So this is goodbye from me. At least for a while. I wish you all the best and i'll pray for Obama's safety every day, because i've seen first hand how tragic can be the end of a visionary and forward-looking leader, when right wing lunatics decide to eliminate him and the left leaves him all alone.
- Daily Kos diarist, blackwaterdog
[insert heavy sigh here]
It was bad enough when, during the campaign, people who criticized Obamalama were labeled "racists". Now,
you are basically the one holding the gun to his head if you voice your opposition to his policies which, contrary to the laundry list of hyped-up crap in that diary, have been anything near "progressive".
But the
Leave Obama Alone! crowd can't deal with
reality hitting them in the face. Too much "doom and gloom", they say - as if it's all about how their poor feelings are getting hurt. Maybe they should sit down for a face to face with the families of the dead in Iraq and Afghanistan and talk "feelings". Maybe they should have a face to face with those who've been tortured who won't see any justice done by this administration and talk "feelings". Maybe they should have a face to face with people who are dying from a lack of proper health care and talk "feelings".
But, no. If the "left" (whatever is left of the left in the US surely isn't in
this Democratic party) abandons the Spelunker-in-Chief (I coined that term) who never met a cave he didn't like - he's as good as dead.
We joke about the insanity of the wingnuts who are showing up, completely misinformed while embarrassing themselves to no end, to the health care town halls. Pelosi and Hoyer have called their rabble-rousing
"un-American". (Them's fighting words.) Meanwhile, the so-called "left" on blogs like Daily Kos - who loudly cheered the protests in Iran while posts about US protests for universal health care on the site faded quietly into oblivion - can't even bring themselves to get their asses off their chairs to get out there to fight for their rights in
their country. No. Obama told them to
write their congresspeople (because that's so effective, isn't it?).
Conservatives typically despise unruliness. Oh how they hated the 60s. And this centrist bunch of self-identified "pragmatic" Dems - who also
chided every attempt by groups like Code Pink to bring attention to the horrific wrongs perpetrated by Bushco (and now continued by Obama's administration) - are stuck standing by while the right-wingers ironically claim the radical mantle of very public dissent.
The squeaky wheel gets the grease.
Rahm Emanuel says that
"Dems attacking other Dems are 'fucking stupid'". This, in the middle of a seriously muddled attempt to roll out a bill that the Dems have absolutely failed to explain.
Obama kicks the issue back to congress. But, because he believes he is the face of absolutely everything (and haven't
you felt like
selling your teevee too by now?), he
owns this mess. And he owns the fact that the wingnuts are having an absolute field day (
death panels, anyone?).
He
owns every single bad policy decision his government has enacted since he's been in office.
He wants to own it all. How many times have you seen one of his cabinet secretaries in the media explaining his policies? Does anybody even know who they are?
And, as has been noted ad nauseum by people who are actually in touch with reality on the
real left and who won't be guilted into backing off from criticizing him because of ridiculous claims like the one made by the above-quoted Daily Kos diarist, Obama has committed a slough of very non-progressive missteps.
He's only been in office 7 months!, they proclaim. As if he's going to change his very
character and wake up one morning soon to unleash his hidden inner liberal. Or maybe, they hope, Michelle will make him do it. (No, really. Some have actually said that.)
Read my lips: that's not going to happen.The Hopeyness train has left the station and it took the Changeyness policies with it.
You just can't call the wingnuts crazy while making equally crazy statements yourself.
If you can't stand the much-deserved criticism,
refresh, refresh, refresh and leave the rest of us alone.
Crossposted from
my place.
