Dear President Obama,
I get why you didn't spend political capital on the Wisconsin recall. I don't agree with it, but I get it.
A bit of advice though... Progressives have essentially been locked into a pattern (at least since Clinton) of voting for the corporate Democrat simply because he was better than the alternative. Many of those same progressives worked their asses off for your first campaign. Their reward was to watch your administration preemptively concede virtually every single thing on the progressive agenda to congressional Republicans. No public option, no cap and trade, continued attacks on basic civil liberties, letting banks who engaged in plainly illegal foreclosure practices off the hook with a slap on the wrist, offering to cut medicare, medicaid, and social security, and by cutting government spending at a time when that spending is needed most, just to name a few.
And honestly, all of that wasn't entirely unexpected. Our political system doesn't work. It doesn't work because it vests virtually all the political power in the super rich. The candidate with the most money virtually always wins, so of course you don't want to enact many of these programs (don't bite the hand that feeds, as they say.)
But nothing shone such a bright light on our dysfunctional political system than your comments yesterday.
Here was your "base." These were the people that worked their asses off in order to get you elected President in the first place. They elected you because they felt you would stand up for THEM. They felt you would fight for the teacher, or the public administrator, or the garbage man etc...
But when those people could have used your support the most (when they were trying to recall a governor who very publicly attacked their very livelihoods) you were "too busy" giving Bon Jovi a ride on Air Force One, before a $2,500.00 per person fundraiser.
I have a feeling that there are going to be a lot of progressives who are going to end up being "too busy" to vote for your reelection, or even work for your reelection campaign.
I used to think that it was justifiable to vote for establishment Democratic politicians simply because, while they aren't great they are better than the crazy Republican alternative. I am quickly changing my belief. Establishment Democrats and Republicans are both corporatist parties. Democrats differ on social issues, because their giant corporate donors don't have money at stake in abortion or gay marriage. Democrats use this to put on a great show about caring about regular Americans, but they don't. They are simply socially liberal corporatist Republicans. And while I appreciate the stance on marriage equality, it's easily cancelled out by the corporatist economic and foreign policy.
Sincerely, a former Obama supporter,
J. Olson