I am an idealist about social issues but when it comes to economics and foreign policy I am a pragmatist. So, you'll find me pushing for gay rights and justice for victims of domestic abuse. But you'll also find me supporting compromise and consensus when it comes to economics and with a lot of understanding and patience when it comes to foreign policy. So, that is where I am coming from when I say this.
President Obama, fight already, will ya! The House just set you up for a spike on YOUR middle class tax cuts but you not only didn't spike the ball you caught it and then handed it back to the other side to make the next move. What. The. Hell.
President Obama, I don't want you wasting your time fighting with the Republicans every time they try to bait you into a fight. You are the President not the head of the DNC. So, I am happy that you stay above the fray most of the time. And you have done amazing work for the last two years and I am damn happy and damn proud of you.
But once in a while you have a situation where it's not just about you being baited into a fight that is beneath you. The Republicans are not just trying to take you down by kicking your ass on these tax cuts. They are trying to take our whole party down and they don't care if they drag the country down with us too.
This isn't "you lie" this time. Where you shrug it off and calmly say "that's not true". This time they have walked up on stage and they are pushing you up against a wall like the bullies they are. Stop letting them do this. Not just for you but for all of us.
I don't want you to be Captain Progressive all the time but for goodness sakes don't let the Republicans prove to the whole country that Democrats are the party of sissies by getting away with treating you like their bitch. We are already the party of responsible parents who come in and clean up after the other party's out of control frat parties. But we don't have to be the pushover parents. We should be the ass kicking parents who grab the brats by the collar and force their asses into line.
I like you a lot, President Obama. I respect that you stick with your strengths and I appreciate that you have the balls to do it despite how many people want you to change strategy because you know that you know how to win your way and you won't risk trying it a way that you don't think you can win.
But this is not about just winning the policy on this one. The House got between you and the Republicans and they gave you the room you need to run this one to the end zone but you didn't run it. I know that you have your plans but for fuck's sake your plan isn't the only plan every time. The House just kicked mighty ass today and you let it all go for nothing. And yeah, you'll get the middle class their tax cuts and yeah, you'll do it so that there's still time for dadt but you could have run with this and gotten more. I don't know about everyone else but my taxes go up if you don't get the middle class tax cuts through but I could have lived with that if in exchange I got to watch you spike those mother fucking Republicans off the House's set up.
You don't have to fight all the time. But when you get set up like this on this big of a conflict between your party and the other party you gotta go with the moment and, as someone here wrote in a comment yesterday, get into the fray with us.
UPDATE:
What is fight on this one? Fight is making the Republicans VOTE NO instead of just threatening it. And then trumpeting that NO from the bully pulpit from here until the 2012 elections.