Barack Obama: Capitulation Democrats Can’t Believe
| 
Author: UPDATE: I’m amazed at how many people have contacted me, wondering if I’m a Teabagger in disguise for writing something critical of the President. Will Rogers once said, “I don’t belong to an organized political party, I’m a Democrat!” That being the case, I welcome and appreciate the constructive criticism. Let me assure you all, Teabagger in disguise I am not… but I do believe in being critical when it is called for.
The fact is Barack Obama is, right now as I write this, in the company of 200 CEOs on a trip over in South Korea trying to cut another NAFTA-like “free-trade” deal meant to further hobble the American worker. The fact that Labor representatives are absent in his entourage is a statement in itself. In the days of FDR, selling out the American worker by ensuring the death of the “Living Wage” would be considered sacrilege for a Democrat. These days, middle of the road compromises by Democrats- talking like a liberal on the campaign trail while compromising-away the American Dream with powerful interests behind closed doors- just speaks to the fact that American People are the bargaining chip in a game for which they don’t have a seat at the table. My father put it succinctly when I was old enough to vote. “Democrats are for the ‘little guy’ and Republicans are for the Rich.” Yes, times have changed, and money has further corrupted our system but I don’t believe that blind allegiance to the President – like we saw from Republicans concerning Bush – serves the cause of reviving the dying American Middle Class. THAT is the point. We shouldn’t just follow someone off a cliff simply because that person claims to be a Democrat.
I am glad that half the Blue Dog caucus joined the ranks of the unemployed in this last election and I am hoping that, until we are successful in getting public campaign financing, Democrats will realize that a return to working for the people will be their (and our) salvation.
So I agree that this post is more of a rant in desperate need of some editing (any volunteers ☺) – but I think that we need to push our Democratic leaders to fulfill the promises of their campaigns – nothing less than the American Dream depends on it.
Thanks again everyone for your very helpful comments. Let’s keep the conversation going and keep up the fight!
Best,
Tara
I am a liberal Democrat who donated time and money to help put you in the White House. I, like so many others, spent time, money and effort making calls and knocking on doors to help get you elected President with the hope that you would use your office to save the disappearing middle class from the Republican induced slide into serfdom – not so you can “welcome” the same failed “Republican ideas” turning “The Land of the Free” into “The United States of Serfs and Lords” – the same ideas you called “disastrous”.
I have been watching in anguish as you squander the mandate and the majority we worked for and negotiate away the progressive initiatives that would not only give the American People a chance, once again, at the American Dream, but also ensure the Democratic majority for generations.
Now I see you AGAIN pining for Republicans like a battered spouse pining for an abuser while the Republicans promise to destroy you – and by extension destroy WE THE PEOPLE.
I would agree that the midterms were a repudiation of your policies if the People were actually CORRECTLY INFORMED ABOUT THEM and having a conversation in the REAL WORLD. The FACT is that most people are woefully misinformed BY DESIGN and are wedded to outright lies perpetrated by Republican propaganda outlets like Fox “News.”
So, NO… The Republicans did not win because people embrace Republican policies… They voted AGAINST YOU because, besides the misinformation campaigns designed to make them stupid enough to vote for their own demise, the American People want a leader with a spine.
Your incessant penchant for capitulation sends the message that Republican ideas have merit and your constant submission merely makes you looks weak.
If you KNOW that the Bush tax giveaways to the rich will add 700 Billion to the deficit while not creating A SINGLE JOB, WHY WOULD YOU CAPITULATE to it? Republican ideas are what GOT US into this mess – which is why GOP benefactors invested record millions to run misinformation campaigns targeting Democrats.
To quote Harry S. Truman, “The Democrats are for the people. The Republicans are for the special interests. They’ve always been for the special interests.”
Truman’s statement of obvious fact about the GOP is the message you need to stick to – NOT “we welcome Republican ideas!”
Republican “ideas” can be broken down to two words – CHEAP LABOR… And now… WITH YOUR HELP… they are actively hurting the People for political gain.
SO WHY would you validate Republican policies that have FAILED THE WORKING PEOPLE whenever they are tried and collapsed the economy for a SECOND time in a century? If you actually believe Republican ideas “kill jobs,” and “take us backward” as you proclaimed, then why would you agree to policies that will guarantee more people fall into poverty while the rich disappear behind the walls of their gated communities?
FDR warned, “The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to the point where it becomes stronger than the democratic state itself. That in its essence is fascism – ownership of government by an individual, by a group or any controlling private power.”
He also said, “government by organized money is just as dangerous as government by organized mob.”
Riding the wave of “Citizen’s United” enable money and billionaire funded fake grass roots AstroTurf Tea-Party disrupting town hall meetings and stomping Democrats at election events, it’s quite evident that Republicans are attacking our representative government with BOTH organized money and organized mob..
When they attacked FDR, trying to lay the cause of the Depression at his feet, he FOUGHT BACK with COURAGE:
“…although I rubbed my eyes when I read it, we have been told that it was not a Republican depression, but a Democratic depression from which this Nation was saved in 1933 – that this Administration this one today – is responsible for all the suffering and misery that the history books and the American people have always thought had been brought about during the twelve ill-fated years when the Republican party was in power.
Now, there is an old and somewhat lugubrious adage which says: “Never speak of rope in the house of a man who has been hanged.” In the same way, if I were a Republican leader speaking to a mixed audience, the last word in the whole dictionary that I think I would use is that word ‘DEPRESSION!’”
Are you just an empty suit that doesn’t have the courage of Democratic convictions?
Democratic Policies WORK – and we have history to back that up. The Dems gave us the New Deal policies that CREATED the America Dream and built the middle class!
Conversely, Republican policies destroyed the middle class, created the widest gap between rich and poor and turned America into the LEAST upwardly mobile of all industrialized nations.
The TRUTH and the TRAGEDY is that people who are paying attention know that you have done more for the middle class in 2 years than ALL Republicans have done since well before the time Reaganomics declared war on working people.
Unfortunately, your “bipartisan Kum Bah Ya” nonsense helped blow Republican booby traps in policies that COULD HAVE BEEN IMMEDIATELY EFFECTIVE for the people.
If you think that FINALLY Republicans will come to the table as the “Team of Rivals” you yearn for now that they’ve gained a majority in the House, you better come to your senses.
Capitulate to the GOP again and again and AGAIN and they will STILL call you a Socialist, a Marxist, a Kenyan, an “other.” They will still work to destroy you (and US) – that’s a PROMISE reiterated repeatedly by Mitch McConnell – to ensure your policies fail, the America People CONTINUE to suffer, and you are a one-term President.
I’m sure you know that “undecided voters” or “Independents” are, in actuality, low-information voters. They don’t pay attention to politics until the last 2 weeks before the election. Then they turn on the TV and hear Republicans railing against you and they DON’T SEE ANY CONCRETE IMPROVEMENT in their lives, so it’s easy to be conned.
Was it worth secretly bargaining away the STRONG PROGRESSIVE LEGISLATION OVERWHELMINGLY SUPPORTED BY THE PEOPLE – The Public Option – to get the vote of Olympia Snowe? You should have come out fighting with MEDICARE FOR ALL and then negotiated your way into a Public Option that KICKS IN IMMEDIATELY.
You gave the Republicans and their “privileged Princes”, as FDR called them, all the time in the world to “catapult the propaganda” and run the “BIG LIE” strategy on so-called “Obamacare” plunging the approval ratings for a program that forces insurance ghouls to treat people like humans – rather than hosts from which to suck profit – from above 70% approval to below 50%.
So you squandered your mandate and your majority – but don’t for A SECOND think it is because the American People rejected liberal democracy –they rejected fecklessness and inaction.
FDR never missed the opportunity to remind them which Party plunged them into Depression – and which Party pulled them OUT. If you had reached back through the proud history of the DEMOCRATIC PARTY and channeled FDR – creating something like a 21st Century Civilian Conservation Corps to put people back to work IMMEDIATELY, you (and by extension US) would not be in the position of having to endure another round of Republican assault on the working people of America.
When Democrats act like Democrats instead of “Republican Light” they win elections. Period. Just ask Blanch Lincoln and the other 20 Republican-Light “Blue Dogs” joining the ranks of the unemployed.
Reach back into the great history of the DEMOCRATIC PARTY for inspiration. We have plenty to be proud of.
Harry S. Truman said, “The first rule in my book is that we have to stick by the liberal principles of the Democratic Party. We are not going to get anywhere by trimming or appeasing- -And we don’t need to try it.
Barack Obama: Capitulation Democrats Can’t Believe
The record the Democrats have made in the last 20 years is the greatest political asset any party EVER HAD IN WORLD HISTORY! We would be foolish to throw it away. THERE IS NOTHING OUR ENEMIES WOULD LIKE BETTER and nothing that would do more to help them win an election.”
Imagine this: Instead of looking like a whipped puppy at your press conference following the midterms, if you had come out swinging and HONESTLY explained to the American People that the REPUBLICANS are blocking EVERY attempt to get us out of the ditch THEY put us in for POLITICAL GAIN – and thus TURN THEIR EVIL STRATEGY AGAINST THEM!
When that reporter asked, “how does it feel?”
Rather than say, “it feels bad,” hoping to appear humble enough to win some Republican hearts- imagine if you said,
“I fear for America. These elections saw the influence of foreign money and unprecedented power of anonymous special interests and their front groups that THREATENS our entire electoral system. These are the same powerful influences FDR reigned in with the New Deal… he called them ‘privileged princes” of ‘new economic dynasties, thirsting for power,’ who ‘reached out for control over government itself.’ They are BACK and, with the help of the Citizens United ruling, have democracy itself against the ropes! Tragically, REPUBLICANS are ALSO blocking every attempt to solve the problems THEY CREATED solely as a political strategy, proving again that they care only about their own jobs and futures – not the jobs and future of the American People!”
Now THAT would have been a game-changing statement that would use jujitsu to crush them under the weight of their obstruction.
I know you give good speeches… in fact, I started to support you for the nomination and gave money to your campaign after your speech on race because it was a breath of fresh air for a politician to address a tough subject with honesty, warts and all…
WHERE IS THAT MAN?
Not to mention your incessant buying into the Republican talking points about deficit-reduction when we need a real stimulus from the bottom-up makes me really wonder about you. I’m sure you’re familiar with Republican strategist Jude Wanniski’s “Two Santa Claus Theory” – where Republicans spend like drunken sailors when in power and then scream about deficits when Democrats are in control as a strategy to privatize everything? Why wouldn’t you be honest with the American People and tell them that it’s ALL part of Republican strategy to regain power in the name of special interests?
Tragically, your pathological compromising with Republicans has the dwindling middle class poised to fall off the Republican-created cliff.
The America People like a fighter and they like a winner who takes action– not some weak-capitulator, middle of the road, mush who compromises away our future in the name of being “polite.”
FDR said, “I ask you to judge me by the enemies I have made.” I ask you to start channeling him now – and remember that the only reason FDR didn’t get elected to a FIFTH term WAS BECAUSE HE WAS DEAD.
On the other hand, if you can’t muster the stomach for the fight, and would rather capitulate to abysmal policies meant to cut the “uppity” American worker down to size, please simply announce yourself as a one-term President so we can give the American People a fighting chance at restoration by nominating someone with a spine and a stomach for the fight.
Sincerely,
Taradacktyl
Posted in Class War
