The thing about politics that used to be fun was knowing that Bush and his cronies were losers who'd eventually turn people against the Republican party.
Mission accomplished.
Then we Democrats got a smart president and majorities in both Houses of Congress, and things looked like they were going to get a whole lot better.
Then they didn't.
Gitmo's still open.
Wars are still being waged in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Gays are still second class citizens.
And health care reform is gasping for air in the intensive care unit.
President Obama may have shown some brilliance in getting himself elected, but he's totally disappointed us in the way he failed to tame the dreaded Blue Dog Democrats.
Virtual unknowns, like Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Montana), Tom Carper (D-Delaware), Kent Conrad (D-North Dakota), Bill Nelson (D-Florida) and Blanche Lincoln (D-Arkansas) have managed to join the obstructionist GOP and derail health care reform thus far.
This health care debacle has taught us one thing for certain: too many of our elected officials serve big business rather than the voters who elected them.
For the last 8 years, I thought I had an obligation as a citizen, taxpayer and voter to write about political failures and malfeasance on my blog. But it's just not that much fun anymore.
I'm starting to believe there really is no difference between the Democrats and the Republicans. They possess interchangeable parts--the weak act strong and the strong act weak, creating a symbiotic relationship that's as dysfunctional as any house full of drunks.
Oh, I love watching the Obamas from a People magazine standpoint. They are so happy and bright, and their kids and dog always make me smile when I see photos of them. I really like all four of the Obamas as people.
But as a president, Obama has shown weakness in dealing with these scum sucking Blue Dogs. These (mostly) small state nobodies have obstructed meaningful health care reform as well as any obstinate Republican.
I have zero hope their reputations as loyal Democrats will be diminished by their colleagues or their constituents.
Obama set the tone for this to occur.
I remember Lyndon Johnson when he wanted to press for civil rights legislation. He had his share of conserva-dems who tried to obstruct the process, but after taking them to the woodshed they fell in line and Johnson prevailed.
LBJ had many flaws, but weakness was not one of them.
Obama has fewer flaws, but his biggest one turns out to be weakness.
And people wonder why I blog about Dancing With the Stars and other fluff.
Feh.
10 comments:
*sigh*
Dancing with the Blue Dogs is more like it?
Or perhaps, So You Think You Can Compromise?
Just read the Vanity Fair issue with Jackie O on the cover and realized that this right wing craziness isn't new, its just grown exponentially. That same craziness (back then there were "Minutemen" now they're the are"Teabaggers") is what killed JFK. Pure craziness.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/30/opinion/30friedman.html?_r=1&emc=eta1
you said Democrats and Republicans are the same ; but what is what we have been thinking in France all along !
Yesterday in the lounge , at the hotel in Brussels, there were some Americans who engaged discussion with me, because one of them saw me reading USA today - nobody had told him that sneakers and short pants and a base ball cap were a big NO outside a stadium !!
He asked me if I liked Obama and I said 'not too much" and he gave me a thumb up until I added " he is too weak with Republicans and acts like them" and then he stopped smiling. ANd when I added I was socialsit , he was not so happy ;-)
Sonia - you rock!
Julien
Sonia is my friend who lives in Paris.
That's pretty hilarious about that idiot with the shorts and sneakers.
When I go to Paris next year, I plan to paint the soles of my sneakers red so the Parisiennes will think they are Christian Loboutin flats.
Sonia DOES rock!
Sadly - I figured out long ago that both parties were essentially the same (with regards to gay rights, remember Clinton was the one to sign DOMA). I share your digust, disappointment, and lack of enthusiasm. At this point I shouldn't be surprised though, because really, what changed after we voted in a Dem majority in 2006? Precious little. The Democrats like to throw us just enough crumbs to keep the grumbling at bay, but now that they have a majority, they have to stop blaming the rethugs, because THEY have the MAJORITY.
If you take it to its logical conclusion, the rethugs aren't needed for a majority vote so why would they be blamed for anyting not passing? I think the Dems are just using the rethugs as scapegoats. The true reason they can't pass progressive laws is because they are beholden to the same corporations as the rethugs are.
We are a corporatocracy, and I don't see that changing any time soon.
And yes, Sonia is brilliant. Love your comment. Hilarious!!
Sonia, ne deviennent pas vaniteuse parce que si toute cette éloge.
Helen, I agree. Politicians at the national level get corrupted very quickly by corporate lobbyists with deep pockets.
Those who don't are smothered by the majority who do.
I see no end in sight, but at least Sarkozy is in France.
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