I'm not really old enough to fully grasp just how shitty an actual Republican President can be.

I was 6 when Reagan was sworn in.

I grew up with my father yelling at the 6:30 news and my mom throwing the newspaper down in disgust. And being told (when behaving stupid) to, "Stop acting like Republican". Then when I was 14 Bush.1 was elected.

Basically there was no way in hell that when I voted for the first time in 1992 that I could even think about not voting for Clinton.


My point - I could grasp how shitty a Republican President could be - but I was raised to not be willfully ignorant.

.... but there wasn't much chance of me turning into a Republican, not after Nancy Reagan and Jerry Falwell.

I cast my first Presidential vote for Dukakis. '92 would have been a much more inspiring way to get started, of course. I saw Bill, Hillary, Al and Tipper at the Daley Center in Chicago that October. MASSIVE rally. It was a rush.

Certainly I've been disappointed by the Democratic Presidents on issues from time to time, but every Republican president has turned out to be even worse than I could have possibly imagined, and each one also seems to be successively worse than the previous one, if such a thing is possible.

Actually, I haven't ever said that he "sucks," and am not doing so now.

I have never been, nor pretended to be, though, a fan. I don't like too many of his policies, and I don't like his constant "compromising," which, yes, I understand that he's finally drawn a line in the sand...that should have been drawn in January of '09. Obama would be a moderate Republican leaning conservative if it were the 70s, which is when I cut my political teeth.

Your responses?

They are basically a defense of Obama without really addressing the underlying issues. The NSA? Debate the legality of their actions all you like; that doesn't change, though, the underlying offense and the fact that it needs to stop. Drones? That debate all depends on whether or not one supports military action as a form of empire control. I don't. Drones aren't defending us. They're part of the effort to influence a region full of other nations. SS? Allowing SS on the table for discussion, whether or not it is cut or chained CPI is implemented at that time, is indefensible. Defending that action is despicable.

The 2nd response?

I might take issue with the "sucks" comment myself; it's an attack without substance. There's plenty of substance to criticize. The apologist response, blaming Congress, acting like mandating private insurance is somehow a step towards single payer, etc., gets no respect from me. There's one legitimate claim in there that I can see; the cause of equal rights for LGBT couples is moving forward, and I DO applaud him for that.

Your responses, though? They don't get any thumbs up from me. No thumbs down, either, although I'm not impressed.

Since you asked.

Every time you see a post about Chelsea Manning, or Ed Snowden, or the latest pile of steaming fertilizer from Glenn Greenwald, you get someone bemoaning the dictatorship of Barack Obama - often using the same language & talking points originating from Rand Paul and the extremist GOP.

Apparently you don't read much in the way of DU comments? My gawd, some DUers hate Obama more than the teabaggers.

Of course right now it's rather fashionable to stick to simply going after the Rethugs shutting down the government but just wait, as soon as this crisis passes it will be all about how shitty Obama is again.

Patience my friend. You'll see.

Julie

So many of these mere policy disagreements are less than civil, based on speculation, incorrect, hyperbolic and, invariably, done to death.

I've noticed there are some posters who do little to nothing else here.

But again, as this shut-down plays out it is not very fashionable to do sort of post I describe above. Sort of like DU's rule on no trash talking Dem candidates/encouraging non-Dem votes around election time but not an actual rule. Hence the word "fashionable".

It's a showdown, he's winning, of course DU is on Team-O. For the moment.

You are free to see it otherwise as you wish, of course.

Julie