I've been getting an ear full from people in the progressive/liberal/left/green communities complaining about how President Obama hasn't made Camelot materialize yet:
www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2009/12/02/notes120209.DTL
I'd like to present you with a short list, below, of the new president's achievements in his first year in office:
www.dailykos.com/story/2009/11/19/805925/-90-Accomplishments-of-Pres.-Obama-Which-The-Media-Fails-to-Report
Also, the current president has kicked out many of the lobbyists from Washington:
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/26/AR2009112602362.html
So as well as helping to calm down the understandable but unjustified and harsh criticisms from disappointed people who elected Obama with all of this good news, I would also like to present this same community with a valuable point of reflection:
www.slate.com/id/2236708
For people who are losing their homes (or who have already lost them), people who cannot marry their same-sex partner, people who have a family or friend deployed or dead in one of our wars, people who are desperately unemployed, your anguish does not yet (or perhaps cannot) have a resolution. That's the sad consequence of 8 years of the most reactionary and destructive administration in US history. That much damage sustained over such a long period of time cannot and will not be undone overnight.
I am very sorry for your loss. Patience, hope, and struggle is the best thing I can suggest to you. For example, you can join a group such as Marriage Equality USA (https://www.marriageequality.org) or Courage Campaign (https://www.couragecampaign.org) to help you fight for your marriage rights. All other causes have a nonprofit organization that will help you fight for your interests.
Edward
Sara S
12-06-2009, 06:44 AM
As noted before here by someone, see this, too:
Mark Morford's Notes & Errata =====
SFGate.com - Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Obama, the great disappointment?
The Miracle President hasn't actually accomplished much? Wrong
By Mark Morford
I've been getting an ear full from people in the progressive/liberal/left/green communities complaining about how President Obama hasn't made Camelot materialize yet:
www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2009/12/02/notes120209.DTL (https://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2009/12/02/notes120209.DTL)
I'd like to present you with a short list, below, of the new president's achievements in his first year in office:
www.dailykos.com/story/2009/11/19/805925/-90-Accomplishments-of-Pres.-Obama-Which-The-Media-Fails-to-Report (https://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/11/19/805925/-90-Accomplishments-of-Pres.-Obama-Which-The-Media-Fails-to-Report)
Also, the current president has kicked out many of the lobbyists from Washington:
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/26/AR2009112602362.html (https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/26/AR2009112602362.html)
So as well as helping to calm down the understandable but unjustified and harsh criticisms from disappointed people who elected Obama with all of this good news, I would also like to present this same community with a valuable point of reflection:
www.slate.com/id/2236708 (https://www.slate.com/id/2236708)
For people who are losing their homes (or who have already lost them), people who cannot marry their same-sex partner, people who have a family or friend deployed or dead in one of our wars, people who are desperately unemployed, your anguish does not yet (or perhaps cannot) have a resolution. That's the sad consequence of 8 years of the most reactionary and destructive administration in US history. That much damage sustained over such a long period of time cannot and will not be undone overnight.
I am very sorry for your loss. Patience, hope, and struggle is the best thing I can suggest to you. For example, you can join a group such as Marriage Equality USA (https://www.marriageequality.org) or Courage Campaign (https://www.couragecampaign.org) to help you fight for your marriage rights. All other causes have a nonprofit organization that will help you fight for your interests.
Edward
justme
12-06-2009, 08:18 AM
I agree. It is near impossible to reconstruct faith, cooperation and ethics after an administration of 8 years that reduced our government to a near dictatorship.
I say give President Obama more time and hope that all our elected official can come together, at least for constructive dialog.
Sciguy
12-06-2009, 11:03 PM
This kind of willingness to hand Obama years of time to prove himself and undo a near dictatorship (which I agree was horrible) seems just plain silly to me. I know he is under the thumb of the neocons and imperialists who believe in torture, war and other anti-human activities but that's exactly the problem. Why does he allow himself to be whipsawed by these monsters? He could outlaw torture in an afternoon. And get rid of extraordinary rendition in another afternoon. And pack in Bush's wars in a week (he took three months to make a decision). He could release classified documents and photos and stop using phony security arguments to stop legitimate lawsuits against the government. He could fire Geithner and put in a progressive. These things don't take such a long time as you seem to be imagining. They take guts. Such as Chavez has. And Zelaya. People who take action. Obama thinks that he has made it. I'll bet he has managed to convince himself that he actually deserves a Nobel prize. Give him time to solve the problem of Goldman Sachs manufacturing bubbles. Give him time to build up employment by creating new jobs. Give him time to get rid of lobbyist corruption. Those things would take time. But don't give him time for the overnight stuff. He needs to be taken to task for his easy acceptance of poor Americans' shattered lives without health care (he took single payer off the table), for his acceptance of the decimation of the middle class and for his eagerness to drop bombs on innocent people. These changes are what are needed for him to "reconstruct faith and ethics", not giving him time.
And yes, I can see that he made some significant improvements. But he digs in his heels against the big and most important changes.
I agree. It is near impossible to reconstruct faith, cooperation and ethics after an administration of 8 years that reduced our government to a near dictatorship.
I say give President Obama more time and hope that all our elected official can come together, at least for constructive dialog.
Neshamah
12-08-2009, 10:25 AM
The biggest difference between Barack Obama and George Bush is competence. That is a big difference, and our biggest problems now continue to be those created or aggravated by the previous administration.
However, fundamentally they are not that different. Both have enlarged the government and further involved us in foreign entanglements, all with money that our children and grandchildren may or may not ever be able to pay back.
I really believed that the three months he took to make a decision on Afghanistan was to delay the announcement of a withdrawal. Bin Laden is in Pakistan, and it is not clear our presence in Afghanistan is a long-term benefit to anyone. The worst thing he could have done was continue the Bush policy of trying to fight a war with as few resources as possible. His surge might be enough, but it could also be further lives and resources lost for no gain. I hope he will be successful, but success will not justify the reckless investment of American resources beyond what is permitted to any U.S. President under the Constitution.
(I must say though, I am very amused to hear that Dick Cheney and Karl Rove would dare to criticize Obama about anything. He is a sitting President in a time of war!)
Obama is a vast improvement over Bush, but in 2012 I think we can aim for better than competent continuation of Republican/Democrat overspending and overextending. (That doesn't mean I won't give up on election day if Obama is still the least terrible candidate, but there's no sense in giving up now.)
~ Jessica
theindependenteye
12-08-2009, 06:00 PM
>>Obama is a vast improvement over Bush, but in 2012 I think we can aim for better than competent continuation of Republican/Democrat overspending and overextending. (That doesn't mean I won't give up on election day if Obama is still the least terrible candidate, but there's no sense in giving up now.)
I pretty much agree, except that I'm still more of a naive believer in Obama. I know that on this thread the idea of "give him time" was pooh-poohed, but Jesus Christ! We had two wars going, sliding into a Depression, not to mention the health-care crisis, the energy crisis, the Mideast crisis, the global warming crisis, so what the hell do you expect in 11 months???
He's moved to address all these, in varying degrees. You & I may not like taking single-payer off the table, but do you truly think that would get through Congress without an armed revolution in this country? (And, y'know, the other side are the gun nuts.) Yes, he's trying to stake out a middle-of-the-road position, and there's a bunch of stuff that rubs me the wrong way, but this isn't Sebastopol, it's the fuckin' US of A. You don't make sharp U-turns with the Titanic, no matter how much you'd like to.
I agree with the person who said, well, there are lots of things he could do right now, by executive order. But in my apologist mode, I would say that if I were the Prez, if I were getting blasted from all sides and putting all the chips on the table with health care, I'd be very cautious about starting other wildfires. For example, yes, I think he's sincere about gay issues; but yes, I think they're going to have to wait.
Afghanistan,yeh, he's trying to have it both ways: get in and stay out. Typical Libra thinking. Personally, I'd like to get the fuck out. But can anyone truly make the argument that any politician in a position of power could (a) start the withdrawal tomorrow and (b) survive the next three years of news reports of Taliban victories, atrocities against women, civil war in Pakistan, and a steady drumbeat of denunciation for being "soft on extremism"?
What I see right now is an absolute stone-wall from the conservatives, who correctly believe that *any* Obama victory will prop him up, and any defeat will bring him down; while from the Left, there's this overwhelming chorus of booes that he's not Che Guevara or the Second Coming of Christ (Secular Version).
Right now, to me the most likely scenario is that progressives will stay home in droves in 2010, we'll have a Republican Congress and a lame-duck President, with Huckabee or Gingrich (both pushed even further Right by Palin et al) in 2012 — with the Left congratulating itself, as it did in 1932 Germany, that once it gets really worse, it'll get better.
My optimism, though, is based on the notion that we're all so fucked up that nothing's predictable.