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If you have been reading this blog for a while, you know that I have lots of problems with the Obama Administration and the Senate Democratic leadership continuing the Bush regime's policy goals on most issues. Well, it turns out that I'm not the only liberal or progressive that is losing patience with this.
Cornell West expresses his frustrations with President Obama very diplomatically, but very powerfully. (Hat Tip: GDAEman)
Cornel West's note to Obama - January 20, 2010
Uploaded by Ladypolitik. - News videos hot off the press.
Last week, 13 activists were arrested protesting US militarism in front of the White House. I think a lot of people were under the impression that they would be able to stop protesting once Obama was elected. Wrong.
Speaking of protesting, doctors supporting single payers got arrested in an act of civil disobedience outside of the hotel where Obama and House Goppers had their little spat. From the 1/29/10 Single Payer Action press release:
During his State of the Union speech on Wednesday, Obama said he wanted to hear from people on a better approach to health care reform that will “bring down premiums, bring down the deficit, cover the uninsured, strengthen Medicare for seniors and stop insurance company abuses.”
“Let me know, let me know, let me know. I’m eager to see it,” Obama said.
Flowers, Paris and the majority of doctors and nurses in America believe that approach is a single payer national health insurance system.
Obama himself, when he was a state Senator in Illinois in 2003, said single payer was the way to go.
But last year, he cut deals with the pharmaceutical and health insurance industries in a now failed attempt to get through tinkering reforms.
Obama is so used to Republican critics who can't answer challenges on policy alternatives that he thinks that his critics on the left can't either.
Matthew Rothschild at The Progressive is so disgusted with the way this administration is going that he has called for the firing of Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. Firing Rahm would be a good start, but Gates, Clinton, Geitner, and Summers should not be forgotten when discussing Obama administration officials who should get canned.
Cindy Sheehan is doing a great job articulating frustrations with the Obama administration on her blog. Dean Baker is taking Obama to the rhetorical woodshed for supporting tax credits that would give businesses incentives for hiring fewer workers. Noam Chomsky is fond of referring to "Brand Obama." (Hat Tip: After Downing Street)
Tengrain at Mock, Paper, Scissors has a more snarky approach to describing the anger that liberals feel towards this administration. I highly recommend it.
Many partisan Democrats will urge us to be infinitely patient with President Obama. Liberals and progressives were told the same thing with Bill Clinton, and he acted like a horrible, far right Republican his entire administration. Fool us once, shame on you. Fool us twice, shame on us.
In 1993 and 1994, Bill Clinton and the Democratic leadership in the House and Senate played a sick game of chicken with the party base, practically daring them to stay home or vote Green. We all remember what happened in 1994. It happened again this month in Massachusetts.
Hi Libhom,
excellent post. Dem triangulation IMO is the reason for the Obama presidency;he's a centrist along the lines the DLC had been gunning for. He's not stupid or naive, rather he's doing what will continue to bring in F.I.RE sector money.Just enough populist appeal to make the old base think he's on their side.
My daughter saw Dr West speak last week and was very impressed. Great man,great author. Too bad he's not president. He'd do the right thing rather than what the DLC and Wall St want. He wouldn't look to his legacy or take the safe path.
Nearly the second Obama was sworn in back on Jan. 20, 2009, he did a 180' and backed away from Single Payer.
The reversal was one of the most stunning political flip-flops I've ever seen in politics. He and Michelle hadn't used the bathroom in the White House and all at once, Single Payer was history.
Obama squandered all of 2009 with this bizarre need to "reach out to his friends across the aisle." Of course, the reality is, these are the very people who want to stab him in the back and see him fail.
There is no reason to think this or any president must achieve bipartisanship in the current political climate in order to pass an agenda. Obama is a smart guy and yet, he didn't understand this.
The President's record said it all; he's a dedicated corporatist who plays footsie with the right wing.
I wrote a post in 2007 (still available) called "Obama is Written Off." I pointed out, then, that his willingness to pal around with the Jesusistanis was a warning sign that could not be dismissed. Ultimately I wound up voting for him, but with nowhere near the enthusiasm a lot of other people did.
I wish I'd been wrong about him. Early on, my hope was that I was. And I'm not going to say he hasn't done good things; he certainly has, and anyone who says he's the same as the Coward of Crawford is just plain stupid.
But he is a DLC corporatist, in substance not much different from the much-vilified Hillary Clinton. When I pointed this out way back when, a lot of Obama's supporters wrote me lively tomes of bile.
What do you suppose they think NOW?
Jolly: The main reason why people were so angry at Ms. Clinton was that she made white supremacist hatred her main campaign theme.
The sad thing is that Hillary Clinton is still significantly worse than Barack Obama. Her main foci as Sec. of State have been trying to start war with Iran and trying to provoke the kind of Arab/Israeli war that fundamentalists like Ms. Clinton think is predicted in the Bible.
Hillary basically walked the same trail Caribou Barbie saddled up and rode down later. But in substance, her voting record and the President's were almost parallel with each other.
I really wonder if he'd have actually voted against going into Iraq, if he'd been a Senator.
Jolly: I think Obama would have voted against the Iraq war. Half the Democrats and one Republican voted against it.
I should point out that I'm not trying to defend Obama, but rather to remind people just how sinister the Clintons really are.
People should be protesting.