UGH.
This sums up my feelings so damn well. I feel like I walked in on my wife cheating on me with another man, and she just looked at me, shrugged her shoulders and went back to what she was doing. Like Little Bill in Boogie Nights, the person I have so much affection for is going somewhere else and leaving me and my ideals in the dust.
Barack Obama is flip-flopping. Not a little bit. Not on one issue, but one by one, he’s changing and softening his stance on the issues that got him where he’s at in the first place.
I understand the concept that “In the primaries you move to your base, and in the General Election you move to the center.” This makes sense, to a degree. But this is worse than that, because Obama is one of the lucky ones that has no reason to do this.
This is with all the “leftist” rhetoric, with all his crazy thoughts, with Rush Limbaugh and every right-wing blow-hard aiming all their vitriol at him and letting go with Bill Clinton-era abandon.
Why? Because his message resonated with the American public!
When gas prices are through the rough, when food costs are sky-rocketing, when the housing market is in turmoil, when corporations continue to make huge profits while the middle-class is burdened with high taxes, Obama’s populist message had done what it’s supposed to – reach the populace!
Except the difference here is that the populace contained Left & Right Wing voters!
Go here. Read this, then you’ll be a little more caught up…
Do you think a Republican in Arkansas, no matter how much they hate abortion and gay marriage, REALLY want their to be no capital gains tax? Do you really think they can’t wait for the super-rich of American Corporations to be given more tax benefits to remove more manufacturing and information age jobs out of this country?
No. They don’t. Really. The ONLY ISSUES that resonate with the majority of Republican Voters is their anti-abortion and anti-gay marriage stances! That’s it, Obama! Your populist message does reach them, and as poll numbers showed, many of them were actually beginning to move beyond the abortion/gay marriage stranglehold the Republican party has had on them for the last two decades and looking at how important it was to change the way things are done.
But, Obama, you just had to screw it all up. You had to start mucking around with things, had to start becoming less clear on your stances, had to start back-tracking some because you were told by some idiotic campaign leader in your employ that it’s time to walk that center line.
It’s not! NO! It. Is. Not!
America does not want another mediocre Democratic President who doesn’t do what he promises. We don’t want more of the same crap we got from Bill Clinton, who’s biggest legacy is the half-assed “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell!” fiasco of the 90s. That’s his big liberal change! That is what being centrist gets you.
Your base, and that does include the many people who have been moving toward you don’t want you to decide it’s okay for corporations to have tax benefits when they take jobs out of the country. We don’t want you to say domestic spying and telecommunications immunity is okay. We don’t want you to lessen your stance on NAFTAs impact on the US. We don’t want you to give up all the planks you’ve ran on for the last year-plus to just because some crazy promises.
Come back to us, Obama. Because I’m not going to be an apologist for you.
I’m not going to buy into the concept that this is what has to happen to get you elected. That you’ll decide to change your mind and support all the issues you’ve already flip-flopped on once you get into office. Because if anything, you’ll immediately start eyeballing your second-term, and your first time will be ineffectual garbage.
I whole expect you to reverse your stances on Universal Healthcare and the Iraq War next.
A Final Note…
In the past, it was okay for the candidate to make promises to their base and not live up to them, because most of the American public never heard these promises. The primaries were over quickly and rarely televised, so if you promised people that you’d re-negotiate NAFTA, well, most of America never knew about it.
That’s not the world we live in, and you, the Hope-Agent, the Change-Agent, the voice for the new generation whose entire campaign has been fueled and made possible by the internet, should know that.
We know what you said. We have it on video. We have it on YouTube. We can send it to all of our friends and family, to build support for you. And that’s what we all did. And it worked, and here you are, and what do you?
You see me walk in the room, catch you with your right-wing lover, and you just shrug me off.
