last1standing

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Tue Dec-22-09 10:05 PM
Original message

"We must hang together, gentlemen...

Edited on Tue Dec-22-09 10:20 PM by last1standing

else, we shall most assuredly hang separately." - Benjamin Franklin

This isn't an "I told you so" thread, I promise. It's a history lesson.

I left DU a year ago when I found that those who didn't think GLBT rights were a priority or worth getting upset about found they could get pro-GLBT threads locked by ganging up and spamming them with insults and flamebait. At that time I wrote my GBCW note and took off. I figured that a majority of DUers didn't care about us so long as they got their priorities met so why stay?

Since then we've seen DADT put on indefinite hold and Obama's DOJ actually arguing that DOMA should be enforced. At DU, there have been a couple of gay purges and plenty of "pony" and "magic wand" talk to make sure we know where we stand.

But since then we've also seen:

Obama ends gray wolf protection
http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2009/03/obama_ends_gray_wolf_protectio.html

Obama: 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan by summer
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091201/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_us_afghanistan

Renegotiating NAFTA on hold Obama says
http://articles.sfgate.com/2009-02-20/news/17190753_1_beggar-thy-neighbor-policies-austan-goolsbee-nafta

Obama takes on teachers' unions
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0309/19824.html

No profits? Here's a fat bonus!
Citi and Merrill Lynch paid big bonuses despite losing money last year while fellow TARP recipients Goldman and JPMorgan paid more than they earned.
http://money.cnn.com/2009/07/30/news/companies/bonuses_tarp/index.htm

And now?

President Obama: "I Didn't Campaign on the Public Option."
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/12/22/818090/-President-Obama:-I-Didnt-Campaign-on-the-Public-Option

It looks like a lot of us have had to take a magic wand to the ponies lately, doesn't it?

Once again, this is not an "I told you so" thread, it's a warning to us all from Ben Franklin.

We in the GLBT community can't make it without the environmentalists.

The environmentalists can't make it without the anti-war activists.

The anti-war activists can't make it without the fair-trade proponents.

The fair-trade proponents can't make it without the unions.

The unions can't make it without the fiscal liberals.

And lastly, the fiscal liberals can't make it without the GLBT community.

We've been sold down the river, one by one, from the beginning of this administration we put in office. I worked to elect Obama just like the majority of DUers today who are feeling angry and betrayed by his cynical use of triangulation, yet each of us, in turn, has had to face the snide posters who have rubbed salt in the wounds inflicted by Obama and his cronies. And so many of us remained silent as it happened, while some of us, like myself, just walked away.

We have not hung together and we are indeed hanging separately.

Like I said, this isn't an "I told you so" thread, it's a history lesson and a warning for the future.

We've all been guilty of putting our own wants and needs above others, that's human nature. But if we learn anything from this travesty of an administration let us learn that when a politician is willing to lie to, and break promises to one minority segment of the population, he is very likely to do it again and again. Until we come together as one and demand that ALL our needs be met.

"We must hang together, gentlemen...else, we shall most assuredly hang separately."

Let us never forget.

"We must hang together, gentlemen...

Kill the bill.