The Obama loyalists are lining up behind the president's plan to gut Social Security.
Apparently, there is no good time to criticize the president. We can't have a primary because that would hurt his re-election chances. We can't criticize his foreign policy because that would hurt is re-election chances. We can't have real progressives in key offices because the business community might get butt hurt and support the GOP. We can't criticize or protest anything because President Obama will have a sad. No, we have to do whatever he wants and accept his judgment no matter what.
No thanks. Cutting Social Security, a program that adds NOT ONE STINKING PENNY to the deficit, in the name of deficit reduction is immoral, anti-intellectual and anti-Democratic. President Obama threatened to sell out the elderly so he could have the term "bipartisan" etched under his face on Mount Rushmore.
And I'm not going to shut up about it. Do you think that the wealthy people who funded Obama's campaign -- and want that floor on tax increases as close to $1,000,000 as possible -- aren't pulling every lever of power within their reach? Oh no. I'm so sure that they are sitting at home saying, "I donated tens of thousands of dollars to Democrats, but I'm not going to exert any pressure on them right now." If the rich and powerful just trusted Obama and supported him no matter what, there wouldn't be hundreds of millions of dollars spent on lobbying each year.
I'm not rich. I can't afford to buy a politician or donate to a SuperPAC. My only option is to speak anywhere and everywhere I can to say that this proposal is unacceptable. I don't care if the Obama loyalists don't like it. Barack Obama works for ME! He's my president, not my daddy.
Comments
The Church of Barack Obama
can really get under one's skin.
And the choir sings....
You nailed it.
It's not only just sad but it's devastating, in fact, life-threatening. And that's not hyperbole. I promise.
Well said.
You speak for me, type1.
He's not a deity either and I am sick of the
I have "faith" in my president bullcrap.Ugh. The orange state is drowning in it.
It makes no sense.
Why call yourself an "activist" if you won't speak truth to power? An activist doesn't defend established forces. An activists challenges established forces.
thank you! so so sooooo...
sick of the apologists... there is no good reason for what he's doing. no good one. plenty of bad ones though.... sigh...
you speak for me too type1!
Personality over principles.
They might as well call themselves Obamacrats. A truly "pragmatic" progressive could never call cuts to Social Security, a program not adding a dime to the deficit, a "pragmatic" solution to cutting the deficit.
The question is what can we do about it,
and not just against austerity but everything that matters to enlightened citizens. I wrote something the night before the election and said I could just cut and paste the same shit I wrote the first four years. It's true. All the writing about wars and empire, the national debt, banksters, etc., that were written thruout the last four years is going to be exactly the fucking same the next four years. Doing that in the same environment, i.e., primarily at DK and within the political establishment, is not going to do any good, none. The only way to make any progress toward real progressive or democratic goals is to organize those with like goals and reach out beyond the same old thing. The Obama loyalists are simply not going to change and even when you see pushback like we're seeing on that site against what Obama is going to do to SS, it is only a temporary thing. Those type of people think and rationalize differently than some of us. That's why I stopped writing there about eight months ago.
Quite.
Countless hours of time can be wasted in fighting random comment wars at Agent Orange to be seen by nobody except the comment warriors.
That doesn't mean that Agent Orange should not be used to spread information, but using it primary campaign style is pointless. Patient tutorials on the real world by those with the temperament to offer them without being drawn into the personal politics of the soon to be lame duck incumbent may be worthwhile, especially if, as in AC Meetup, it can be organized as an ongoing group which can develop anti-bodies against being dragged down into the hero worship mire ...
... but it cannot be seen as a primary action. That is fighting a battle against a well-organized, well-financed opponent that knows how to use the terrain to their advantage. And there is no doubt there that the thousands of "loyal Obama supporters" are mostly not the opponent there ~ they are the terrain.
They think?
That's a very generous statement, Al.
Hear! Hear!
The context is slightly different but you have them pegged. They do think and act like the President is their daddy and let it slip from time to time, which is why they are all emotion and no facts when defending him.
Great point, type1error!
Thanks, priceman!
I would love to see George Carlin do a bit on the Obamabots.
Austerity
Yay!
moar austerity please!
This is why we can't have nice things. You people opining on blogs. If you keep this up we'll have neoliberals running things.
Yep
The same people excusing Obama's plan to gut SS are the same people who repeat the debunked story that "emoprogs" stayed home in 2010 and put Republicans in power. If only we would spend our time clapping harder and cheering louder....
Oh gee, I never saw this one coming.
Hasn't anybody ever heard the saying, "the squeakiest wheel gets the grease"? Do people really think that zipping their lips and sitting on their hands does anything of use? Is a single fuck even given?
There's also the corrolary
"The nail that stands up gets pounded down." And the True Believers are always happy to do some pounding if they think you're saying bad things about Their Guy.
Thankfully there seems to be a bit of pushback this time.
The only people who didn't see this coming
are the ones who refuse to believe that Obama could ever make a mistake. I think that david mizner's diary at Orange State made that very clear.
If you accept Mussolini's definition of Fascism, Obama fits it..
to a tee. That is, he has consistently used the power of the government to advance corporate interests. He was never our President; he was, and is, their President.
None of this surprises me in the least. I find that sad, disgusting, and angering. As for DK, they should change their name to the Daily KOP, for Kult of Personality. Most of them are my class enemies.
I agree with you. My whole life I have been a member of
the Democratic Party and have knocked on doors, made phone calls, took challenger positions at polling sites, was in local "war rooms" to get out the vote long before GOTV was "fashionable" -- we used to use paper and pen or pencil and checked off on typewritten sheets what Democrats voted, and those who didn't vote, we'd send people to their door to hopefully convince them to vote.
DK has turned into a fan club. Policies and issues have flown out the window. If His Magesty, The King, Obama is in favor of something, anything, no matter what, well, then, all must hail the mighty King of the Democrats, including Congressional Democrats. wtf? I just don't get it -- well, I do, maybe, but it's crazy.