A rant heard at work

[Hydra]

And ignore this at your peril.

"Why did we have to have Obama get elected?"
"What were his qualifications??? He had star power, and he was black, that's it!"
"He made so many promises, and he hasn't followed through on any of them! 'Line by line,' he said. Has he even READ the healthcare bill???"
"The people of my generation were so entranced...why?"
"I wanted Romney, but even McCain would have been better."
"What is Obama using Airforce One for, stumping for candidates and trying to get the Olympics for???"

I had to sit through an hour of work listening to this and biting my tongue. Some of them were fundies with agendas, but most were just normal people that were angry...and I can't argue with them from a rational standpoint.

We've all been sold out. No way to cover that over, no matter that emotionally I wanted to say that things would be even worse under McCain...but would they have been?

President Obama seems to have his own priorities now that he's in office...but the harvest coming looks to be a bitter one, poisonous, and utterly disgusting...but no different than the seeds that were sown, I do think.

[PeaceNikki]

1. I have just the smilie for your OP

[havocmom]

13. I am SO stealing that smilie

I'm series!!1!!!

[PeaceNikki]

14. It placed 2nd in the "***OFFICIAL*** smilie of GD" poll

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=105&topic_id=9179761

[redwitch]

26. That's GREAT!

[WeDidIt]

2. I wasn't ignring it

until now.

[PeaceNikki]

12. Tell us the peril bestowed upon you, please.

kthxbai

[WeDidIt]

18. I feel greatly imperiled now

The peril is HUGH and SERIES!!!!!111ELEVENS

[SemiCharmedQuark]

3. You can't argue with "his qualifications were that he's black"?

Really?

[PeaceNikki]

6. Or "I wanted Romney, but even McCain would have been better"?

:\

[SemiCharmedQuark]

31. It looks like we've lost the racist vote and the Romney vote.

[PeaceNikki]

32. We're doomed

x(

[REP]

37. DOOOOOOMED!!!1!

[damonm]

4. Utterly wrong on a multitude of counts.

But you are determined. Enjoy the downer.

[rockymountaindem]

5. That sums up my frustration as well

I know that the Republicans are bad for America, but Obama and the Democrats in Congress haven't given me much ammunition to argue with in favor of doing things "our" way. The health care bill is pretty much what I would have expected from McCain: taxing health care benefits, individual mandate, no public option. The subsidies for private insurance probably wouldn't have been in there, but I can't support those either. Then there's the total lack of urgency about job creation since the stimulus (which I support) was passed. Obama is being seen as doing very little about that, and he's not taking any kind of hard line with lenders or those who got us into this crisis. It's hard to come up with any positive arguments for Obama, and that's really sad. Even like four months ago I would have told anybody who asked that I was proud to cast my first Presidential vote for him. Now I just feel bummed out whenever I think about it.

[Hydra]

21. Exactly

I caught myself thinking "But it would be worse with...it would be worse with..." But really, what sort of argument is that? And is it even true?

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

7. I'm willing to bet every one of those dipshit racists were McCain voters.

[wtbymark]

8. Where do you work? When I hear tripe like that, I just walk away

There's no need to boil your blood over propogandized ignorance. They can't (and won't) listen, so just rudely walk away.

[Hydra]

20. I certainly cringed

But the numbers disturbed me. 2 against, and 6 for(4 of whom shouldn't have been in that camp).

Everyone here rants that we don't win on our base, that we win on the independants. We're losing them, FAST.

[rwheeler31]

9. Why are they doing this at work?

[Skittles]

10. thngs are bad but they certainly would have been worse under McCain

absolutely

[tabatha]

11. All of those remarks were made by

uninformed, shallow people. I am surprised, if you are a Dem, that you were unable to rebut them.

[Hydra]

19. What am I supposed to argue with, pray tell?

That Obama was a better choice but he's giving us the same things the Repubs would have given us?

That he's doing a better job of fighting Bush's wars for us?

That's he's doing a better job fixing the economy than McCain or Romney would have?

[SemiCharmedQuark]

23. Oh I don't know...how about the "obama only won because he's black" line?

To start.

[Hydra]

27. Well, I could have mentioned the line used by Obama's callers

About how there would be no mandate to buy health insurance. The person who told me that said that was the difference he saw between Obama and Clinton's policies.

Of course, these people were riled up about how we got sold down the river on healthcare, so that probably wouldn't have gotten very far.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

30. And that has *what* to do with Obama being black?

You haven't explained why you couldn't "refute" that point.

[Hydra]

40. I just did

I could say that he was the best person for the job, which we all believed at the time. I can't say anything that doesn't make us look worse, however at this particular moment. You can chalk up his failure with healthcare reform to two possibilities, one of which was brought up:

1. He didn't have enough experience to do the job correctly(The argument used by the racist)
2. He's a master and this is exactly what he wanted.

So, were I to speak up and say my opinion that he's simply a slick corporatist, how is that supposed to shift support back to us?

[tabatha]

24. "but he's giving us the same things the Repubs would have given us"

Really?
I noticed all the Reps voting with the Dems.

[Hydra]

29. As someone wisely said here the other day

Paraphrasing: "If Bush had given us this bill, we would have called it what it was- a corporate piece of crap"

[tabatha]

35. Sorry, I trust Bernie Sanders and Nancy Pelosi more than

"someone".

[Hydra]

43. Trust your eyes then

Was gutting FISA a good idea when then Senator Obama supported it? Will this bill really end well, when it has really nothing to offer the people and everything to offer to the insurance companies and Wall St? Will we keep cheering as more bad stuff comes down the line with new excuses attached?

Will we be happy when Congress gets swept again ala 1994?

[baldguy]

15. What gets me are people that complain about Obama's supposed lack of expierience & shallow stardom

Then express support for Sarah Palin.

[Hekate]

16. Perhaps your friends that you didn't bother refuting have been reading the following...

http://hillbuzz.org/2009/12/07/using-concern-troll-tactics-against-the-left-help-push-independents-away-from-democrats

Have you?

Hekate

[Skidmore]

17. My husband hears similar rants in the workplace and when they

get tiresome, he mentions Palin and tells them that if McCain had won she would be president by now. They shut up. Even the hardest nosed RW bubba on his worksite who vote R loathe her and think she's stupid.

[marmar]

22. self-delete, a cooler head has prevailed.....

nt

[Warren DeMontague]

25. You're listening to someone who actually started a sentence with, "I wanted Romney"

Sorry, but after my idiot meter had been calibrated as such, I would probably tune that fucker right out for good.

[Hydra]

28. I'd love to

But she's getting converts. This is the woman who led a campaign at my work to demonize a girl who had cervical cancer because she didn't "lead a moral life, therefore it's her fault."

I find it disturbing that such a person who I curbstomped at the time is getting republican votes now due to our President's efforts.

[wtbymark]

33. 'moral', I'm sure this person has plenty of dirt

everybody's got dirt. I'd make this woman's life a living hell - everybody would know her dirt. Just to make it up to the cancer girl.

[Warren DeMontague]

34. I appreciate that you're concerned. And that you've taken the time to express your concern.

Clearly, the concern concerning your concerns could cause real concern.

Nevertheless, I'm still not convinced that the sky is falling.

[REP]

38. You realize that's illegal, right? The cervical cancer = immoral crap?

That violates at least 3 Federal laws, and even if she's not supervisory, she can't do it. Be sure to file a complaint (you don't have to be the target to file the complaint). If her supervisor doesn't stop her, her super is in as much trouble. Good luck!

[Hydra]

41. I already beat her about that

And actually got some Dem converts out of it. What she did was sickening...but the girl died last year. *toasts the fallen*

It's galling to see her getting converts now...angry people willing to look at any alternative. Still, I can't help but see all our work over the years washed away by this first year of crap.

[Jazzgirl]

36. Oh noes!!!

[kgnu_fan]

39. We should act like an adult, and push our President much harder

He needs much more support in a form of "pressure" than we have been giving him so far. We need to mobilize much harder. We need to watch our own local politics much harder.

President is not our dad. Instead of hoping to be "taken care of" by a parent after he comes home, we need to go out into street and campaign against military spending, bank bailout, lobbying system, corruption.... gosh so much more....

President of the United States is supposed to be an instrument of our government, not our dad. We the people have responsibility to use this opportunity of obtaining a darn good instrument. We need to learn how to use this most precious and capable tool for our democracy. We need to learn the skill fast. There is no time to sit back....

[Hydra]

42. +1

And deserves it's own OP.

Good luck and good hunting.

[truedelphi]

44. For many of us who are angry, it is not because we think that McCain

Would have been better.

In fact, given the diplomatic strategies our media doesn't mention, I do think that Obama has kept us out of war with Iran, which is definitely not something McCain would have done. McCain still gets on
C SPan at 2: 30 in the morning to talk about how we need to bomb that nation back to the stone age.

The reason we progressives and indies are angry is because we now see that we are backed into a tight corner. The so called progressive candidates immediately "forget" the promises and pledges they make the second they're in office. For instance, Obama had Rahm, Geithner and the Monsanto clones for the Ag Dept and FDA lined up probably months before the '08 election. His is not a progressive agenda, it is a fascist agenda. Though with Obama in charge, at least he smiles at us rather than sneers, as he hands over twenty three trillion bucks to the Banking Industry.

So what do we do? The insidious Powers that Be do control the political parties, they control the message, the media, the programs, the scraps that they throw out to us. And should we manage to rally a third party, and overcome the obstacle that a lot of indies just don't vote ("Why encourage them" they say about elections,) the voting machinery is still quietly controlled in such a way that a progressive would not be handed the win she or he succeeded at receiving from voters.

[Zoeisright]

45. Why do YOU have to bite your tongue when they can mouth off?

Sounds like you work with a bunch of racist pigs. I mean, come on:

'have to have Obama get elected'

He won fair and square with VOTES, dumbasses.

'his qualifications'

Citizen of the US, over age 35, SITTING US SENATOR, law professor.

'hasn't followed through on promises'

Like those people whining about it wanted any of those promises in the first place.

I would have been in their faces. Why did you have to remain silent?

'All that is needed for the forces of evil to succeed is for enough good men to remain silent.'

[Hydra]

47. Why did I remain silent?

Because as ugly as it was, I have nothing to refute it with. All of them were counting on health reform(including me). Were I to say that Obama was the better person, but wasn't doing what he promised, how does it make us look better?

I used to be able to explain why being a democrat made life better for everyone. Now I'm having to fight against my own party to get the truth across, let alone the people who are gathering in dark corners.

"Like those people wanted any of those promises"

What, like "hope, change, peace and prosperity"? Who would want that? Oh, wait, people not in our party, apparently.

[L0oniX]

46. McLame = bomb bomb bomb ...bomb bomb Iran = much worse!