For many years now, our middle class has been hammered. People feel like the system is rigged against them. And they're right. The system is rigged. Look around. Oil companies take billions in subsidies. Billionaires pay lower tax rates than the poor. Wall Street Banksters who wrecked our economy and destroyed millions of jobs walk around Congress acting like they own the joint.
More below the fold.
Unlike the democrats, the Republicans want to give tax cuts to millionaires, and raise the taxes on the poor and middle class. They want to give billions in breaks to corporations and prevent new financial reform, destroy medicare, and kill health care reform. The Republican vision is clear: "I've got mine, the rest of you are on your own." Republicans say they don't believe in government. Sure they do. They believe in government to help themselves and their powerful friends. After all, they’re the one who say corporations are people.
And that republican vision for America matters. It matters because we don't run this country for corporations, we run it for people. And that's why we need Obama.
Obama believes in a level playing field. He believes in a country where nobody gets a free ride or a golden parachute. He believes in a country where anyone who has a great idea has a chance to build a business, and anyone who works hard can provide for their family. He believes in a country where the rich pay their taxes and where women get equal pay for equal work. He believes in a country where everyone is held accountable. He believes in a country where we invest in education, in infrastructure, and in science.
That's what Obama believes. And that’s why I support Obama, and oppose the republicans.
Say this is all the ramblings of an apologist, but I think everyone here knows I am a good progressive.
Major Update
OK, I admit it. I am being a bit of dick in my own diary. Yes, this was a trap. It was intentional flame-bait, though it looks like the diary posted right after mine was a far better pie attractor. "My diary" was in fact a truncated and edited version of Elizabeth Warren's speech at the 2012 Democratic Convention. My "editing," for the most part, was to remove the lines that people might remember, and frankly to reduce the quality of the writing till it sounded as bad as my own (I mean seriously, Warren's really smart and has great speechwriters to boot. No way anyone was gonna buy that the real text was written by me.) If you want to compare my version to hers, I've posted it below.
So why did I do this? I am not trying to say that because Warren endorsed Obama, every other progressive must endorse him too. That's everybody's personal call. My point is this. As of writing this update, about 50% of the folks (12 yes, 11 no) think I--or more accurately Elizabeth Warren--is an apologist for Obama (I freely admit that 23 votes is not representative of DKos as a whole). Now if someone truly thinks that Warren is an apologist for Obama, you just had your views confirmed in a blind taste test--congratulations. But I am guessing that many here who thought I was an apologist, love Warren.
So what gives? Why is it that Warren is a progressive hero, but the same words said by another is evidence of the lack of true progressive vision? To be clear, I love Warren, I love her policies, and I would happily vote for her--just as I, and she, happily voted for Obama. Warren is a solid, left-leaning democrat--a bit to the right of me (I mean seriously, some of the praise of Obama goes a bit far.)
My point here is that many folks seem to have their apologist detectors set a bit too high. More so, I frequently hear the claim that I voted for hope, but got Obama. Whatever else, judging by the words of Warren--seemingly viewed as hopelessly 3rd way Obama/Clinton crap by at least some here--I think many folks may be putting a bit too much hope into progressive heroes like Warren. She's great, but she ain't what y'all think she is.
So, there you go. I love Warren, would love to vote for her for President, even though she is a bit to the right of me. Am I an apologist? Are you? Or maybe, perhaps, we might accept that almost all here on DKos are fairly far on the left side of the democratic party--and perhaps we should start really thinking before lobbing terms around.
As promised, here are the excerpts from Warren's speech that I extracted and butchered.
But for many years now, our middle class has been chipped, squeezed, and hammered. Talk to the construction worker I met from Malden, Massachusetts, who went nine months without finding work. Talk to the head of a manufacturing company in Franklin trying to protect jobs but worried about rising costs. Talk to the student in Worcester who worked hard to finish his college degree, and now he's drowning in debt. Their fight is my fight, and it's Barack Obama's fight too.
snip
People feel like the system is rigged against them. And here's the painful part: they're right. The system is rigged. Look around. Oil companies guzzle down billions in subsidies. Billionaires pay lower tax rates than their secretaries. Wall Street CEOs—the same ones who wrecked our economy and destroyed millions of jobs—still strut around Congress, no shame, demanding favors, and acting like we should thank them.
And Mitt Romney? He wants to give tax cuts to millionaires and billionaires. But for middle-class families who are hanging on by their fingernails? His plans will hammer them with a new tax hike of up to 2,000 dollars. Mitt Romney wants to give billions in breaks to big corporations—but he and Paul Ryan would pulverize financial reform, voucher-ize Medicare, and vaporize Obamacare.
The Republican vision is clear: "I've got mine, the rest of you are on your own." Republicans say they don't believe in government. Sure they do. They believe in government to help themselves and their powerful friends. After all, Mitt Romney's the guy who said corporations are people.
snip
President Obama believes in a level playing field. He believes in a country where nobody gets a free ride or a golden parachute. A country where anyone who has a great idea and rolls up their sleeves has a chance to build a business, and anyone who works hard can build some security and raise a family. President Obama believes in a country where billionaires pay their taxes just like their secretaries do, and—I can't believe I have to say this in 2012—a country where women get equal pay for equal work.
snip (I think)
He believes in a country where everyone is held accountable. Where no one can steal your purse on Main Street or your pension on Wall Street. President Obama believes in a country where we invest in education, in roads and bridges, in science, and in the future, so we can create new opportunities, so the next kid can make it big, and the kid after that, and the kid after that. That's what president Obama believes. And that's how we build the economy of the future. An economy with more jobs and less debt. We root it in fairness. We grow it with opportunity. And we build it together.
2:15 PM PT: Just for the historical record, I updated this diary just before 01:45:17 PM PDT on Sunday, Aug 4th 2013. Comments prior to this were posted before my update.