As a card carrying member of the Democratic Party's professional left, I have to agree with Bernie Sanders. It's time we stop sitting shiva on the dashed hopes and dreams of the Obama presidency we thought we were electing and primary the guy.
After all, the threat of a primary challenge is what keeps the Republicans in line and in lockstep, even when they know they're not acting in the best interests of the country. We need to take a page from their playbook, quit whining, stop signing on-line petitions, refrain from passing toothless resolutions, say "no thanks" to ineffectual protest marches, and do the one thing that's sure to get the president's and Democratic leadership's attention - - support a primary challenge to his re-election.
We are now three years into a presidency that promised "change we could believe in", and not only has there been no "change we could believe in" there hasn't even been moderate "change that we can semi-respect". Worse still, whenever we pathetically hold out our bowls, like Oliver Twist, and whimper "more please", we're equated with Tea Partiers and Birthers and kicked to the curb. In the famous words of former Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel "F#*k the liberals, where else are they going to go?"
Well, I think it's time we show this administration, who in comparison, is starting to make the Clinton administration look like commie pinkos, we have somewhere else to go and it's to a more progressive candidate who will challenge Obama's go along to get along, risk averse, sell-out approach to presidential leadership.
It is no accident that the personal attacks on Obama from the other side have virtually ceased over the last several months. Republicans have gotten very wise to the fact that he not only is no threat to all they hold dear, he is actually helping them further their agenda. Meanwhile, we progressives who elected him stand on the sidelines wringing our hands and moaning about our disappointment. It would be one thing if the President had tried and failed to deliver on his campaign promises of protecting the middle-class, elderly and poor, ridding Washington or corrosive special interests, restoring meaningful regulations on banks and financial institutions, ending our involvement in senseless wars and putting our economy back on track. But the sad truth is, he caved in to the opposition before negotiations even started on every single one of the above issues, with the exception of the issue of senseless wars. That one he seems to be mismanaging all on his own.
I don't know who our progressive challenger will be yet, but I know that he or she is out there waiting to be found and encouraged to join the fray. It's the only hope we have of shaking up Mr. Obama and Democratic establishment and delivering us from the unacceptable status quo that now defines this presidency.