Barack Obama

Follow Barack Obama Updates:

. . .

Sayonara Democrats (2003-2009)

By Andre on | From dresopinion.blogspot.com

I figured the day would come, but not this soon. I’ve now come to the definitive conclusion that the Democratic Party and President Obama no longer represent me or my values as a progressive. When I first registered as a Democrat at the age of 18 I never would have imagined how awful this party would turn in the years after 2003.

In 2006, when the Democrats won the House and Senate everyone was rejoicing at the fact they would stand their foot down and end the Iraq War. I was never one of those people that placed full faith in them to do that given that the Democratic Party supported the Iraq War in the beginning and has funded the Iraq War ever since. With the George W. Bush Presidency in front of them with plenty of scandals and possibilities for impeachment I placed some faith that they would consider impeachment when necessary. I was misled to believe that the Democratic Party would do the right thing and hold the Bush administration accountable in areas necessary whether it was the invasion of Iraq under false pretenses, torture, poor Katrina response, or the trampling of civil liberties. The Democrats failed to hold the Bush administration accountable for any of those reasons. The problem with the Democratic Party is that they are gutless.

Instead of doing the right thing they are always worried about the next election. That was the reason given for not pursuing impeachment. Now how can you hold people accountable if you are always worried about political consequences in the next election? That’s what you call a corrupt and dysfunctional government. The reason why the Republican Party is able to accomplish their party goals is because they do what they think is right without fear. After all why should they be fearful? Democrats won’t do anything to stop them.

In November of 2006 I got a facebook invite to a student group that supported Barack Obama for President before he even formally announced his run. I decided to join to see what it was all about. A lot of people were touched by Barack Obama’s DNC speech in 2004, and supported Barack Obama on the basis that he opposed the Iraq War from the start. Those two things seemed to be the crux of 90% of the peoples support. I stayed around longer and built relationships with Obama supporters. I actually did a little organizing, and ended up watching his announcement for President with some college students. During this period of time I read literature of his positions, and frequented the facebook group discussion board to get more of a handle on Barack Obama’s various positions. I took it upon myself to research his U.S. Senate record and I saw many votes that disturbed me. His support for the renewal of the Patriot Act, his immigration policy, and his funding of the Iraq War under the guise of support for the troops were troubling enough for me that I had to sever my ties and resign from my NY grassroots position with the Barack Obama student support group. This was around March 2007, and for months ahead I was candidate free until I decided to support Dennis Kucinich for President. I agreed with him on nearly every issue so it was a perfect match.

I campaigned for Dennis Kucinich in New Hampshire and Las Vegas for a month total. Kucinich ended up dropping out the race and eventually Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were in a head-to-head battle for the Democratic nomination which he ended up winning. As much as I disagreed with Barack Obama on many issues he ran a great ground campaign. The campaign had many catchy slogans like “Change You Can Believe In” and a lot of rhetoric involving the usage of the words, “Change” and “Hope”. Not much substance in his speeches, but enough of a punch to attract support along with the potential to be the First African-American President in American history.

I debated with myself for a month or so before the election on who to vote for. I eventually decided to vote for Ralph Nader because I wasn’t in agreement with a majority of Barack Obama’s policies. Barack Obama was then elected President.

During the transition period from the time President Obama was elected to when he was sworn into office he announced many different Cabinet positions. The first sign of trouble was his decision to retain Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. Another unsettling thing was his decision to appoint Rahm Emanuel as his Chief of Staff who bears a lot of responsibility for moving the Democratic Party to the right. The last big unsettling thing was Obama’s decision to surround himself with Wall Street insiders like Timothy Geithner and Larry Summers. I didn’t like his appointment of Hillary Clinton to Secretary of State either, but it was much more tolerable than the other choices he made.

Months passed by and President Barack Obama was inaugurated to great fanfare to become the first African-American President in the nations history. While I was happy to live to see the first African-American President I had a gut feeling that a majority of the people who voted for Barack Obama didn’t know who they were voting for. But even with my great skepticism that President Barack Obama would be able to deliver any “change” I decided to give him a chance to prove it.

For someone who campaigned on his opposition to the Iraq War I found it deeply troubling that President Obama would not convene his military advisors to set up a plan that would start a withdrawal of troops from Iraq this year (2009). The common misconception of the anti-war movement is that we supposedly believe the troops can pick up and leave overnight, but that’s false. I’m aware this will take 6months + to complete, but President Obama decided to not even start that process for another year or two. I’ll believe it when I see it. But even with Obama’s campaign promise to end the Iraq War he never campaigned on the promise to “Bring the Troops Home”. He campaigned to bring the troops to Afghanistan which was the troubling aspect of that position.

In the first months of his Presidency Obama passed an “economic stimulus” bill that cost a $787 billion that was supposed to boost the economy. Well, 9months later and the economy is still in terrible shape. It also didn’t take long for President Obama to continue the use of military drones along the AfPak border which has killed countless civilians. President Obama has ordered more drone attacks in his first year than President George W. Bush ordered in his full 2 terms. Are you kidding me?

President Obama decided to use his first year to pursue healthcare reform. In the beginning it seemed to be fairly open in terms of the direction they were going, but it didn’t take long for President Obama to commit a broken promise on healthcare by negotiating a deal with big pharma privately when he had campaigned on televising negotiations on C-SPAN. President Obama and the Democratic Congress were also dead set against single-payer healthcare by refusing single-payer advocates a seat at the table when it came to discussing potential plans.

While dealing with healthcare President Obama also dealt with a couple other issues. He gave a nice fluff speech to the LGBT community promising to eventually overturn Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and the Defense of Marriage Act. I’ll believe it when I see it. The Democratic Congress did pass a hate crimes bill named after Matthew Shepard and that was considered a token for the LGBT community. But deep within that legislation was more military defense spending to fund more war. Disgusting.

Throughout the summer and fall President Obama pondered a troop increase in Afghanistan. While most of the progressives and democratic community was opposed to an escalation in Afghanistan most of them knew full well when they voted for Barack Obama that he had campaigned on escalating Afghanistan. Now there is one line of thinking that says he campaigned on escalating Afghanistan so we shouldn’t complain about it. Well, just speaking for myself that was a large reason why I couldn’t support Barack Obama. It doesn’t matter whether he promised it or not because that doesn’t justify a shitty foreign policy. But I am of the line of thinking that if people were so against a troop increase in Afghanistan then why support him for President? It doesn’t make sense.

Eventually, President Obama announced a 30,000 troop increase in Afghanistan before a carefully chosen audience that wasn’t allowed to boo him in West Point. He spewed rhetoric that if George W. Bush gave the same speech the Democratic Party would be up in arms. Instead their guy, the man with the [D] next to his name delivered it so it was considered justifiable in the eyes of some. He also promised a beginning of withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2011, but ill believe it when I see it. Even if that deadline stays it’s still a disgrace because he’s supporting more war and it will continue to increase the deficit and pound the economy into a deeper shithole than it already is. Not too long after that announcement President Obama claimed his unjustifiable Nobel Peace Prize, which should be re-named the “Anybody but Bush” prize. He was selected for the Nobel Peace Prize around as a way to convince him to take a path towards peace. “Yea that really worked out well” says Afghanistan families being ravaged by his drone attacks… I couldn’t stand to watch President Barack Obama claim his prize and promote war at the same time. He was lecturing Europeans on Hitler and the necessities of war because Europeans must know nothing about Hitler and wars. Of course a “peace prize” celebration wouldn’t be complete without a performance by Toby Keith who famously does a song about Americans putting boots in people’s asses.

Now with the year of 2009 coming to a close President Obama had set a deadline that he wants healthcare reform done before January 2010. Now during this whole healthcare debate President Obama has held town halls across the country promoting this “public option” government healthcare plan that is meant to drive the costs down of health insurance companies and provide access to healthcare for millions of Americans who are uninsured. Not a terrible proposition, but in the grand scheme of things he still supports the health insurance companies and health insurance companies would still be in charge. The same broken system still stays in place. Now this “public option” scenario was tweaked and changed and eventually a weak public option passed the House of Representatives. But this didn’t happen without conceding Abortion rights for women in an amendment by Democrat Rep. Stupak and the removal of an amendment authored by Dennis Kucinich which would have allowed states to setup their own single-payer plans. This bill was largely seen as a success, but it in the end it was a big giveaway to insurance companies.

Now the healthcare debate moved to the U.S. Senate and time was running short with President Obama’s deadline to get it done before January 2010. An already weak healthcare reform plan was made weaker when the public option (that was seen as a compromise with progressives) was removed. President Obama, the man who promoted the “public option” stood by and did nothing as blue dog democrats requested and eventually had it removed from the Senate version. Then some democrats came up with a stepping stone in the right direction to expand Medicare from 55-64. Of course Senator Lieberman would have none of it and demanded it to be removed. What happened? President Obama and the Democratic leadership obliged. What a disgrace…Another big problem with the healthcare reform package is that it contains a mandate to force everyone to buy health insurance with a penalty if they don’t. This is essentially a bailout for the health insurance industry. Of course passage of the Senate version was not complete yet. The Democrats had a few more Senators to appease. They were able to buy out Senator Bernie Sanders, and even worse they continued the assault on Abortion rights by appeasing to Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska. They included a provision that would force people to not only pay a premium for health insurance, but pay an additional premium for abortion coverage. The stars were now aligned for passage of “healthcare reform” that is just a bailout for the health insurance industry and assault on abortion rights. President Obama and The Democratic Congress had no problems throwing women’s rights under the bus. So now it’s time to combine both the House bill and Senate bill for a final version and I don’t expect the so called “healthcare reform” to get better.

Now there’s an argument amongst Democrats whether to support a flawed bill to make President Obama and Democrats happy or vote against this health insurance industry bailout to get a better bill in the future. I am of course in the camp of opposing this bill on the basis of opposing mandates and assault on women’s rights.

At this time I would like to address this common attack on progressives to vote for Democratic “compromises” that is “Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good”. Well, in order to believe that statement you have to assume that the Democratic Congress views progressive policy as the “perfect” policy. Why should I believe that? The Democrats have governed to the right at LEAST since they became the majority in 2006. Progressives have been demonized by many whenever they threaten to vote against legislation because it’s not progressive enough. However, when Blue-Dog Democrats decide to hold Congress hostage to get what they want with a threatened “nay” vote it’s accepted? That’s hypocrisy. In addition to that, how many times have I heard that progressives can’t get elected to President? So what happens is that the Democratic Party nominates a centrist. Who’s in the driver’s seat here? Blue-Dog democrats are, and because of that the progressives have to fight harder.

Now as I wrap up I want to say that I didn’t go into detail on every issue President Obama has failed on. I haven’t even touched on his assault on civil liberties, the continuation of extraordinary rendition, his shitty climate change agreement in Copenhagen, or other issues. My decision to leave the Democratic Party is on the basis that President Obama and the Democratic Party have no respect for progressives. They’ve taken me for granted and assume that just because they have a [D] next to their name ill fall in line and vote for them. The ultimate deciding factor for me in leaving the Democratic Party was the continuation of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the assault on civil liberties, and the piss poor healthcare bill that is about to be passed and the process of how they arrived to the both Senate and House bills. What also played a contributing factor in my decision were the New York state level as well as the local level in New York City. A New York State government that is a big giant clusterfuck, and a New York City Council that is corrupt and led by Mayor Bloomberg serving an illegal 3^rd term that was endorsed by President Obama in his refusal to endorse the Democratic opponent. I’m aware ill no longer be able to vote in Democratic primaries, but I’m also aware that the Democratic Party has demonstrated that true progressives are not welcomed.

Recently, President Obama gave himself a grade of a B+ for his 1^st year in office. I nearly puked when I read that. What the hell has he done? The grade I would give him is a “W”. Only George W. Bush can create George W. Bush policy, but President Obama has rubber stamped Bush’s policies as his own. He’s delivered change alright…$Change$ for Wall St, $Change$ for more war, and $Change$ for health insurance companies. I’d be stunned if President Obama is re-elected for a 2^nd term because with the right candidate running in 2012 ill do my best to make sure he’s a one-termer. The day after the Democrats caved to Lieberman I registered my disgust the "official" way by going from Democrat to Independent. I'm proud of myself that I had the correct foresight of not voting for this disgraceful, pro-Wall St., pro-war, anti-civil liberties President.

Sayonara Democrats,

Dre