Okay, I admit it. I've been on a bit of an anti-Obama tear these last few days (as my diaries clearly reflect). I guess I just keep hoping that if enough people who once supported him express their displeasure at his lack of, well, gumption, a light will dawn and he'll finally understand that when we elected him we weren't looking for a Conciliator In Chief.
Not that conciliation isn't a good thing to strive for. It is, providing that everyone involved is acting in good faith. After three years of earnest though one-sided attempts on Mr. Obama's part, I think we can all agree that the Republicans aren't the least bit interested in conciliation, they're only interested in total capitulation, both "c" words that our President seems to be confusing.
Obama's continued, but totally unjustified belief that his proffers of compromise and conciliation will one day be returned by a GOP who is bent on destroying his presidency is really kind of sweet. And if only we had elected him as the nation's Pastor we could stand by in reverential admiration at his willingness to once again turn the other cheek.
But we elected him to look out for Main Street and the middle class and to protect the social safety net that Republicans have been desperately trying to destroy since the days of FDR and the New Deal. Now, for the first time in 70 years, they're actually making headway because our president wants to show the world that he can work with Republicans no matter how self-serving, corrupt, unfeeling, insane and dishonest they may be.
Worse, he's using as his justification the fact that Lincoln didn't free all the slaves with the great emancipation act. Lincoln allowed the slave-owning states that were part of the Union a waiver so they didn't defect to the other side. An interesting fact, but I suggest, Mr. President, you put down your books on Lincoln and move to a more modern time and applicable situation. Try studying FDR, who in the middle of an economic disaster similar to the one we're in now, plus a World War to run, managed to create jobs and deliver security and old-age protection to Americans that we rely on to this day. He too had to deal with recalcitrant Republicans, but he stood up to them, he didn't keep whittling down his programs in the hope they would finally go along.
History is a good thing to study, but only if the lessons you take from it are the right ones. Rather than emulating Lincoln's not really doing the right thing in order to keep the Union together, model FDR who commanded such fear and respect as a president, they had to pass the 25th Amendment to keep any other president from being that powerful again.