of the West Wing who doesn't practice progressive values regarding the environment, health care & safety, keeping big business in check, reducing military expenditures, believing in an open government, ending DADT, etc... is not what I voted for.
Yet, this is clearly what I and my fellow liberals have gotten in exchange. I am now considering Obama a questionable Democrat - as plenty of his administrations policies and decisions do not scream progressive values, but corporate values. He isn't that much further from the political spectrum than what George H.W. Bush ended up being - read that and get all bothered by my opinion - but it's true. They both seem to believe in a New World Order that is monopolized by the powerful and corporations.
He's making my journal post from last year, that congratulates our party for making him the 1st minority who was nominated for president, look like a mistake - and here all of us progressives are - fighting against the idiots like Zell "Gorilla Glue" Miller and other Limbaugh-type slander to defend our president in letters, calls, and discussions with friends and family - and for what? This?
This administration practices the same failed trickle-down BS like the ones in the past have, just in their own style, and it caters to corporations. And this makes it seem they're not fighting for the rights of citizens, but in conjunction with the other side, with signing statements and judicial defenses blocking open information and the photography of torture, giving huge swaths of gold to banks, and even more to the marching drumbeat of war, which of course makes the MIC happy as they pad their pockets with billions each, while innocents are slaughtered where we are 'fighting the enemy'.
I don't trust politicians a whole lot after this rather uninspiring first half-year of rather Republican-like policies (and the naysayers can point out some nicely named policies to try and state how wonderful the administration is doing, but they ignore each new story of the week that screams "I am president, and I am a centrist-right politician, not a progressive by any means").
Where do we go from here? They have demonized Kucinich so much for his small stature, but I still believe anyone can be elected president. We've had - a charming hillbilly, a complete moran who can't form sentences that I wouldn't trust to care for my pets, and a black man with Hussein in his name - as the last three to hold the office of the presidency - that's pretty amazing.
Who knows who will be president next - but I sure as hell won't be supporting Obama or any candidate with centrist or further right policies than he has, and barring a change of course by him (I don't see that, presidents don't change that quickly, they are stubborn and stick with what they think is right through their whole time in office), I'll just be on the sidelines with my cash and time more focused on actual groups like Greenpeace and Doctors Without Borders than helping a politician get into office so he/she can break our hearts. My hopes for Obama to be a progressive president have repeatedly been squashed at his admin's efforts which more often than not appear like a moderate and friendly GOP president, much like I said, like a George H.W. Bush with a little more left-leaning.
Keep the change - NEVER have said it once til now. As some say on this site, Obama can only do so much with what 'they' will let him do. Well, if that's true - then there's no point in even discussing politics. We are screwn if that's truly the story. I want to believe that he's just a typical politician who has been put into office by the backing of the corporations and Wall St, and that it's nothing more sinister. But whatever the reason - we can do better in a candidate than him next time. I am grateful that Palin & McCain aren't in, but as another DUer said, it's more painful when Obama's policies are backstabbing because of the progressive rhetoric he exhorted on the campaign trail, often, to beat Sen. Clinton. I hope our favorite senators can continually override his power-grab that he gladly seemed to take from B*sh, and force through progressive values that we're not seeing from a nice man, yes, but who is a moderate/moderate-right president who, with great charm, is pushing the corporate line far too often for my tastes.