-By Jake T. Snake
I am having one of those weeks where I am sorry that I voted for Obama. I suspect that I am not the only one. Seriously, from a policy perspective how are we qualitatively different than when Bush and Cheney were in office? I mean on anything substantive? It's not like I had any choices really, I mean I couldn't vote for fucking McCain, but all the same I am having Bill Clinton dejavu all over again. Fuck whoever you want, but don't fuck single mothers on welfare en masse. Centrists are just Republicans who pretend to be Democrats long enough to be elected. Since when is welfare reform a Democratic issue, I mean really? It feels as though there are no Democrats left, there are just slightly less obnoxious Republicans. Molly saw this coming a long way off and took a metric assload of shit for suggesting that Obama might not be all he promised.
The economy is in shambles and people realize that we need safety net services like extended unemployment and maybe a government health insurance option. The time is ripe to strike while the iron is hot and Obama is shrugging his shoulders and saying " I don't know what do you guys think we should do?" Spineless, like a jellyfish. They call themselves Centrists, but to me they are conservative reactionaries, including Obama. He seems to be waffling on all the important issues that he received my vote and that of many other liberals to address.
On health care he is providing little leadership and seems to be waiting for the lowest common denominator, in this case both parties, to decide what it will allow so that it looks like something is changing while allowing the insurance company fuckers to continue raping us all wholesale. He has made no movement on repealing the "don't ask, don't tell" policy and has completely left the gay community to hang out in the wind on the issue of marriage. Guantanamo is humming along with no real trials in site for the people detained there. Lest we forget, that 16 month withdrawal timetable in Iraq seems to have evaporated. Consensus is a great model for leadership when you are dealing with people willing to compromise, it doesn't work so well with zealots and idealogues.
On the positive side, I feel justified voting for Hilary in the primaries, that was certainly the right decision. Can any of us imagining Hilary rolling over for the Republicans the way Obama has on healthcare? I think not. She would have taken the fight to them and highlighted the insurance company abuses. I wish we had someone in the White House now with a set big enough to do that, but we are stuck with the milk toast that could be elected.
I was hoping for a man who would decide policy based on what is right and moral, rather than another politician who would make all his decisions on the basis of polling data. I was naive. It pains me to say this, but I think the last man to decide policy on the basis of his own moral compass may have been Bush 1 and before that Jimmy Carter, not coincidentally, both 1 term presidents. If this is really the best we can do to advance an agenda with the barest flavor of liberalism, well it is just sad. I knew he would disappoint me, I just had no idea how deeply.