Reply #8: why support Obama in 2012? [View All]

I mean, I completely agree with most of your post, but that part seems hollow. Obama is part of the reason dems are in this mess-- it would only make sense to support him in 2012 if, between now and then, he becomes the sort of full on FDR style liberal democratic warrior that we need-- in essence, if he truly LEADS the charge to the left and helps us articulate a completely different vision for America's future. I just don't think that's likely. Do you?

And if he doesn't, why support his warming the chair for another four years?

In any event, I'm reconciling myself to the circumstance that I'm becoming a "tea-bagger from the left." I'm so discontented with today's democratic party that I can't even think of myself as a democrat any longer. I want alternative plans for the future-- genuine alternatives that will take the nation in a liberal direction, not just more democrats in power. I no longer WANT the America we've been living in for the last several decades. Frankly, I'm ashamed to be an American in that America.

The most compelling thing about your OP was the comment about the need to think strategically and for the long watch. THAT'S where we will consistently bump up against the consequences of staying on our current trajectory-- and by that, I don't really mean the back and forth sharing of political power dems and repubs are currently doing. I mean facing the long term consequences of our national values and our leadership priorities.

I knew the democratic party of today was lost when it tried to "fix" the current health care delivery system in this country rather than looking forward to a day when an alternative model made today's health insurance companies utterly unnecessary. We do not need a democratic party that is wedded to the mistakes we've already made or committed to maintaining power and privilege. We need a progressive party that fights for a different world, that seeks to make the world better by jettisoning the mistakes and misdirections of the past. We don't need to go forward-- we need to start over.

One criticism aimed at the tea-baggers-- legitimately, I think-- is that their anger is deepening but their set of solutions is vague and inchoate. They are becoming a potent engine for destruction, largely because they lack any real vision of what to rebuild after they've torn down the institutions that are the focus of their rage. That is what WE must avoid. We must build a progressive movement from the left whose focus is on building a different vision for the future rather than on having temper tantrums in the present. The tea-baggers simply want to tear down the state they perceive as antithetical to their philosophies-- they really don't have any coherent vision about "what then?" That's one of the things that makes them so dangerous.

We need to do better than that.