Well, all this is interesting to me, anyway, and that's what matters here. The Internet is a terrible thing for someone like me, who finds almost everything interesting.
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
This is the Obama I voted for
This is the Barack Obama I voted for. I wanted a president who'd use that bully pulpit.
OK, Obama campaigned on bipartisanship - and he clearly meant it. For three years, he's bent over backward trying to work with Republicans. But this isn't the old GOP, which would at least try to do what was best for America.
Every since Obama was elected, the Republicans' single goal has been to regain power, whatever they had to do. They've been dragging their feet on the economy - even actively sabotaging the recovery (remember that debt ceiling debacle last summer?) - because an improving economy helps Barack Obama's chances. Who cares what this does to America and Americans!
With the GOP, it's entirely the end justifies the means. However much damage they have to do to America, it will be worth it if they get the presidency. That's how they think. It's no wonder that Mitt Romney is going to be their presidential nominee, because he thinks exactly the same way. The end - Mitt Romney as president - is everything; the means is immaterial. Whatever works.
It's been frustrating to see Obama bend over backward, again and again. He'd give Republicans half of what they wanted, as a goodwill gesture, and then "compromise" by giving them the rest. Actually, it's probably good that Republicans wouldn't move an inch - not even to take a deal with a ten to one advantage, as their presidential candidates so famously indicated in that debate - or he would have given them much, much more.
I sympathize. We need to work together. We need a rational Republican Party. But that's not what we've got. And we also need a president who'll use that bully pulpit to push our side, the progressive side, of things. It might be too late now. I hope not, but we'll see.
Anyway, it seems like Barack Obama is in campaign mode again, and I really like candidate Obama better than President Obama.
But candidate or president, he's a million times better than any of the Republican candidates!
I agree if he'd talked like this and had actions to match, then I would have been a lot happier with his presidency. I'd like to think that he's just done taking shit from the conservatives, but I'm afraid like you said that it's just candidate Obama and he'll disappear forever after the election.
No, John, I really think there's more to it than that. You just can't function as president without the opposition party, not unless you have an overwhelming majority in Congress.
For example, Democrats would need not just 60 Democrats in the Senate, but 60 Democrats who wouldn't join the constant Republican filibusters (like my own "Democratic" senator does).
Filibustering was never intended to be a tactic used for everything. The Senate was supposed to be a matter of simple majority rule, with supermajorities only needed occasionally. But Republicans have broken the Senate.
And, of course, Republicans now control the House of Representatives and the Supreme Court. (Admittedly, they only controlled the Supreme Court the first two years of his term, and it was Democratic timidity that might have lost them the House.) This isn't a dictatorship. There's no way a president can function effectively without the opposition party.
In effect, Republicans have broken America's system of government. Our government institutions don't work anymore, because Republicans value their own political ambition above everything else (or else they've just gone batshit crazy).
At any rate, Barack Obama had the right idea. A president has to work with the political opposition. Unfortunately, he's got the wrong opponents, so there's nothing he could do to appease them. Even adopting their own health care reform plan didn't do it!
IMHO, in a case like this, the only thing you can do is push your own side as hard as possible. Personally, I think that Barack Obama took too long to realize that. On the other hand, we're still suffering from the worst economic collapse since the Great Depression. And his compromises - yes, even the tax cuts - have made things better than they would otherwise have been.
He's really been between a rock and a hard place, John. He hasn't had any good options. And note that being an "angry black man" probably won't help him with most Americans, although his re-election probably depends more on how the economy is doing in November than anything else.
As long as the American people don't see what the Republicans are doing to us, we're not going to get out of this mess. I've been unhappy the past three years, but the reason for that has far more to do with the Republicans than with Obama.
I'm a skeptic. I think it makes sense to have reasons for what I believe, so I apportion my belief to the evidence. You're welcome to disagree. Please, tell me I'm wrong. I probably don't agree with anyone about everything. Why should disagreement be a problem? Check the Pages section below for series posts and links to book reviews and game posts, as well as contact info. Unfortunately, I rarely blog at all, anymore. So don't expect new posts. - Bill
We've all heard that a million monkeys banging on a million typewriters will eventually reproduce the entire works of Shakespeare. Now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true. - Robert Wilensky
It doesn't matter how beautiful your theory is, it doesn't matter how smart you are. If it doesn't agree with experiment, it's wrong - Richard Feynman
The general root of superstition is that men observe when things hit, and not when they miss, and commit to memory the one, and pass over the other. - Sir Francis Bacon
When a whole nation is roaring Patriotism at the top of its voice, I am fain to explore the cleanness of its hands and purity of its heart. - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Speculation is perfectly all right, but if you stay there you've only founded a superstition. If you test it, you've started a science. - Hal Clement
No matter how many times a theory meets its tests successfully, there can be no certainty that it will not be overthrown by the next observation. This, then, is a cornerstone of modern natural philosophy. It makes no claim of attaining ultimate truth. In fact, the phrase "ultimate truth" becomes meaningless, because there is no way in which enough observations can be made to make truth certain and, therefore, "ultimate". - Isaac Asimov
The government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion. - Treaty of Tripoli, passed unanimously by the U.S. Senate and signed by President John Adams (1797)
I don't doubt the sincerity of dowsers, but even after we've demonstrated that they can't produce results that are any better than chance they'll still go away believing in their abilities... It is like the mother whose son is caught shoplifting on tape. She wonders why someone would want to frame her child by producing a fake video. - James Randi
During many ages there were witches. The Bible said so. The Bible commanded that they should not be allowed to live. Therefore the Church ... imprisoned, tortured, hanged, and burned whole hordes and armies of witches, and washed the Christian world clean with their foul blood. Then it was discovered that there was no such thing as witches, and never had been. One does not know whether to laugh or to cry. - Mark Twain
Aristotle maintained that women have fewer teeth than men; although he was twice married, it never occurred to him to verify this statement by examining his wives' mouths. - Bertrand Russell
A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything. - Friedrich Nietzsche
I have been thinking that I would make a proposition to my Republican friends... that if they will stop telling lies about the Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them. - Adlai E. Stevenson, Jr.
This is not about proof. Science does not use proof. We favor evidence, and the work consists largely of the slow accumulation of evidence in support of ideas, not magically potent proofs that establish an idea as unassailable. - PZ Myers
No, people don't expect government to solve all their problems. But they sense, deep in their bones, that with just a slight change in priorities, we can make sure that every child in America has a decent shot at life, and that the doors of opportunity remain open to all. - President Barack Obama
The formula was very simple: build this really flexible, really open economy, tolerate creative destruction so dead capital is quickly redeployed to better ideas and companies, pour into it the most diverse, smart and energetic immigrants from every corner of the world and then stir and repeat, stir and repeat, stir and repeat, stir and repeat. - Shekhar Gupta
We are prodding, challenging, seeking contradictions or small, persistent residual errors, proposing alternative explanations, encouraging heresy. We give our highest rewards to those who convincingly disprove established beliefs. - Carl Sagan
We are all atheists about most of the gods that societies have ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further. - Richard Dawkins
120 million of us place the big bang 2,500 years after the Babylonians and Sumerians learned to brew beer. - Sam Harris
To kill a man is not to defend a doctrine, but to kill a man. - Michael Servetus, burned at the stake in 1553
Democracy is not about majority rule; it is about minority rights. If there is no culture of not simply tolerating minorities, but actually treating them with equal rights, real democracy can't take root. - Thomas L. Friedman
We cannot absolutely prove that those are in error who tell us that society has reached a turning point, that we have seen our best days. But so said all who came before us and with just as much apparent reason. - Thomas Macauley, 1830
It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can stop him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important. - Martin Luther King, Jr.
We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven into an age of unreason if we dig deep into our history and remember we are not descended from fearful men. - Edward R. Murrow
The deepest sin against the human mind is to believe things without evidence. Science is simply common sense at its best - that is, rigidly accurate in observation, and merciless to fallacy in logic. - Thomas Huxley
There is no absurdity so obvious that it cannot be firmly planted in the human head if you only begin to impose it before the age of five, by constantly repeating it with an air of great solemnity. - Arthur Schopenhauer
Because religious belief, or non-belief, is such an important part of every person's life, freedom of religion affects every individual. ... Erecting the "wall of separation between church and state," therefore, is absolutely essential in a free society. - President Thomas Jefferson
To be elected in America, no matter from what party, the candidates have no choice but to year after year pledge to lower taxes further and further. We have become the nation of Ken and Barbie, looking good but very poor at the math. - Rack Jite
Invisible Pink Unicorns are beings of great spiritual power. We know this because they are capable of being invisible and pink at the same time. Like all religions, the Faith of the Invisible Pink Unicorns is based upon both logic and faith. We have faith that they are pink; we logically know that they are invisible because we can't see them. - Steve Eley
We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals; we know now that it is bad economics. - President Franklin D. Roosevelt
I have been attacked by Rush Limbaugh on the air, an experience somewhat akin to being gummed by a newt. It doesn't actually hurt, but it leaves you with slimy stuff on your ankle. - Molly Ivins
In this world of sin and sorrow there is always something to be thankful for; as for me, I rejoice that I am not a Republican. - H. L. Mencken
Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts. - Winston Churchill
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2 comments:
I agree if he'd talked like this and had actions to match, then I would have been a lot happier with his presidency. I'd like to think that he's just done taking shit from the conservatives, but I'm afraid like you said that it's just candidate Obama and he'll disappear forever after the election.
No, John, I really think there's more to it than that. You just can't function as president without the opposition party, not unless you have an overwhelming majority in Congress.
For example, Democrats would need not just 60 Democrats in the Senate, but 60 Democrats who wouldn't join the constant Republican filibusters (like my own "Democratic" senator does).
Filibustering was never intended to be a tactic used for everything. The Senate was supposed to be a matter of simple majority rule, with supermajorities only needed occasionally. But Republicans have broken the Senate.
And, of course, Republicans now control the House of Representatives and the Supreme Court. (Admittedly, they only controlled the Supreme Court the first two years of his term, and it was Democratic timidity that might have lost them the House.) This isn't a dictatorship. There's no way a president can function effectively without the opposition party.
In effect, Republicans have broken America's system of government. Our government institutions don't work anymore, because Republicans value their own political ambition above everything else (or else they've just gone batshit crazy).
At any rate, Barack Obama had the right idea. A president has to work with the political opposition. Unfortunately, he's got the wrong opponents, so there's nothing he could do to appease them. Even adopting their own health care reform plan didn't do it!
IMHO, in a case like this, the only thing you can do is push your own side as hard as possible. Personally, I think that Barack Obama took too long to realize that. On the other hand, we're still suffering from the worst economic collapse since the Great Depression. And his compromises - yes, even the tax cuts - have made things better than they would otherwise have been.
He's really been between a rock and a hard place, John. He hasn't had any good options. And note that being an "angry black man" probably won't help him with most Americans, although his re-election probably depends more on how the economy is doing in November than anything else.
As long as the American people don't see what the Republicans are doing to us, we're not going to get out of this mess. I've been unhappy the past three years, but the reason for that has far more to do with the Republicans than with Obama.
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