Time for a change
This diary at FDLis well worth reading in full, but this bit really resonated with me in terms of my disappointment with Obama.
[More posts daily at The Detroit News]
Worse, Republicans will see that bullying, being disruptive, and tapping into people's worst fears and instincts works, and will use it on each and every piece of legislation the White House tries to pass for the next 3 years. It's happening on climate change legislation now. Combine that with a disillusioned, disempowered activist left and I'm seeing damage to the Democratic Party well past the 2010 election cycle.I didn't expect Obama to be the great liberal hope but I did expect him to be more of a leader. So far, I don't see that he's done anything to put his own imprint on the presidency. And neither did I think he would be a champion of progressive causes, but I did expect him to treat us with some respect. But we still don't even really have a seat at the table. If he wants us to stay in the fight, that has to change.
So on Wednesday night, the only thing I'm going to be watching for is the narrative our Story-Teller-In-Chief brings to the American people. I will be watching for the emotional truth.
That is what the fight over the public option is all about - it is not about policy. It's a proxy for the implied contract we entered into when we helped get Obama elected. We expected Change, we expected to be respected, empowered and included, we expected him to fight, and we expected to join him in that fight.
Wednesday night will be a promise kept or a promise broken. Either way, it will be our moment of truth.
[More posts daily at The Detroit News]
Labels: health care, policy, politics, President Obama
posted by Libby Spencer at 7:17 PM
4 Comments:
Do we cal it lack of leadership or do we take the blame for our complacency? Perhaps it's not possible to be heard over the raging of Fox, the scream of big money and the chorus of the demented they pay for, but I can't say we're trying hard enough to make a difference.
It's not us bombarding congress with letters and we're not out in the street carrying 50 million signs or contributing tens of billions. Perhaps it's not even possible, but we won't know because we're expecting Obama to do it for us. He can't stop the momentum by himself and if he asked us to, for instance, surround News Corporation's headquarters with 200,000 protesters, he'd be labeled, and successfully, as a tyrant.
That's a good point Fogg. I think part of the problem has been, it's so unclear what the bill is going to do. They haven't given us much to support so far beyond the general concept of health care for all.
Republicans will see that bullying, being disruptive, and tapping into people's worst fears and instincts works...
Feh. It has ALWAYS worked. ALWAYS! How is the current state of affairs any different from how the Republicans acted under Nixon? The Republican MO has not changed one iota in 50 years.
The October Vanity Fair has a great article about Kennedy and the right wing meltdown when JFK was president. SAME shit as today, except then we didn't have Fox News and right-wing hate radio and right-wing blogs.
The only thing that amazes me more than seeing how little has changed is realizing, well, how little has changed. After 50 fucking years you'd think the Democrats would have figured out a way to combat the lies, distortions and fear-mongering of the right. I mean Jesus Christ on a cracker, Ronald fucking Reagan warned about the evils of creeping socialism and the loss of our freedoms back in 1965 when he was battling MEDICARE.
How have we not figured this out? Look, Democrats, get yourself in some fucking war room somewhere and plot out a strategy for the next 10 years to combat this stuff. My god, how hard can it be?
Can you tell I'm a tad pissed off? Until the Democrats get a clue we are going to keep reading this same script for another 50 years.
One might *almost* think the Democrats are happy with the status quo.
Ya think?
I'm as pissed as you are SoBeale. We work our butts off to get these guys elected and especially in 08, so many people literally gave up their personal lives to campaign full time and give them a majority and they still don't get anything done.
There does comes this moment of reckoning where we have to reassess our strategy. I always maintained that we give them the majority this time, but if they don't deliver, well, we CAN afford to take down a few of them ourselves as an object lesson that they can't just take our support for granted anymore.
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