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Edited on Sun Feb-14-10 02:52 PM by FrenchieCat
and Examples of the disconnect between the two:
The President campaigned on working in a bipartisan manner and restoring civility and
honest debate to this country, and yet many of us "expect" this President to act
unilaterally partisan, to ram legislation past Republicans, all the while trash
talking them and kicking their asses.
The President ran as a non-ideologue moderate Democrat with progressive tendencies,
yet many "expected" a Tall Tan Kucinich, who would end all wars, nationalizes the Banks,
padlock insurance companies, cut our defense budget while establishing a Department of Peace.
Of course, Kucinich lost the primaries, let alone the general election.
The President was elected after he voted for the Wall Street bail-outs,
that was done due to the de-regulation brought to Wall Street in the last 30 years,
and although he cleaned up the entire Bail-out process once he got into office,
provided less funding to banks than what was originally legislated,
has gotten most of the money back that was given to the banks,
has proposed fees for the money that hasn't been returned as of yet,
and has proposed Wall Street re-regulation reforms,
he is still called out as a corporatist fighting on the side of the Banksters,
and yet with some the focus becomes "bonuses",
an issue that the Teabaggers felt was more important than the fact that
the last Republican administration is who gifted us with the economic meltdown.
The President campaigned on ending the War in Iraq, and yet no progress achieved in Iraq
is lauded as an accomplishment...instead, all energies are focused on the fact that
we are still in Afghanistan.
The President ran on a platform that included refocusing our efforts and escalating the war in Afghanistan,
and yet many of us "expected" this President to de-escalate the war in Afghanistan and
start bringing our troops home.
The President did NOT run on bringing forth a proposal of Single Payer healthCare,
and yet many of us "expected" this President to bring forth a proposal of Single Payer
healthcare from the get go, and started trashing the process as soon as Single Payer
health care was not set on the table.
The President was elected to some degree because of his eloquence and his potential power
at the bully pulpit, yet every time he speaks, we discount his words,
and say we don't want words, we demand "action".
The President asked that we give him help and support in order that he could get things done,
and instead, we "expect" him to do what needs to be done on his own...
and the only time he hears from us is when we loudly yell that we don't want whatever he is proposing,
and we don't like how he is doing just about everything.
The Corporate media is known for reporting twisted news,
writing negative headlines against Democrats,
being ran by corporate interests simply interested in deregulation
and lower corporate taxes, yet we buy everything that they say and print,
in particular if it is against this President and this administration,
plus we are willing to believe unnamed sources before
we believe this administration.
We say we hate the Republicans, and firmly believe that they fucked us hard,
and yet we do nothing to oppose them, as we in essence lend our voice to their choir,
and even seriously propose joining hands with the "teabaggers" in order to gain strength in
demanding and achieving What, I don't know.
The President offers us some of the most progressive budgets in decades,
and yet some of us work hard to find things in the proposed budgets
that we are against, and discuss that more than what is good in the budget.
The President reforms defense procurement, and increases pay for the military,
all which we ignore, and meanwhile complain that the defense budget is growing,
without looking at the details of it, ever.
Sure there were no overall cuts, and indeed that budget has grown,
but then again, this President never ran on cutting the defense budget in the mids of two wars.
The President proposed a nearly trillion dollar stimulus at the beginning of his administration,
yet most of us complained the entire time that it was too small,
while the opposition complained loudly that it was too big,
while no one gave the President credit that it was possibly as much as we could get,
and is the largest single all emcompassing piece of legislation that signified more
change than most Presidents have accomplished in their entire term(s) in office.
The President clearly states that he will not govern by polls, and yet, many of us
follow polls breathlessly, and don't seem to want to understand that there is a reason
that so much focus was placed on his initial sky high poll numbers
simply so that from that point on, any comparison of polls numbers would always make him
look like he was falling. If you didn't catch that, then I'm sorry.
As a Nation we lauded ourselves for electing the first African-American President; noting
with great pride the fact that many of the people of this great country did not allow
skin color to play a negative role in their vote choice, and yet, we have not, at any point,
allowed the first African-American President to govern, because we have been dictating
his every words, and his every moves starting at inauguration and hence since.
I give these examples, and there are actually many more of a disconnect going on between
some of the expectations that we had/have and what politics as the art of the possible means.
I believe and respect the need to hold the President's feet to the fire,
but as I have said many a times, we cannot burn his feet until he cannot walk.
That was true right after the inauguration, and that is still true today.
If we really want to understand what has happened, we should not simply look and point fingers
at this President, or even to some degree at this Congress (all who were duly elected by us),
but we should also look at ourselves and realize that we too are imperfect,
and that we have our own failings; failings that aren't helpful to this nation.....
and that in the end, although we may think we are helping this country move forward,
we may not be as effective as we should have "expected" ourselves to be in getting there.
Whether some of us are talking loudly about a one-term Presidency,
primarying the Prez 3 years from now after fighting him every step of the way in his first year,
claiming that we will be staying home in 2010 and possibly 2012 to teach everyone a lesson,
Publicly calling this Prez a wimp, a tool and a puppet; charging that he does not lead,
and saying that he equals Bush; these actions and words will far from advance this country,
and will not come close to bringing about the change that we "expected".
Instead, it will bring the exact opposite,
and if we don't understand that, than we must share, at the very least,
any blame we eagerly choose to dole out.
You may call this a rant, but for those of us who support not all, but much of what
this President has accomplished to date despite oppositions from every fucking single
side there is, we call it the truth.
(the President's opposition won't read this, so I figured I'd post it here,
although I also posted it at GDP in where the only comment was my own)
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