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Yes, yes, and yes. President Obama and the Democrats in Congress have not kept all of their promises, they have not delivered on many of the things they should have, they did not deliver a financial regulation law as strong as it could have been, they squandered much of 2009 fretting with health care, rather than the economy, they did not end both of the wars yet, they did not deliver comprehensive, forgiving and the healing immigration reform that Latinos deserve, they have not delivered on all the promises made to my GLBT community, they have not moved forward as quickly as they could have on pressing environmental matters, they have not lowered the cruel unemployment rate among our African-American brothers and sisters, they have not restored the respect for science that it deserves and the funding it needs, they have not dealt with the stupid drug laws in this country as they could have, they have not spoken up as loudly as they could have to face down right wing demagoguery, and too many, not all, Democrats are, well, they are "corporate whores". Yes, yes and yes.
But...
President Obama and the Democrats did stave off a true financial melt-down that Americans probably will never appreciate, but the truth is...they did. Are we there yet? No, but I don't want to switch pilots.
President Obama and the Democrats have wound down Bush's war in Iraq, keeping the President's promise and he has promised an exit date for Afghanistan. Are we there yet? No, but I don't want to switch pilots.
President Obama and the Democrats raised GLBT Americans into full protective status of hate crime legislation, they have extended many benefits to GLBT federal employees and the President ordered a report of "how to" (not if to) end Don't Ask, Don't Tell. And he appointed a woman to the Supreme Court whose record of standing up for the GLBT community at Harvard is Supreme Court History in and of itself. She's on the Supreme Court now. Of course, there is still no ENDA, no marriage equality, and more. Are we there yet? No, but I sure don't want to switch pilots.
President Obama and the Democrats have opened up better relations with Cuba, they have sued the State of Arizona for their racial profiling "law", they have put the first Latina on the Supreme Court of the United States, and they are working on immigration reform. Are we there yet? No, but I sure don't want to switch pilots.
President Obama and the Democrats have turned around (and are still fighting) to have embryonic stem cell research, they have delivered on a lot of positive environmental laws and progress, and we have a certainly have far better Secretary of Energy than we've probably ever had. Are we there yet? No, but I sure don't want to switch pilots.
President Obama's Attorney General chose to allow California's medical marijuana clinics to operate without federal intervention. And President Obama is allowing our veterans to use marijuana now if their states permit it. There are still too many imprisoned because of stupid drug laws and there is much to do. Are we there yet? No, but I don't want to switch pilots.
President Obama and the Democrats have stewarded this nation from losing 700,000 jobs every month to where we are now gaining jobs. The "bikini curve" is there for anyone who has an honest mind to see for themselves. Is it enough? Of course, not. Are we there yet? No, but sure I don't want to switch pilots.
Senator Tom Harkin has said for years that his father told him the only thing he needed to know about voting was this: "If you want to go forward, put the vehicle in 'D'. And if you want to go backward, put the vehicle in 'R'. I always liked that.
Only now, after eight years of neo-fascism, after eight years of legalized and sanctioned corporate theft, after eight years of lying to make war, after eight years of domestic spying on the Left, after eight years of destroying this nation and bringing us to our collective knees, the "vehicle" in that metaphor is not an automobile, it is a jet plane, and if we switch pilots, we will not merely be going backward, but we will crash.
This nation can not afford to have the Republican Party in control of either the House of Representatives or the Senate and have the powers of those committees and subpoenas that go with them. Our national jet will crash, perhaps once and for all. We are already on the brink.
Are too many of our Democrats what we call "corporate whores"? Yes. Most all of us here know that.
But let me share this with you. Years ago, when I was "out" as a gay man as a corporate executive in the early 1980's (the only one "out" at the Fortune 500 company where I worked), I was sitting in a Board Room meeting when one of the participants there -- in a poorly veiled dig at me -- crudely commented about America's Olympian and Gold Medal Winner, Greg Louganis, "I hope everyone here knows Louganis is a queer." Well, you could have heard a pin drop.
As my face flushed red with anger, I heard the CEO utter the following: "Greg Louganis may be a 'queer', as you call him, but he's OUR 'queer' and he's made us all proud." Our CEO looked directly at me, smiled and winked and then went on with the meeting. The asshole who made that comment lasted about two months and then was one day no longer employed.
While it is true that too many of the Democrats are too cozy with big corporations, it is also true that with their numbers we maintain majorities in the House and Senate, we control the committees and all Congressional hearings. Yes, they may be "corporate whores", but they are ours and not they are not those of the GOP.
Our new national jet airliner just took off less than two years ago and our new pilot and his crew have certainly made some wrong detours and had their delays, but make no mistake about it, we are better off than many of us might want to admit we are, and we are at greater risk of losing everything we hold dear to us this November.
Who do you want in the cockpit for the next two years? Seriously.
We've seen what the Republican Pilots do when they are in the cockpit, where they take us, the risk they place us all in.
Knowing myself, I will probably keep asking "Are we there yet?" for the rest of my life, but I also do know one thing: I sure as hell don't want to switch pilots now. And neither should you.
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