Tonight during a birthday dinner for the boyfriend's mother I received a cell phone call and, thinking it was my office manager, I answered it. Instead of my office manager, it was a caller for Obama's "Organizing America" who was asking for money. I stepped away from the table and in essence told her where she and President Obama could shove it and asked that my name be deleted from their telephone lists until such time as Obama delivered on his campaign promises and that, oh by the way, the Senate health care reform bill is NOT was promised during Obama's campaign. I know that I am not the only one disgusted with Obama's betrayal of many of his campaign supporters. I also realize that the problem is bigger than just Obama. The Congressional Democrats are spineless and willing to sell out average Americans at the drop of a feather - or more accurately, promises from the insurance and drug manufacturer lobbies. Politico has a column that looks at what I believe will become and ever increasing problem for Obama and the Democrats - here are some highlights:*
The outrage among some of America’s most vocal liberals at President Barack Obama’s failure to expand government-run health care caps a year of disappointments for Obama’s allies on the left and raises worrying questions for Democrats in the 2010 midterm elections. The revolt led by former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean comes after a series of more contained disappointments among traditional Democratic constituencies that invested heavily in Obama — unions, gays, civil libertarians, Hispanics and anti-war Democrats, among others — who have seen specific promises deferred and grand hopes of systematic change denied.
*
The disillusion has produced a growing tide of organizing energy — and money — among liberals aimed at dragging the White House back to where many supporters believe Obama’s heart really lies. Union presidents have discarded their talking points and are openly sparring with the White House, while gay rights activists threaten civil disobedience, the ACLU keeps litigating, and congressional Hispanic leaders work to force their issues into the debate.
*
But while those actions may actually create politically useful space to the president’s left, the other consequence of disillusion is what polls have found to be deepening apathy among Democratic voters.
*
Perhaps the first to complain were gays and lesbians, who found an administration living in the shadow of Bill Clinton’s disastrous attempt early in his first term to end a ban on gays in the military. Obama had promised on the campaign trail to be a fierce advocate” on behalf of gay rights and to fight to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act. But as a series of states legalized same-sex marriage in 2009, he offered minor gestures, such as naming a gay ambassador to New Zealand.
*
“I don’t think anyone expected too much. He created those expectations,” said David Mixner, a gay activist who said the Obama letdown was worse than that of the early Clinton years, when Mixner, a major Clinton fundraiser, was arrested outside the White House in protest. Mixner said he’s even more disappointed by Obama.
*
Hispanic leaders have also found themselves losing patience with the Obama White House. The president promised to make immigration reform a “top priority” during his first year in office, and he won overwhelming Hispanic support against a Southwestern Republican, John McCain, once known for his appeal to Hispanic voters. . . . The Congressional Hispanic Caucus, fed up with the delay, finally introduced legislation this week over the conspicuous silence of a distracted White House.
*
Even the union leader closest to the White House, Andrew Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union, felt obliged Thursday to press Obama on his own commitments. “President Obama must remember his own words from the campaign,” Stern wrote members. “His call of ‘Yes, We Can’ was not just to us, not just to the millions of people who voted for him, but to himself.
*
[T]he anger has consequences. With established liberal organizations biting their tongues and standing with the White House, others are filling the gap, raising money and getting attention by attacking Obama from his left. The old Dean campaign organization, Democracy for America, has returned to join the health care debate with an attack on the individual mandate. The blog FireDogLake has developed a political action arm aiming darts at Emanuel. And the new Progressive Change Campaign Committee has carved out a role as the MoveOn of the left flank.
*
The outrage among some of America’s most vocal liberals at President Barack Obama’s failure to expand government-run health care caps a year of disappointments for Obama’s allies on the left and raises worrying questions for Democrats in the 2010 midterm elections. The revolt led by former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean comes after a series of more contained disappointments among traditional Democratic constituencies that invested heavily in Obama — unions, gays, civil libertarians, Hispanics and anti-war Democrats, among others — who have seen specific promises deferred and grand hopes of systematic change denied.
*
The disillusion has produced a growing tide of organizing energy — and money — among liberals aimed at dragging the White House back to where many supporters believe Obama’s heart really lies. Union presidents have discarded their talking points and are openly sparring with the White House, while gay rights activists threaten civil disobedience, the ACLU keeps litigating, and congressional Hispanic leaders work to force their issues into the debate.
*
But while those actions may actually create politically useful space to the president’s left, the other consequence of disillusion is what polls have found to be deepening apathy among Democratic voters.
*
Perhaps the first to complain were gays and lesbians, who found an administration living in the shadow of Bill Clinton’s disastrous attempt early in his first term to end a ban on gays in the military. Obama had promised on the campaign trail to be a fierce advocate” on behalf of gay rights and to fight to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act. But as a series of states legalized same-sex marriage in 2009, he offered minor gestures, such as naming a gay ambassador to New Zealand.
*
“I don’t think anyone expected too much. He created those expectations,” said David Mixner, a gay activist who said the Obama letdown was worse than that of the early Clinton years, when Mixner, a major Clinton fundraiser, was arrested outside the White House in protest. Mixner said he’s even more disappointed by Obama.
*
Hispanic leaders have also found themselves losing patience with the Obama White House. The president promised to make immigration reform a “top priority” during his first year in office, and he won overwhelming Hispanic support against a Southwestern Republican, John McCain, once known for his appeal to Hispanic voters. . . . The Congressional Hispanic Caucus, fed up with the delay, finally introduced legislation this week over the conspicuous silence of a distracted White House.
*
Even the union leader closest to the White House, Andrew Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union, felt obliged Thursday to press Obama on his own commitments. “President Obama must remember his own words from the campaign,” Stern wrote members. “His call of ‘Yes, We Can’ was not just to us, not just to the millions of people who voted for him, but to himself.
*
[T]he anger has consequences. With established liberal organizations biting their tongues and standing with the White House, others are filling the gap, raising money and getting attention by attacking Obama from his left. The old Dean campaign organization, Democracy for America, has returned to join the health care debate with an attack on the individual mandate. The blog FireDogLake has developed a political action arm aiming darts at Emanuel. And the new Progressive Change Campaign Committee has carved out a role as the MoveOn of the left flank.
*
Obama and the Congressional Democrats had a mandate and they have pissed away the opportunity for the systemic change so many people want. Assuming, of course, that they were not lying all of the time during the 2008 campaign. Locally, Congressman Glenn Nye has done NOTHING as promised and has a voting record more like that of former Congresswoman Thelma Drake who was at least honest on where she stood on issues. Unless something changes radically, November 2010 may be a reprise of Virginia's state wide races in 2009.
No comments:
Post a Comment