Before I get started, let me get one thing out of the way. Assuming 1) I don't drop dead and 2) the Repubs don't nominate a progressive liberal as their Presidential candidate, I will be casting a ballot for Barack Obama in 2012.
That being said, we on the Left are in a conundrum. Despite unprecedented in (most of) our lifetime(s) majorities in the Senate and House, and a popular, charismatic President, elected with a broad mandate to do a 180 on Washington, we're getting the same old, same old.
The performance of the Democratic Party in the past ten months has been nothing short of pathetic. Let's break it down...
- The Bailout: Yes, it was needed. I understand that. But, we can't just give Wall Street $700 billion dollars and leave the system that created the problem untouched. But that's exactly what the administration is doing. When Obama replaced his campaign economic team with Geithner & Summers, any shot at reforming Wall Street went out the window.
- The Stimulus: The administration was on the right track with this, until someone in the West Wing decided that it just HAD to have bi-partisan support (which wasn't necessary to get the damn thing enacted). In order the get Darlin' Arlen (pre-party reassignment surgery) and Laverne and Shirley (R-ME)aboard, the Stimulus package had to be gutted and a bunch of counterproductive tax cuts substituted in. Net result; a weak-assed stimulus that isn't even beginning to put a dent on our jobless rate.
- Healthcare Reform: When the Obama administration decided to tackle HCR, the decision was made to back-burner all other domestic priorities, and put their eggs into this particular basket. I have no problems with this thinking given the magnitude of the task. In addition, taking note of the mistakes made when the Clinton Administration didn't sufficiently include Congress in the policy formulation, Obama decided to let Congress take the lead. Again, I have no problem with that decision.
The problems began when the administration gave away single payer for nothing other than as a show of good faith to the Republicans. Given that, by now, we had definitive proof that every single Republican holding office in this country is an anti-American dick, this was an example of playing checkers while everyone else was playing chess.
Nevertheless, with the PUBLIC OPTION, Obama felt he had a reasonable compromise position that would have the support of all Democrats and a handful of Republicans. If you remember President Obama's speeches over the late spring into the summer, the PUBLIC OPTION, was THE centerpiece of his HCR package. It's what provided the cost containment and made mandating coverage both politically and morally viable. With the framework of the PUBLIC OPTION/mandates/and a ban on pre-existing conditions in place, President Obama felt confident that he could get HCR done prior to the August recess. What happens next is an American Tragedy.
Over the years, the health insurance industry has been paying off both Republicans and Democrats, in preparation for the battle ahead. However, with the overall reasonableness of what Obama was proposing combined with his massive popularity, it was going to be tough for George Bush Democrats like Ben Nelson, Tom Carper, etc. to stand up to the administration without looking like complete corporate pawns. Enter the teabaggers...
In reality, what we're dealing with is a fringe of the fringe. Borderline sociopaths of limited intelligence who couldn't deal with the rejection of Bushism, especially when that rejection took the form of a charismatic black man with an African/Muslim name. What they lacked in actual numbers was more than compensated by a complete lack of decorum with violent underpinnings; all of it amplified by the FOX noise machine.
Disappointingly, the non-FOX media treated these fringe wack jobs as a legitimate mass movement. The credibility the MSM bestowed upon them, though, gave the BushDems exactly what they needed: COVER.
With the illusion of a mass anti-HCR movement, BushDems could now "credibly" claim to the asleep at the wheel MSM, that they couldn't support HCR with a public option because their constituents back home were teabagging each other with extreme prejudice.
The actual job of making the public option sleep with the fishes was left to BushDem Max Baucus, a recipient of over $3 mil in healthcare industry money. Baucus, the chair of the powerful Finance Committee, first moved to eliminate the Democrats electoral advantage by creating the Gang of Six, a group of 3 bought and paid for BushDems (himself, Kunt Conrad and Jeff Bingaman) and 3 morally bankrupt Republicans (Enzi, Grassley, and Snowe).
The screw job put forth by Baucus would not escape the attention of a newly re-energized progressive movement, but the White House remained strangely silent. While progressives geared up for battle, the White House began to subtly de-emphasize the public option while HHS Secretary Sebelius and the odious Rahm Emanuel would drop trial balloons suggesting that the White House just wanted something named "Health Care Reform" passed regardless of substance.
The White House wasn't truly prepared to tip its hand, and each trial balloon was quickly followed by reassuring words. But as the process went on, it seemed every time the White House had an opportunity to lean on the BushDems to fall in line, they demurred. Instead, pressure was being applied to the very progressives who were fighting the hardest to realize the vision President Obama himself had laid out.
Slowly but surely, it was becoming clear that instead of the CHANGE we fought for, it was going to be business as usual. Now, I'm a grown man, and understand that President Obama wasn't going to walk into Washington, wave a magic wand and have DC suddenly work on the level. But, like so many of you, Barack Obama had given me hope than DC could be something more than a toxic cesspool.
That hope has been dashed against the rocks. The man's complete refusal to fight for the vision he so eloquently lays out in his speeches, has been profoundly disillusioning.
I guess the most depressing thing is it doesn't seem to matter how many Democrats we elect; once they're elected, they find corporate sources of funding and the grass roots can go pound sand.
I'm 100% certain there are a number of Progressives who feel the same way I do. We have no desire to throw up our hands and concede defeat, but we're at a loss as to how to proceed.
I didn't write this diary as flame bait, but to honestly express why I am underwhelmed by what I've seen so far.
Those who cheerlead every move the President makes infuriate me, but I honestly would like to hear what substantial accomplishments (ie. not awards or speeches)I've overlooked that should restore my faith in the direction we're headed.