I am sitting here watching President Obama for whom I still have some affection, and facing up to the fact that not only has my disappointment with his lack of any progressive ideas to at least try and turn around the economy reached a climax, but that my feelings are not in any way shape or form isolated.
My brother and I seem to evolve at about the same pace with regard to our political and socio-economic views and I was rather surprised to hear him recently say, "fuck Obama" especially as I had just recently found myself saying the same thing when watching or listening to the President.
I think the turning point was after watching the President capitulate on the unnecessary debacle that was the debt ceiling... ...well, debacle and the President going back to basically rehash his same old rhetoric for which he has never once fought and I thought "give me a fucking break!"
As a black man, and a Kenyan at that, who was so utterly proud to be able to support seemingly the best candidate for president who also happened to be a black man in 2008 it pains me to no end that these are now my feelings for the first ever African American president.
However, the constant attacks on the very progressives who worked hard to elect Mr. Obama coupled with his capitulation and unwillingness to fight or put his neck on the line for absolutely any single progressive measure has left me feeling simply dejected and finding it difficult to continue my support for Obama.
I put my neck on the line for this guy canvassing, fundraising for his campaign and registering voters, sleeping on cold hard campaign office floors in strange cities and most of all knocking on doors in scary places in PA and VA, some of which we met people who referred to the President as "that N***r" and we hoped that they didn't notice that we actually happened to look like the object of their apparent scorn and disdain!
President Obama has refused to similarly put his political neck on the line for me, pushing Democrats to extend the Bush taxcuts in Dec of 2010 during the lame duck session, fighting against the very public option that was his own idea, and finally and most of all capitulating on the debt ceiling fight going along with Rethugs and buying their argument hook line and sinker about deficits!
He has shunned every single progressive economist as well as politician surrounding himself with only the most conservative of the Clinton centrists, refusing to fight against Wall Street or demand that they spend the 2 Trillion they are now sitting on for job creation, and perpetuating Rethug talking points about tax cuts for job creation and deficits - all this at a time when every single economist including Alan Greenspan is arguing for more government spending!
The worst for me is the very fact that Obama's pushing of Dems to extend the Bush taxcuts, at a time when they absolutely could have shown some courage and let them expire, is the very reason why we are faced with the budget shortfalls we now face, leaving states broke, having to cut teachers', police and other public workers' jobs and adding to the worsening unemployment crisis. And yes, I know that extending unemployment insurance was part of that deal, and certainly after that deal we will need that extension! I am of the view that had Obama rather than fighting to extend UI, fought instead for infrastracture spending like they did in China (remember China faced the crisis in 2008 as well) we would have emereged with a recovery that would have included job growth!
Now, I did attend the London School of Economics, but I am no economist, but this seems to me like a pretty clear and obvious cause and effect kind of situation. The Bush tax cuts are bad for the economy! We cannot continue to allow Rethugs to raid the treasury and expect the government to function and serve it's people. The government has to be the spender of last resort in a downturn, and without the Bush/Obama taxcuts, both the federal and state governments would have been exactly that. But under Obama's taxcuts for the wealthy, the government has been left broke and unable to be that spender of last resort. If American companies who are sitting on 3 trillion in cash are not hiring right now, exactly how many more trillions in taxcuts does he think it's going to take to make them start hiring?
To quote one of the President's own oft used quotations, "insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result" We have had Rethuglican tax cutting treasury raiding for 10 years and the result has been 13 million jobs lost! How many more millions of jobs lost is it going to take before Obama realizes that tax cuts do not lead to job creation?!
I just don't see how the President recovers. Progressives are chorusing that oft repeated mantra "Fuck Him" just a little too often and I just don't see how President Obama can say anything at this point that would change my mind about him. His words mean nothing at this point and he is self fulfilling that Rethug prophesy that he was all speeches and no action! It is clear that he has no new ideas and even if he had them, he would clearly not fight for them, instead complaining about congress and the Rethuglicans.
Even his complaints about Rethugs ring hollow to me at this point. The President's constant whining about Rethugs would leave you thinking that all former presidents just went up to the opposition and asked them nicely to pass their legislation, and that is simply not the case! Every President has had to fight for every single bold measure that they ever passed. Can you imagine President Obama fighting for a Civil Rights bill?! Nope, me neither! Can you picture Lincoln the man he liked to think of himself as emulating capitualting on his convictions? FDR? Give me a break Mr. President, with all due respect!