Change? Hope? Why do I feel like I've been sold a faulty product?

[NoodleyAppendage]

The night of Obama's election win I, and I suspect millions of others, thought that we were getting a truly transformative President who was going to reset the balance of power in Washington to favor "The People." I was hopeful, estatic, and after a very long hiatus, felt that our country was moving back to what our Forefathers like Jefferson envisioned. Those were great times...but sadly transient.

Now, I'm presented with prima facie evidence that Obama is nothing more than Bill Clinton lite (i.e., a corporate lapdog Democrat). We now have irrefutable evidence that Obama is less interested in the lofty goals he ran upon during the election (and elequently communicated in his speeches) and more interested in just "getting a deal." The willingness to bend our collective dreams for a populist revival against the ever growning corporate hegemony to "get a deal" is distressing. It reveals two possibilities: 1.) Obama doesn't practice what he preaches and is just another politican caring more about longevity over principle; or 2.) Obama is powerless against corporate special interests. I can't decide which is more terrifying, but I suspect the latter is the case.

So, this brings me to the conclusion that I am powerless, have no real voice or representation, and we really are just disposable cogs in a machine that produces the illusion of representative democracy. This conclusion is probably being reached by others as well this week as we see the insurance industry essentially give the middle finger to the American people. Yet another prime example of how the America we like to dream is real is only an illusion.

Mr. Obama, I really believed in you. I really thought you were "the one." But, I see that you are either powerless or a puppet. Neither makes me enthusiastic about voting for your re-election.

J

[rubberducky]

1. More and more some posters here sound like FR posters.

"the one"???? So maybe we should all become teabaggers??

[NoodleyAppendage]

5. You didn't hope for a liberal champion? n/t

J

[Bluebear]

7. Point out exactly how the OP's disappointment makes him a "FR poster", please.

[polpilot]

15. Great honest post. The last thing Obama needs now is a legion of enablers.

He needs honest instructiion and advice. Some time at 'Capitulators Anonymous' would benefit him greatly.

[dflprincess]

57. The OP dared to question Obama

therefore, he must be a Freeper or Teabagger. I think that's how the logic goes.

[QC]

33. Yeah, like the freepers who believed that George W. Bush was anointed by God.

We have quite a few people like that here.

[phasma ex machina]

44. ITYM "left baggers" HTH nt

[Cleita]

2. Not faulty as much as mislabeled.

We bought a product without opening the box first to look at it.

[cherokeeprogressive]

8. I have a different analogy with the same context...

We bought a product that was rushed to market because its inventors thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread. The reality is it hadn't gone through the normal testing, and its flaws had yet to be exposed.

[Ildem09]

12. that is fantastic!

I like that analogy! State Senator Obama was a decent liberal but then again he was in Illinois, his Senate Campaign was a coronation because he didn't have a viable opponent. Then Bam 04 Boston Speech and Hope and Change comes on line.

[Donnachaidh]

16. we were sold a bill of goods on a GRAND scale -- starting with Oprah's show.

The *box* was actually the peanut in a three card monti game and we really didn't have a chance to look at it.

[bvar22]

32. "We bought a product without opening the box.."

AND they are hoping we will do the same with the Health Insurance Profit Enhancement Bill".

[grasswire]

3. You and I might be powerless, but WE are not powerless

The power still lies in the people.

It's just a matter of turning You and I into WE.

[NoodleyAppendage]

4. That's what I thought we did in 2008!

There was a whole bunch of "WE" that got out and mobilized the vote for Obama. He got the youth vote out for christsakes! How many of those youth are going to return for his reelection is highly debatable, and that's no fault but his own.

J

[grasswire]

9. well, WE need to act on our own behalf, not for a politician.

There apparently is a failure to communicate what WE are willing to do.

When WE are willing to stand in solidarity in a general strike, then WE are going to get somewhere.

[Goldstein1984]

13. YES--General strikes and boycotts

These are what we need to send the message.

They put the economy and their own economic welfare above all else.

To make them fear us, we have to be a threat to both.

[FrenchieCat]

6. I believe that it's a result of wanting so badly to go giant steps forward,

after so many years of being forced to take steps back.....

Not wanting to consider the limitations of the office after only 11 months,
and closing eyes to the influence on public opinion by a media and the GOP who are joined as a block,
to keep the status quo at any price.

It is an unrealistic view as to what one man can do in very little time, when there is an entire mountain of seen and the unseen problems that cannot be fixed during the commercial, so that by the end of the show, everything has been solved, and there is a happy ending.

It's feeling that it isn't fair that the GOP governed with an authoritarian hand, and although we didn't like that, we do like it if is one of ours doing it....meaning hypocrisy is ok, as long as we are the ones doing payback.

It is fancying that everyone should want what we want and should agree to do it exactly the way we determine...kind of like being in the backseat, anticipating the driver's every move, and being disappointed when we discover we don't have that kind of control, but that we can still get to our destination, even if someone takes a different route.

"Anyone who is “betrayed by their naiveté” should feel doubly ridiculous for thinking the change they voted for would come overnight. Status quo is not “kicked out of the door” like a weak, stray cat. Status quo has to be rallied against, systems have to be put in place to combat it, people have to put in work. Status quo will remain the “status quo” if people are too lazy to stick around for the entire fight."

[griffi94]

18. while obama is only 1 man

and big dramatic change takes time....bush seemed to get everything he wanted. now bush had the catastrophic events of 9-11 that he used as an excuse for everything from war to taxcuts for the rich.
obama had an equally catastrophic event in the form of economic meltdown.
why wasn't that meltdown used to bring real reform...the people gave him a solid mandate for change instead of fdr we got bill clinton and more triangulation which kills you just as dead in the long run.
i'm not relly down on obama as i never really thought he had the experience to pull it off anyway, but the squandered opportunity is still a bit hard to swallow.

[Andronex]

35. "but the squandered opportunity"

The bankers would disagree with you...

[griffi94]

36. lol

unfortunately i'm not a banker. just an underemployed construction worker.

[Bluenorthwest]

24. No it is his anti equality crap and his lies about mandates

that has people pissed off. I know you have not watched politics for long, but the Bush years are not all the rest of us know. Obama promised leadership, which he seems incapable of delivering. He claimed to be strongly opposed to mandated purchase, claimed Hillary was terrible to force people to buy insurance and clearly said that if it was affordable and a good product, people would not have to be forced to buy it. This is what he said. He said he'd looked at other opinions and no one could dispute that his plan would work without mandates.
Because I oppose this Forced Purchase, I overcame my objections to Obama's pandering and religionist bigotry, and gave him my vote. He then took up Hillary's position at once. He lied to get my vote. Lied. A man who claims his deep religious devotion demands that he oppose equal civil rights lied with ease to get what he wanted. He spouts the pro slavery author Saul of Tarsus to rationalize his bigotry, but he never addresses his thinking on the 'slaves obey your masters as if they were the Lord' stuff, oh no. In his 'faith' it is said that we should respect our elders, but charge them 4x more for it. Hallelujah!

[snot]

10. So long as the people outnumber the powerful,

we are not powerless, merely unwilling to exert our true power.

[hughee99]

11. You had your "hope" at election time...

I guess you didn't figure it would have the same shelf life as fresh fruit. In the end, Obama will run unopposed in the primary, and against some repuke clown (maybe a tea-bagger) in '12. Some people may not be enthusiastic about voting for him, but they'll do it anyway given the choices.

[Tesha]

48. The difference is that without a Ross Perot in the election, Obama will be blown out...

...in the 2012 election. (The Congress will have been lost in 2010.)

Tesha

[ixion]

14. I had high hopes when Clinton was elected, too

and I felt the same betrayal as I watched him carry on the status quo. I guardedly hoped Obama would be different, but I'm not at all surprised that he's not.

He carries the water for the shadow government, just like they all do.

[Name removed]

17. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[shadesofgray]

19. Because you have been.

[Goldstein1984]

20. From Shelley's "The Mask of Anarchy" quoted in

Howard Zinn's "The Peoples History of the United States":

"Rise like lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number--
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you--
Ye are many--they are few."

Shelley wrote "The Mask of Anarchy" in response to a riot that occurred when government forces (drunk cavalry and militia) charged into a crowd of people marching for reform in Parliament.

I remembered the lines when I watched news coverage of the G20 protesters in Philadelphia being attacked by police using rubber bullets, tear gas and LRAD weapons, and when a protester using Twitter to let the protesters know where the police were was arrested and his apartment ransacked by "authorities."

Too many Americans are still slumbering, which, as George Carlin pointed out, the only place you can believe in the American Dream.

"We the people" are just pieces on a game board as long as we allow it to be so.

[NoodleyAppendage]

34. You gave me another item to put on my book list. Thanks!

Haven't ventured beyond Shelley's Frankenstein, but now I will!!

J

[Goldstein1984]

42. More recommended reading:

"Reveille for Radicals" by Saul Alinsky

"The Mask of Anarchy" was written by Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Shelley's husband.

They were an amazing team, progressives far ahead of their time.

[LastNaturalist]

21. Because you're not paying attention. You probably don't get out of the house much.

One of those. Maybe both.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

22. It's called the old bait and switch con.

[GreenArrow]

23. Obama is the only Presidential winner

I've ever voted for. I feel a lot better about my votes for the ones who lost.

[onenote]

38. so does that mean you would feel better if you had voted for mccain/palin?

[GreenArrow]

41. How do you figure that?

I voted for Obama largely as a vote against Sarah Palin. I voted for Obama as a repudiation of 8 years of the policies of George W. Bush. I voted for Obama out of deference to and solidarity with my black friends. I certainly didn't vote for him because of his policy stands, with a couple of exceptions: he didn't vote for Iraq, and he was opposed to insurance mandates. Those two issues were enough to differentiate him from his "viable" opponents. I voted for him tepidly at best, with the hope that he would govern more from the left as President, rather than as the corporate creature he appeared on the campaign trail.

I'd have felt better voting for third party left or simply sitting it out.

[treestar]

58. Then you should be happy

If you only voted to avoid McCain/Palin, then you have what you want. You can even just tune out. You didn't agree with these policies anyway, you're just willing to live with them since at least we're not under the neocon cabal any more.

[GreenArrow]

60. there's that little "hope and change" thing

My head said it was bullshit, my heart said maybe...My heart was wrong.

At least Palin lost; the country could survived, say, McCain/Pawlenty, those two being garden variety sold out pols, but Palin is sick in potentially really dangerous ways. So, yeah, I do have that to be happy about. Unfortunately, she's still in the public eye.

Tune out? No thanks, I live in this country, and I care about it. I think we're on the wrong track. I'd probably be happier if I was oblivious to the whole process.

[PurityOfEssence]

50. Obviously, anyone who doesn't love the champion loves the enemy.

How do you process such a dysfunctional bit of "thinking" as that? Is this an actual bit of complete irrationality, or is it just chickenshit demonization of someone who disagrees? The poster doesn't feel closer to the others for their having lost, but for what they believed. How does this translate into smearing this person as someone truly more in league with McCain? It's OBVIOUS that the greater perceived liberality of the others is what engendered misty-eyed feelings.

[GreenArrow]

61. thanks for the good word, POE

..."doesn't feel closer to the others for their having lost, but for what they believed". Seems like it ought to be an easy enough concept to understand.

[cliffordu]

25. ....Er...Cause you thought you were buying a toaster???

[ProgressIn2008]

26. If one was looking for "transformation" from a politician, one bought a faulty product

willingly and ought to have asked more critical questions at the time of purchase, it could be argued. And as long as that continues to happen, then yes, one will be a disposable cog in the machine.

[rollingrock]

27. Because you were young and impressionable?

those like myself who may be a little older and hence a bit more experienced with elections, were more skeptical during the Obama campaign, but we still voted for him...and to our dismay, he turned out to be just as two-faced as Bill Clinton was...so I wasn't as shocked because I was almost expecting it.

[Vidar]

28. K&R.

[Ladyhawk]

29. I only believed him for, like, 8 seconds.

OK, maybe it was six weeks after the election. I gave him the benefit of the doubt and tried to hope. The thing is, false hope is worse than never having hoped at all. You feel so incredibly betrayed when you realize you've been played.

Before the election (and six weeks afterward), I used an analogy: A game of three-card monte is being played. A Republican is moving the cards around while a guy (the public) watches intently. While the target is distracted, a Democrat sneaks up and picks his pockets.

We are being played.

And if you don't see it by now, you're like one of those fundamentalist Christians who chooses to believe despite massive amounts of evidence to the contrary.

Recently, my mother said to me, "I'd rather be happy than know the truth." Well, guess what, Mom? The truth is going to rear its ugly head and bite you in the ass very, very soon.

I've already been bitten. It's too fucking late for me. Due to lack of health care, I'm most likely going to die. Meanwhile, the politicians continue to play three-card monte. They don't care. And last time I checked in here, a lot of you folks didn't much care, either: Dear Ladyhawk, Please fuck off and die. Love, The State of California. Americans in general no longer care much about one another.

Just droppin' by to watch the tires burn...

[Little Star]

45. I care Ladyhawk.

I really do care. Your post will stay on my mind. I wish there was something I could do besides just care.....

[Ladyhawk]

46. With all due respect, that and a couple of bucks will buy me a cup of coffee.

I need health care NOW. I need help NOW.

Later is too late. I need an advocate. I need a champion. I need someone who isn't too sick to advocate for me.

[Skittles]

49. I knew exactly what we were getting

nothing Obama has done has truly surprised me

[PurityOfEssence]

54. And you had the decency to say so

Why is this all so surprising to so many? It's a mixture of inexperience on their part and showmanship on the part of the candidate and his fixers.

Now, so many have their egos so deeply entwined with the image of the Pied Piper actually being some kind of Joan of Arc that they shriek at any questioning of the champion and enable any sort of action or inaction.

Meanwhile, life goes on. There was a brief blossoming of people truly feeling that they had a transcendent champion, but even then, there were many who saw the heady infatuation as unfounded. It's just another tawdry little interlude in a drab life that longs for vibrance.

Feh.

[Skittles]

55. I grew up with two mentally ill parents

had to study their faces and mannerisms so I would know the best way to interract - it became a habit - I can detect someone's character just by watching them, hearing them talk for a while, watching their mannerisms, expressions - it's uncanny but I've never been wrong - sometimes I don't know WHY I feel what I do initially - but I usually find out later if I know them long enough

[Ladyhawk]

62. I told people ahead of time I was afraid we were going to get shafted.

No one wanted to believe that. Hell, I didn't want to believe it.

But here we are.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

30. In marketing terms, Obama is doing irreparable damage to his "brand"

"Compromise You Can Live With" and "At Least I'm Not Sara Palin" won't cut it the next time around.

He has strayed so far from his campaign positions that he will have a very hard time getting anyone to take him seriously in another campaign. I think he may well be a one termer and it will be because he did not fairly or accurately portray his positions or how he would lead. He has no one to blame on that score but himself.

[janedum]

31. There's NO change and NO Hope. Things will get worse, not better.

[onenote]

37. because you unrealistically fantasized that the other 69 million people who voted for obama

think exactly the way you do, when in fact, only a very small percentage of them do.

You heard what you wanted to hear. Others heard what they wanted to hear.
And the reality is that no elected president ever satisfies everyone who voted for him (or, someday, her).

[Neecy]

39. The key is the 'investor class'

Remember when Bush trumpeted this everywhere? He held up the promise that everyone could be part of the investor class for one reason only: so they would look the other way when regulations were stripped that actually protected the small investor - but greatly benefited the large investors and our banking, securities, and industrial overlords.

It's the same reason dirt-poor Republicans supported repealing the 'death tax' - dangle the possibility of success and riches in front of anyone and they'll fight like hell for what's not theirs (yet).

The investor class - the REAL investor class - is finding a similar windfall with this administration. Hot wars = $ for them. Insurance mandates, plus the taxpayer-funded subsidies that will go in part directly into their pockets = $ for them. Bailouts and lack of effective reregulation = $ for them. Not negotiating for drug prices or allowing reimportation = $ for them.

It's a planned attack to drain the wealth of this country into the pockets of a very few - and it's working. Our President is not only doing nothing to slow this down, he's facilitating it at every turn. It's a shadow government that's really in charge no matter who we elect.

What's surprising is how few crumbs we're being thrown during the final phase of the third-worlding of America. There's not even a pretense left of decency. The crime is being committed in full daylight. If anything, we're seeing even more contempt and control by the swatting down of women's health issues and the hostility to the gay community. It's open season on all of us, and we're completely powerless to do anything about it.

[LWolf]

40. Because you bought the ambiguous hope and change campaign euphoria

instead of paying close attention to what he was actually saying. The center-right agenda was clear.

It was smart. Millions projected their own hopes for change on to him without checking the fine print.

[Blue_In_AK]

43. Never expect much from a politician

and you won't be disappointed.

[rockymountaindem]

47. I don't think he's unable to overcome these corporate interests. He's not trying.

I think he made the deal with PhARMA to take the path of least resistance. I realize they have a lot of resources to try and mess up our progress toward our goals. However, the kind of guy I think you and I were hoping for would have told them to bring it on, and then remained consistently in the public eye calling them out on their BS in strong terms that everyone could understand. He just doesn't want to do that.

The other thing is that I think he has an overwhelming need to feel liked by everybody. That causes him to not take a hard stand against anyone and take extreme pains to avoid pissing people off. That's another problem for me. But the whole campaign I never really felt like he had the fire in his belly to really change things. I just hoped for normalcy. But if this is normalcy, I'm disappointed in that.

[NoodleyAppendage]

51. That whole "need to be liked" aspect is probably related to the absent father guilt. n/t

J

[MadBadger]

52. Mine's still working.

:shrug:

[Raine]

53. It's been an eye opener

you can never be too cynical or too skeptical from now on I'll never forget that.

[Mark Twain Girl]

56. "Mr. Obama, I really believed in you. I really thought you were "the one." - your prob right there.

That sort of bizarre, wish-fulfillment fantasy helped make these problems, sorry. Too many Americans acted like they were voting for a high-end guru or prom king. The president is a public servant who makes an awful lot of money compared to most of us -- and, on top, gets the best health care in the world to boot for him and his family. The head of the executive branch is not a household god or your Jesus on a keychain or your celeb role model to take away the pain of a painful world. He's a politician who should, from square one, be held accountable by the mighty roar of the disenfranchised, overworked, underpaid, swindled populace.

Eleventh dimensional chess, my ass. He's playing the oldest game in the book, he has been from the first empty speech and the first shrieking fanmedia glossy cover. I really try not to add my voice to the "...and you're surprised NOW? and WHY?" chorus, but I'm actually surprised by the strength of my anger. If you wanted something to change in this country, a decision based on more than "he's the one!" was in order.

[NoodleyAppendage]

59. The "one" meaning a populist liberal Pres with an iQ north of 115. N/t

J