I cannot take the meta anymore. ViaShakesville, which:
Regular readers may recall that although I
supported Clinton’s candidacy, I frequently said that I’d be more than
happy to vote for either of them. I wasn’t just saying that to be nice,
nor was it a “any Democrat will do” kind of thing. It’s because I (no
political expert to be sure) could see quite clearly thatthey’re not that different.
I don’t mean that there weren’t policy differences between them
(although, really, there weren’t many). What I mean is that despite the
ridiculously childish acrimony between their campaigns, they themselves
are obviously of similar character and temperament. In fact, I suspect
(although I have no proof of this) they get alonggreat. I think she’s had his back since she endorsed him, and I believe she’ll be a loyal and effective member of his team.
How did all our clever liberal writers miss this?
Speaking only for me, and trust me, I’m sure I’m not included in “all our clever liberal writers,” but … my aspirations for an Obama presidency — for that matter, a Clinton one — were pretty basic. Try not to screw us too often or hard. End the war. Fix health care. I realize these are criminally low expectations to apply to our leadership but I personally don’t think the choices were ever put to me as “new man made of moonbeams” versus “THE NEVERENDING SUCK.” And while I’m sure there were clever liberal writers overwhelmed by the majesty of Obama or whatever, and I’m sure there were plenty of Obama supporters who were, there were plenty of others who said pretty much what I felt, which was that Obama’s campaign was a sight to behold and that once in office he’d need constant shoving in the right directions.
I live in the state Obama worked in and he didn’t transform it into a place where cotton candy grew on all the trees and unicorns nibbled from it at lunch. He did things that impressed me, and things that pissed me off, like any Democrat. Maybe this confusion at how I’m supposed to be enraged at how taken in I was is a consequence of my having spent the primary wars pissed off that all our clever liberal writers couldn’t have given a damn about my candidate, the only one, by the by, with the balls to stand up for the rule of law in this country, not that anyone gave a shit anymore once he shook Joe Lieberman’s dick off for him.
And by the by, being annoyed at Obama isn’t a sign that progressives are over, or that he doesn’t care, or that we were OMG DECEIVED and should go home and beat our breasts in apology for having gotten jacked up about the guy. It’s a sign that he isn’t doing everything we want. And we should ask for what we want.There’s a whole form right here. Go fill it out instead of lifing the rest of the blogosphere about how YOU ALL GOT SUCKERED HA HA HA.
A.
thank you.
Simple facts – no politician is going to be perfect for everyone. That said, for every thousand people out there who are thinking “Man, I like Obama, and I supported him, but I sure wish he’d focus more on X” or “hadn’t voted for Y”, there’s a person out there who thinks that everything that Obama has done and plans to do are absolutely exactly what they voted for.
There is no perfect candidate. We had Bill Clinton, who tried to do what the people wanted more often than when he had to do what they needed him to do, but hated him for doing. I think Obama will be a little less a poll-watcher, and that we’ll likely come out on the other side in a better place for it.
which was that Obama’s campaign was a sight to behold
and I think that’s critical to this discussion. Obama (the man and the campaign) lifted Dems up in a very literal way. 1) they ran an amazing game- it was obvious they were playing to win, were careful not to make idiotic mistakes, and in fact, that they could actually win. That was exciting to say the least.
2) the campaign and the man inspired people. As noted before, we badly needed inspiration after the Bush regime. Confidence alone wasn’t going to do it, we needed-in a very real, literal way, a reason to believe again. We needed to feel enfranchised, and that’s a pretty fucking heady thing to really feel. And really feeling it was a necessity for the momentum.
I remember very clearly the way I felt about Clinton during his campaign- I was excited because I thought he could win, and it was important for him to win, but he didn’t inspire me the way Obama has done. The stakes were high, but they didn’t seem as high as the 2008 election.
So, yeah, just talking about the campaign- it was a sight to behold. And no mean feat. Was it also a set up? For those who let it be, I guess.
i get my own FDR. vietnam and mcCarthyism wasn’t as good to relive.
There was a study done about the Dem primary candidates positions & the people’s perception of those positions. Bottom line assesment: Major dissapointment after the election, no matter who the Dem was. The people’s perception was always to the left of the candidates actual position. Obama is Bill-lite. Hillary is a moderate republican (right of even Bill). There was only one person that is an actual liberal: Kucinich. The rest were center, or a bit right of center.
I’m glad Obama won the election, but it would be nice if an actual liberal could be elected sometime this century.
Don’t be upset that Obama is not liberal enough. Be upset that the marketing machinery deceived you.
I think the Matt Taibbi comment in the current issue of Rolling Stone said it for me: “We feel like ourselves again.” Obama isn’t perfect, but with him at the helm I feel like I’ve gotten my country back, like it’s the country I was raised to believe in. Obama won’t give me everything I want, but how cool is it that he’s actually soliciting our views, and that I’m getting emails from David Pfouffe inviting me to house parties to brainstorm how to promote a progressive agenda? No president has done that in the past, to my knowledge. So, as Athenae said, we should take advantage of it.
i got my god back too.