When President Obama ran for the democratic nomination he won by negotiation. He let his opponents make the mistakes, while he took the road of arguing he would bring about change. Guess what, change, happens. President Obama titled his book The Audacity of Hope. Who does not hope? What is the audacity of hope? The the title sure sounds nice, but what does the title mean. The answer is nothing. There are no principles in change and hope.
Go back to President Obama's 2004 democratic convention keynote address. The address sure sounded nice. Did the address do anything to help John Kerry get elected? Instead of focusing on John Kerry's strengths as a leader, the address focused on only one thing, making President Obama into a national figure. But what were the principles in the speech? There were none.
Turns out that President Obama raised everyone's hope for change and was elected. Some of the people who elected President Obama hoped he was not President Bush. Well, we still have troops fighting in two wars. We still are in a terrible economic slump. The health care bill was a big give away to industry. We are still not prosecuting war crimes. We sure are not doing anything to promote peace between the West Bank / Gaza Strip and Israel. North Korea is a worse problem. Global warming is proceeding faster than ever. The banks may yet again need another bail out. China is still fucking us. Financial regulatory reform is almost laughable. The rich are ballooning in wealth, while the poor are more impoverished than ever.
Is there any wonder that people voted to remove power from democrats in the house? Yes it is a wonder that the senate did not go republican. Only because republicans nominated some extremely stupid candidates for the senate were democrats able to maintain control of the senate.
The power of the purse lies in the house. President Obama's hope is that he can appear reasonable to voters while the republicans screw themselves with the power of the purse. The republicans may very well screw themselves, but then again they may end up screwing President Obama and the democrats. Take for example tax cuts. Republicans are insisting that before they vote on anymore legislation in the senate, the tax cuts for everyone must be extended, end of discussion. Tax cuts for the middle class alone may never come to a vote in the senate. Who will get the blame? Democrats will get the blame. Why? The reason is simple, because the republicans did not get there way.
The media has changed since the days of President Clinton. Fox news will blame democrats for everything. Fox news is a for profit political organization that uses their voice to get whatever Rupert Murdoch and Robert Ailes want. Fox news and other organs of the Murdoch media empire blast away at the public. Because the Murdoch Media Empire is so large, other parts of the media report on Empire and the Empire gains more visibility. Bottom line, is that no matter how stupid republicans act, democrats will be blamed. If the government is shutdown, democrats will be blamed. If the START treaty isn't passed, democrats will be blamed. If President Obama is impeached, then democrats will be blamed.
Is there a solution? Sadly the solution lies with President Obama. Unfortunately the president has no principles he will fight for. Without him using the bully pulpit and press conferences to inform the public about what is happening and why, then he and the democrats will take the blame.
Yup, we are screwed. Come 2012 unemployment may well be 30% or higher. Republicans will not get the blame, democrats will. Health care costs will sky rocket. More people than ever will not have health care. China will be demanding payment on the debt. The wealthy will be living in Cancun. Global warming will be irreversible. Like Jimmy Carter, Barack Obama will be a one term president.
The president is not listening. The only change will be for the worse. Many will lose hope.
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