by his administration. I've run out of anti-depressants to try, and this business of meeting the other side halfway so they can drag you another good piece further is the last straw.
Under GWB, we thought we were living inside some crazy funhouse mirror of a country where everything we knew was distorted and twisted to the right. With Obama's election, we thought we'd get our vision back again. Instead, the twisting continues unabated and this President does not seem capable of really standing up for the majority of the people of the United States. I don't know why, but I do know what I see, and what I see is a sellout. A sellout on Wall Street crimes, a sellout on economic justice, a sellout on the militarization of America, a sellout on climate change, even by God a sellout on civil rights.
He's bought into every frame that the Rethuglicans have put up. He's offered no frames of his own, no frames of OUR own, to counter them. He's trying to win by fighting on THEIR turf. The results are agonizing and painful. But he is too smart for this to be an accident.
I know it's not just me. I read people I've trusted for years like Frank Rich and Matt Taibbi. I read people who have the knowledge and experience to know what could be possible, like Robert Reich and Paul Krugman.
Enough is enough. We need to stop sitting here like sheep and stand up for ourselves.
Because it sure is certain now that this President, even with poll numbers of more than 70% of the people on our side, will not stand up for us. To put the best spin on it, he seems to mistake caving for compromise. The pain it causes me to say that is actually physical, I've been tied up in knots for days. But we have to admit it. He is not who we thought he was.