A Democrat has to show the toughness to govern. People don’t doubt that Republicans will be tough.
- Al From
I’ve been accused by a few people of being a “whiner”…because I no longer wholeheartedly and unquestioningly support Barack Obama. If you really need to know why I want to see a REAL Progressive running in 2012 instead of Barack Obama, I’ll let Rachel Maddow explain why. Just watch the video.
Barack Obama got millions of Americans to vote for him by promising “Change We Can Believe In.” Yep, things were going to be different in Washington. No longer were Republicans going to run the federal government as if it was their personal playground. No longer would George W. Bush and his cabal of neoConservative thugs be using the power conferred upon them by Americans to enrich their rich White benefactors. Government was going to work again. It was going to be responsive to the people. It was going to represent the poor and the middle class instead of doing the bidding of corporations and the super-rich.
Yeah, how’s that all working out for you?
The reality is that the President we were promised during the 2008 campaign is missing in action. What began with such hope and promise on 1.20.09 has deteriorated into something we’ve seen before. What we have is not a President willing to stand behind the Progressive agenda he speechified so eloquently about during the campaign. No, what we have is George W. Bush Lite. What we have is a President who won’t stand up to Republicans, who caves to the Right under pressure, and then gives a speech to the American Sheeple telling us what a great deal he got for us.
All I want, and all I’ve ever wanted, is the President we were promised during the campaign. I want the President who promised to make government of, by, and for the People again. I want the President who promised to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I want the President who promised to close Guantanamo Bay. I want the President who promised to stand with unions and the middle class.
If Barack Obama is the Democratic nominee in 2012, as he almost certainly will be, I will give him my vote. That vote, however will not be a vote FOR Obama. It will be a vote AGAINST whoever the Republican nominee happens to be. How sad is that, and who could have foreseen this on 1.20.09, when Obama took the oath of office buoyed by so much hope and faith?
If this makes me a “whiner”, then that’s a label I’ll wear proudly…because I’m not willing to settle. I’m not willing to settle for the crumbs that Republicans allow us because our (Democratic) President won’t fight for those who elected him.
WE DESERVE BETTER…and there’s not a thing in the world wrong with demanding that from the President who promised that to us.
