I've been around here a LONG, LONG time - since well before the 2004 Presidential Elections. This site helped jump start me in volunteering for the first time for John Kerry. It also helped me get started with making financial donations to the Democratic Party. I remain a firm Democratic "base-voter", and will be pulling all of the "D" levers come November. No questions.
In August of 2005, I took a month off from the "Liberal Media" to spend a month with Bill O'Reilly as my only source of news - 30 Days of Ignorance. It was an exercise in viewing the world from outside of the Democratic Left Wing bubble. I have been on yet another less structured vacation from news and media in general lately. Call it burn out. What this has done, however, is give me a perspective of the Obama Presidency that is probably closer to that of the General Public's view than those of regular DailyKos readers or MSNBC aficionados. And it's not too pretty.
Compromises and concessions. That's the theme that I've pulled from the first year of Obama's Presidency. Let's look at the meanings of those terms: "COMPROMISE" is defined as 'To reduce the quality, value, or degree of something.' As Democrats negotiate compromises to the campaign promises we heard in 2008, quality and value is being lost. Synonyms of "CONCESSION" are surrender, acquiescence, and yielding. The definition is an "act of recognizing authority or truth of something." We recognize Republican and Democratic centrists authority in defining the truths surrounding our proposals, while not gaining any recognition of our own views.
We concede, we retreat, we give up and move backward over ground that we should not be relinquishing. And to what end? The Party of No still says NO. These are not displays of power or mandate - these are displays of WEAKNESS! The more these terms are thrown around, the more meek and ineffective that Democratic leadership appears. And these are terms that our own Congressmen and President throw around as if they are the moral resolutions we should be seeking! Constantly compromising and conceding have made us look WEAK!!!
We worked our butts off to give the Democrats a 60 vote mandate in the Senate, an overwhelming majority in the House AND a Democratic Presidency. What we have to show is the impotence of an intimidated and kowtowing majority. Obama hasn't even succeeded in giving a half-ass performance in my opinion - he's hovering around a quarter-assed performance. The Scott Brown election doesn't surprise me, because if Obama can't figure out how to bulldoze his convictions through with what is basically a super-majority, then why should we bother to sweat out that sixtieth vote? Why should the people of Massachusetts worry about it? Few changes occurred with 60 Democratic Senators, so what difference will it make if there are only 59? This is going to be a HUGE problem going into this November!
Obama has supposedly been tackling problems with the economy, unemployment, and healthcare. And what is there to show? The Republicans - along with a few Democrats and Joe Lieberman - have basically brought him to a standstill. Maybe things are better than they would have been, but that's hardly a strong message or strategy for seeking re-election into a strong majority. And the Republicans are not going to stop: no matter how bluntly Obama points out their duplicity, no matter how clearly we point out their stupidity, no matter how incontrovertible the facts are against them. This obviously has been and will always remain their primary strategy. Unfortunately for us it is working BRILLIANTLY! We look like fools! What are Democrats planning to do in the face of this brazen attack? Hint: showing some spine by defying the obstructionist might just impress a few of us in the disenchanted electorate.
Don't get me wrong - I LOVE the speeches that Obama gives. I LOVE the ideas he seems to support when he's actually out in the public pushing his ideals. But we don't get enough of that, and when we do, too often it is only pretty words. He disappeared for MONTHS during the Healthcare Debates. He faced off with Republicans only days ago and made them look like the hypocrites that they most certainly are. But unless he tells us how he is going to maneuver around these unmovable Republican objects soon, then nothing is going be changed. And I've seen nothing in the last twelve months to make me believe that Obama and his team sees a way around them.
As a gay man, the talk of getting rid of Don't Ask, Don't Tell fills me with hope! Then I realize that my Democrats are responsible for making it happen, and I resign myself to the probability of failure. Quarter-assed commitment. Pretty and empty promises. Shrinking Democrats who will not support our President. And a President who I expect to disappear while the media and Congress chew his message up and spit it back at him altered beyond function and recognition. I want to believe, I even USED to believe, but why should I believe any longer?
It honestly pains my heart to feel this hopeless about what we achieved at the ballet box a year and a half ago.