I've thought a great deal about what would constitute a great Democratic President and it really comes down to a few things.
War with Republicans - I know there are some of you out there who believe that compromise is necessary when dealing with the other side but I can't possibly understand what world you live in. The reality, as I know it and most people do, is that Republicans are as close to domestic terrorists as we are likely to find in everyday life. The don't give one solitary shit about any of us. Their policies are purely the result of negotiations with their largest donors. Anyone who doesn't already have a job or healthcare or a healthy child, parent or sibling to take care of can drop dead. Truly drop dead.
My dream candidate would crush every republican initiative before it even has the chance to be proposed. He will tell the country that the bottom 20% who support people like Rick Perry and Michelle Bachmann are not true Americans but a close relative of Neo-nazis. He will bully his agenda (which is 75% of this country's agenda even though some out there are loathe to admit it) into law the same way GWB and his cadre of assholes did for their vocal minority for eight years. He will leave people like Eric Cantor on the outskirts of every negotiation that takes place - and make a point of letting the country know exactly how divisive, un-American and callous people like him are. If Cantor balks? Well, my candidates PR machine will destroy him like Bush's did on people like Joe Wilson, Scott Ritter and others.
War with the Conservative Rich - He will push into law a tax on the top 1% and tell those making millions who decide to complain that they can go cry in their soup. Their complaints will go completely unanswered and a list of complainers will be posted online for everyone to see if they decide to continue their tirade. They are free to say what they want, of course, but the public is also free to know exactly who's saying what, who their clients are and what efforts the public can make to boycott the businesses of these people.
War with his own party - My dream candidate will take Harry Reid into a back room and tell him in no uncertain terms that his milktoast personality and inability to stand firm on ANYTHING will not be tolerated anymore. If Reid complains once again that he doesn't answer to any President, my dream President will clock in one in the mouth. Reid's an ex boxer. He can take it.
As for anyone else in our party who decides to deviate from the company line (which is, once again, 75% of the country's beliefs) they will become pariahs of the party. My President will campaign against them with candidates who do have the intestinal fortitude to go up against the republicans and flatten anyone who thinks republicans can be reasoned with.
He will tell Wall Street to go fuck itself like 99% of the country has (to mostly deaf ears from Washington). He will give the health insurance companies ultimatums on lowering their coverage or do everything in his power to put them out of business. He will call a liar a liar and a racist a racist. He will not mince words. He will follow through. He will never EVER say that he underestimated the opposition.
My dream candidate does not exist, unfortunately. There is no one with enough guts in our party (short of Alan Grayson) who can even stand up verbally to the republicans let alone follow through on even a modicum of what this country voted for and expects of their politicians. Instead, we have a democratic party made of weaklings, compromisers, sellouts and fools. Our opposition, on the other hand, is made up of bullies, stubborn assholes, sellouts, racists and ignorant, angry idiots.
Am I being too harsh? In my opinion, I'm not being harsh enough.
Obama has been a huge disappointment. Beyond a disappointment. This man has squandered a historic opportunity to pull us back to the true middle of what this country is. Because of his weakness, naivete and need to be liked (by the very people who want to destroy him) he has made valid the beliefs of people who would have this country become a throwback to the mid 1800s in terms of wealth and poverty. Whether intentional or accidental, he has not been the President any of us needed.
Sure. There are those of you who want to support this man unconditionally and will vilify me for even suggesting that he's not as promising as he claimed to be in the last election. There are others who will say it is unproductive to act this way when the republicans are at war with us. There are a few who will tell me to shut up, vote for Obama and hope for a small scrap of what he promised as if that is all we're due, if anything.
But there might also be others out there like me who are so fed up we're about to burst. So completely finished with the system in place that we cannot contain our anger at those who got us there. So salivating for true revenge (yes, revenge) against the party and the 20% who destroyed the great opportunities we had over the last 13 years in order to spend all their energies filling the pockets of lobbyists, give Wall Street the ability to take all our hard-earned money and employing anyone who could blockade any good deeds that decent people and honest elected officials could possibly do for any of us who need it.
I voted for Barack Obama in 2008. I will never vote republican. But I will also not shut my mouth about what is really problematic with out system simply to quell the few who feel it's best to keep opposing voices down for fear that the our weak political figures might have to account for their weaknesses.
WE ACTUALLY DESERVE BETTER THAN THESE PEOPLE. AND THEY NEED TO KNOW IT IN NO UNCERTAIN TERMS. PERIOD.