Remember when we had Obama's back? - by citizen k

Remember when we had Obama's back?
by citizen k

Wed Jun 16, 2010 at 07:52:40 AM PDT

Remember when Holder insisted on public trials for "terror" suspects and the storm of demagougery and douchebaggery was drowned out by the unified and active "progressive" left? How we organized protests? Sent flowers to Holder for backing the rule of law? Stormed the media? You don't?

What about when Van Jones was attacked? Do you remember how we mounted a counter attack - explaining to the public why green jobs were so essential and how Glenn Beck wanted to make them poor? I mean, we are the base: when the President does wrong, we are there with constructive criticism like "corporate whore", "idiot", and "naive clown", but when he does right, we are at the damn barricades, standing by him. Right? Aren't we?

..................

more:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/6/16/876438/-Remember-when-we-had-Obamas-back

as soon as they had an excuse.

You couldn't write a more ridiculous post.

The reverse has clearly been the case on issue after issue and constituency after constituency.

Sad but true.

The Obama administration chose to cast their lot with the country club crowd, rather than dance with the lot that brung 'em to the ball.

you didn't bring Obama anywhere, mate.

back up that baseless and insulting statement or did you have such unrealistic expectations that blind party loyalty would cause the base of the party that helped get them elected to overlook a continuation of Republican policies and no accountability for Republican crimes?

If it's not the latter, I think you need to provide something to back up your statement otherwise it looks like someone pouting because people find it hard to give up their principles out of party loyalty.

:eyes:

a liberal cut and paster-er,
peace, kp

a left-basher. Lots of it on that blog. Not a place for progressives unless you enjoy being attacked on a regular basis. It's a party blog and has been from the beginning. The owner is a former Republican and so are many others there. 'Liberal' has been a dirty word there with the owner backing up attacks on them for a long time. I would give examples, but it's not worth the effort. So, it is no surprise to see left-bashing there. It has a long history of driving the most progressive voices, many of them very well known like Greg Palast, Cindy Sheehan eg, off the blog.

read it wrong?

thanks for explaining

thinly veiled digs at the left.....

:dem:

-Laelth

left-bashing blog and diarist, with many such diarists doing the work of the DLC which is why so many progressives get banned there and so many just leave in disgust.

I tried again last night.....but few joined me!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=433x341105


"This victory alone is not the change we seek. It is only the chance for us to make that change. And that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were.

It can't happen without you, without a new spirit of service, a new spirit of sacrifice.

So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism, of responsibility, where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves but each other." - President-Elect Barack Obama

When President Obama accepted victory in Grant Park, he called on all of us to join him in ushering in the change we all were seeking. Did we answer the call? Have we rolled up our sleeves and fought for real change?

I would argue that very few did. Most of us celebrated and waited for Obama to do the heavy lifting. The country was facing a devastating financial crisis while conducting two wars. We were celebrating the victory, but not looking at the overwhelming challenges our new leader was facing. We expected sweeping change, but for the most part we left the battlefield and expected Obama to bring us that change.
http://www.readersupportednews.org/opinion/75-75/2201-blaming-obama-is-easy-and-irresponsible

:sarcasm:

Or at least, that's what I see a lot of. We just sit back and wait for the Decider to decide everything we want to happen should happen now.

:shrug:

we elected him to do the right thing and expect it as a matter of course.

That aside, I have seen the occasional post here giving props to the President when he does something good.

All I ever heard was some talk and as soon as Republicans objected the talk ended..We never had a chance to "have his back"..He flipped at the first sign of Republican reproach..As he has done on virtually every single subject..

Pro-privacy.
Pro choice.
Pro-environment.
Pro civil rights.
Pro union.
Pro little guy.
FUCKING PRO WHALES!!

Where did they go?

Seriously. I remember when they fought for these things just as hard as Republicans fought for corporations, gun owners, the religious right, the anti-choice lobby, and others in their base. And yeah, what ended up was somewhere in the middle of what both sides wanted. I get that.

The problem is now the dems start in the middle and the republicans start from their extreme and we wind up with something decidedly left of center and are told we have to swallow the shit with a smile or it means we hate Obama and are worse than Republicans.

Bush's wars over and over again, when 12 Senate Democrats voted for the Habeas Corpus destroying MCA, and we were told they just did it because they had to but if we just gave them a majority one month later, they would 'fix it'. We did. That was four years ago. And now we see this administration, far from fixing it, USING it to prosecute a tortured child soldier, which is against the Geneva Conventions.

In order to have the president's back,

I would have to be willing to cheer for Offshore Drilling! Sorry, I just can't bring myself to do that right now.

I would have to cheer for the Military Commissions Act. Well, I virulently opposed it under Bush, so I would have to flip-flop painfully to cheer for that vile piece of legislation which the president appears to no longer have any problem with and

I would have to go along with letting war criminals off the hook. Can't do that either.

With letting the corrupt Private Insurance Industry write our Health Care legislation.

With bailing out corrupt Wall St. Bankers and not even slapping any of them on the wrist.

Believe that Gays can wait a little longer for equal rights.

Turn a deaf ear to the clear disdain his administration has for 'the left' and any ideas for social justice they might have.

Agree that primarying failed Democrats is 'retarded' rather than the only way citizens have to remove worthless representatives from Congress.

I could go on.

I will 'have his back' on things he does that deserve support. But if I would not support Bush on issues that are important to most progressives, why did anyone think we would support those same issues just because a president has a 'D' after his name?

Talk about having 'unrealistic expectations'.

Who are you talking about?

Long ago and far away . . .

Let's take the part of last night's speech about renewable energy for example. He pointed out what we all know, that we only have so much oil here and can't drill our way to energy independence. The right is defending deep water drilling as we speak, and I have Obama's back on this point.

I disagree about who's in charge of the spill response. BP is running the clean up and the cover up and the government is reactive instead of proactive.

I disagree with his tendency to water down legislation to get a few republicans votes that never come anyway.

I wish there was more, much more that I could say Obama has right. On the things he does, I'm willing to back him up.

In fact some reveal themselves. They complain that some of us do not go out of our way to find something wrong, as if finding something wrong is a virtue all by itself, and failure to do that is some kind of blind following or whatever.

They cannot support anything in a positive fashion. Fault can always be found, so they'd support nothing, or overlook anything positive as just their due.

If we were only nicer, or worked harder, or sent flowers or licked his fucking boots.

How about this? How about he keeps, lets say, 50 to 75% of his promises, and then maybe we'll start doing our part again?

Too much money on the other side that threats of lost support eventually make them tow the line.