Here’s my list of the things sapping my once great enthusiasm for the Obama Administration and the Democratic Party:
- No prosecution of admitted torturers. No torturer has been disbarred, kicked from their profession or locked up.
- No serious investigations of the financial collapse that laid blame and revealed names.
- No investigation of how America was lied into the Iraq War.
- No healthcare reform. Forced to buy insurance from corporations with a proven track record of lying, denying coverage, and using every loophole and ambiguity to screw us over. This is health INSURANCE reform. Most Americans did not want that; they wanted a public option which they did not get. Being forced to pay an insurance firm when you almost know they will screw you out of every penny makes those on the left and on the right infuriated (viz the vote in Missouri)
(and the list continues--and you are asked for your list positive or negative) Do you think this list is unreasonable for a Democrat to want addressed by a Democratic President and Democratic controlled House and Senate? List continues over the fold . .
- No closure of Guantanamo. Continued special renditions. Robot bombing across international borders. International rule of law severely damaged and not repaired. And how on earth can any American citizen be targeted for death without trial?
- No investigation of the politicization of the Justice Department and other federal hiring. The Bushbots have burrowed deeply into the federal bureaucracy and no one has been held accountable for partisan hiring.
- No investigation into voter fraud by Republican state officials, systematic disenfranchisement and electronic vote manipulation. Instead, ACORN dismantled with the complicity of Democratic leadership and members of Congress.
- No real action on the biggest threat facing the planet and the future of humanity: anthropogenic climate change. (Yes, more money for “green” energy and issues than ever, but in light of the magnitude of the threat, this is like equipping the police with cap guns and whistles.)
- No card check. No defense of unions. No push for unionization. No realization that Republicans have targeted public sector unions and are in the middle of an all out assault on them in hopes of collapsing the public sector altogether.
- No immigration reform.
- No administration support for changing the filibuster roadblock in the Senate.
- No real strong stance for Net Neutrality.
- No hard hitting investigation of BP. Instead, the worst oil blowout in history has supposedly done little damage and investigation has been all but halted (scientists are struggling for funds to map and follow the damage).
- Appointment of a commission on deficit reduction that appears clearly biased toward still more and deeper cuts in the already tattered and inadequate social safety net rather than revenue enhancements.
- Inadequate financial reform that many experts state flatly will not prevent a recurrence of a financial collapse. Worse, what was passed is now the Democrat’s to own. And when it fails, Republicans will blame Democrats and regulation for the failure.
- Inadequate educational reform predicated on funding testing and other types of Republican “reforms” meant to undercut public schools and destroy teacher unions. (See the excellent diaries on this by teacherken)
- A wildly inadequate stimulus bill, knowingly left inadequate (nearly half went to tax breaks, which are not stimulative in the present employment collapse). Democrats appear willing to tolerate the highest level of unemployment since the Great Depression. There should be screaming from Democrats about jobs and unemployment from every Hill and holler in America. Instead, we hear echoes from Democrats of every Republican meme. WE DID NOT VOTE FOR AND DO NOT WANT REPUBLICAN LITE.
- Putting or keeping Republicans in office and promoting and retaining officials who have manifestly failed to do their jobs well. (Geithner, Summers, many others). Not putting people like Elizabeth Warren, Volker, Stiglitz and Krugman in charge.
- Administration officials constantly attacking those on the left who worked hard for them and in the main, fleeing from or even legitimating right wing attacks. Breitbart, putting Fox News in the front row of the White House press room, like it was a legitimate “fair and balanced” news source, for example.
Yes, I do appreciate all the things Obama and the Democrats have done, but many of their efforts have died in the Senate or been watered down nearly to pointlessness and certainly to inadequacy. I read Blackwaterdog’s diaries and I try desperately to find sunshine when and where it breaks through the dark clouds over our future and our country. Some really important things to me have not been attempted at all (torture investigations, for example). The Obama Administration has spent far too much time and effort courting Republicans who hate them and given far too many kicks in the teeth to progressives who desperately want Obama and the Democrats to succeed. We want him to succeed but cannot for the life of us figure out why he doesn’t recognize who his friends and enemies really are.
I will vote for progressive democrats in the primaries. I will support progressive democrats with money and GOTV efforts. But I will NOT be voting for so-called democrats like Blanche Lincoln or Ben Nelson. I will not lift a finger for a blue dog democrat. I will not support ANY Democratic Party organ that distributes its funds to blue dog democrats. I will vote for but not provide money or effort to a Democratic Party candidate in my district or state who is heavily supported by corporate interests and who does not actively seek union support and endorsement, but I will seek any and every opportunity to encourage a progressive primary challenger to them at every opportunity. I will not vote for a blue dog democrat. Not now. Not ever. I will support a challenge to Obama in the primaries if a credible progressive candidate like Al Franken stands. If Obama stands again and survives a primary challenge from the left, I will vote for him, but the 3 tee-shirts I have with his portrait on them are in the drawer and there they will stay until I see some of the REAL CHANGE I worked and paid and voted for. (See the list above. Window dressing will not do. Half measures will not do.)
Call me a leftist if you want but you will be wrong. My first vote was for Richard Nixon; a vote I regret now. But my family origins are in the Republican Party before Lincoln was a Republican. I was proud to describe myself once as a Mark Hatfield or Eisenhower Republican. But I never voted Republican once Reagan and his partisans took over the party and began to attack government, undermine governance and defraud the treasury. I never will vote Republican again because these people who call themselves Republican today are Dixiecrats and racists, not Lincoln or Eisenhower Republicans. They are theocrats not democrats or constitutionalists. Their attack on the 14th amendment to the Constitution ripped the mask off their face, and it is the face of the KKK. I know who my enemy is whatever they call themselves. But please, will the Democrats figure out just who are their friends?
Please don’t give me happy talk about how any Democrat is better than a Republican (that is true prima facie) or attack me as naive and a dirty hippy. I remember Lyndon Johnson well. I teach public policy at a graduate level. I grew up a yankee in the south during the civil rights struggles. I have been a union member and blue collar worker, but I am not now poor, even close to it. I understand finance, investment, and have been on the sharp edge of fighting for democracy in China and lived there over 20 years. I couldn’t give a damn about pandering to someone. I am no troll for either left or right or any other direction. But I feel Gibbs and this Administration and far too many Democratic members of House and Senate are either intimidated by or deceived by or in cahoots with those who do not have the best interests of the people of the United States in the forefront of their concerns. And I have a long list of very real and very serious issues that this Democratic dominated House, Senate and Presidency have just not addressed or addressed very inadequately. I believe that my grievances are great and the satisfaction given so far has been much less than promised or possible.
So if you agree with the general thrust of this diary, please list your concerns that have not been addressed. If you disagree, list and detail those Democratic accomplishments you believe outweigh my unaddressed or inadequately addressed concerns. Make an argument and a case, don’t just sling insults and call names.
Thanks for participation and I'm looking forward to being either corrected or corroborated. Do you think this list is unreasonable for a Democrat to want addressed by a Democratic President and Democratic controlled House and Senate?