When the President talked about "change", what did you think he meant?

[kentuck]

Did you expect everything to change overnight in Iraq and Afghanistan? Did you really expect us to withdraw from both countries immediately?

Did you expect the President to fight for a single-payer health care system? Or did you expect some type of reform but nothing dramatic?

Did you expect torture and rendition to end and the immediate closure of Guantanamo Bay prison? Are you happy with the progress so far?

What did you expect to "change" with the election of Barack Obama? In hindsight, were you naive to expect the status quo to change in Washington? Is it possible that "change" is much slower than we might desire? What kind of "change" did you expect?

[ananda]

1. I didn't think anything.

I knew Obama would veer to the right all along.

[polichick]

2. I was hoping that "change" meant the WH would represent the people...

...after all the years of corporate representation.

[livetohike]

3. My thoughts. The change would be that intelligent adults

were coming to Washington, D.C. All policy matters from foreign affairs to health care, to jobs and the environment would be led by intelligent, thinking people instead of the morons we had to endure for eight years.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

4. 3 quarters, 2 dimes and a nickel.

[jaxx]

5. I expected we'd have the fight of our lives and that's what is happening.

Some seem to be hell bent on giving up, but the strong will out. Nothing comes from instant gratification but being placated. What is worth it you fight for, not giving up, not caving to the rightwing propaganda.

My motto is piss on them. I'm not going back to suckering down to the rightwing mantra of failure.

[datasuspect]

6. i took him at his word

he said it was something i could "believe" in.

he didn't say it would actually happen.

[SammyWinstonJack]

32. +1

:evilgrin: :thumbsup:

[Raven]

7. Just exactly what he's doing: pushing for health care reform, turning

the economy around, reversing many of Bush's mandates.

[d_b]

8. I just wanted a fighter

[WeDidIt]

9. I simply thought that extermist screamers would no longer drive the agenda

Boy, was I ever wrong.

:shrug:

[d_b]

12. ^^ and this

I figured hey, this Democratic win thing means we drive the agenda, right?

Guess I'm too radical...

[peace frog]

17. Yeh, what happened with that?

Democrats have the White House and both bodies of Congress, but somehow they can't govern in the majority?? WTF.

[movonne]

14. Only when they are repugs...

[jeffbr]

10. The way a wife beater promises change

is all we have seen.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

11. A meaningless slogan. Nothing more.

[havocmom]

13. Change IS much slower than we would like & one man can't do it. The election was the start

not the end of OUR work.

Sure, I get disheartened some days, but I figure: if Obama wasn't bringing change, why are the corporations working so damned hard to stop him? Point is, instead of hanging your heart on every word spoken in media, why not watch what is actually going on? Trends are there to be seen.

And democracy is not just for spectators. We have to DO also. All of us.

[ixion]

15. that he was full of sh*t, and that nothing would actually change

and that's documented, right here on DU.

[GreenArrow]

16. I expected little or nothing to change

save perhaps the overall "tone", which has maybe actually gotten worse.

I expected the wars to continue. I anticipate another one, or at least, an expansion of those we are engaged in beyond what we've already seen.

I did not expect the Pres to fight for single payer. I expected pretty much what it appears we are going to get. I did expect him to make a better show of it.

I did expect torture and rendition to end, at least as an element of official policy, since we've been doing that sort of thing for years unofficially, but he has been a disapointment on that issue.

The Obama Presidency so far has been about what I expected, which is to say, another Presidency dictated by the needs of the corporations, at whose pleasure Obama serves. Though to be honest, I did have a "hope", that for once a politician *was" lying to me, and that if he got elected, his right leaning rhetoric would be replaced by more left leaning policy. So far, that hasn't happened, and doesn't appear likely to.

I voted for Obama, not because I was particularly excited by him, or his policies; indeed I was in disagreement with many of them, but rather due to a belief that the revious eight years needed to be publicly repudiated, and strongly. A secondary reason was out of deference to my black friends. A third reason was simply the existence of Sarah Palin.

[saracat]

18. I "hoped" for a "genuine" effort. I hoped that promises would be kept.

I hoped that we would not rollover.

[slackmaster]

19. He meant "I'm not George W. Bush"

:nuke:

[Eric J in MN]

20. I had hoped Obama would close the kangaroo courts...

...created by the Military Commissions Act, which Obama voted against.

[Political Heretic]

21. This not a "stumper" question in the slightest. I can tell you exactly what we expected.

We did not expect speed on every issue. We did not expect everything to be "fixed" by day 10, or 100, etc.

What we did expect however, was for things to be going in right direction instead of the wrong direction.

Escalating wars is the wrong direction and it has nothing to do with time or speed. It may take "time" to bring troops home, but escalating wars is something altogether different.

Dumping trillions of dollars on Wall Street and Banks while providing only a tiny fraction of assistance to main street homeowners is the wrong direction and its not about speed at all.

Making Bush-era legal arguments to justify continued internationally condemned practices, like extraordinary rendition, or indefinite detention, or legal arguments to defend continued civil rights absuses, continued government secrecy - this isn't about "speed." These are places where the Obama administration made active choices to pursue a policy direction that is fundamentally wrong.

Beginning any health care reform push by holding secret meetings with big insurance and big pharmacutical, then refusing to detail any specific vision of what health care reform must contain, then signaling that you'd be willing to compromise on virtually any component so long as you can get a bill passed and score the superficial political "win" - well, that's not about speed at all. That's about going in the wrong direction.

[kentuck]

23. Points taken.

and well made, I might add.

[peace frog]

24. Right on

and thank you.

[Political Heretic]

22. It's not lack of change, its that Obama is actively making things worse.

It's not that change isn't coming fast enough, or is too incremental. It's that this administration is actively making things worse on many fronts, rather than even incrementally better.

As I said in my post above.

Yes, I'll get flamed into the ground for saying so, but it will be a bunch of personal attacks and insults and little of substance.

[GreenArrow]

26. you won't get flamed by me

Your posts the last few months have been spot on.

[SammyWinstonJack]

34. No flames from me. nt

[CrispyQ]

25. I never believed we'd have real change.

I'm happy we have a prez who can put a sentence together. I'm glad he commands more respect among global leaders. I hoped that maybe Americans wouldn't look so totally batshit crazy & stupid to the rest of the world anymore, but the teabaggers & the complicit media that puts them front & center every damned day, have taken care of that. We look worse than ever!

I never kidded myself that a true challenger of the status quo would ever be allowed as one of the top dem contenders. The game is rigged.

[excess_3]

27. Texas Rangers --> Chicago White Sox

change

[Chef Eric]

28. I don't care WHAT he meant.

Because frankly, it doesn't matter.

What does matter is that we remind him and our representatives that they work for us, and come election day, either they will have EARNED our votes, or they will have not.

[CrispyQ]

41. Outstanding pic!

:thumbsup:

[OHdem10]

29. I had hoped he meant: On every issue he would put himself in the

shoes of a Working class(Middle) person then examine the bill
to see if the Middle Class are harmed or helped. For a change
Err on the side of helping the middle class.

For 30 years the Republicans have produced and passed Legislation
most favorable to Business. So much so, they drove us over the
cliff with their Free Market Fundamentalism.

The only change is reverse the trend by making legislation favorable
to middle class and you will save our Democracy.

[Individualist]

30. Chump change

[Hoopla Phil]

31. Well let's see.

Troops home in 100 days. We're getting a build up not a reduction.

"Transparency in the White House" sound familiar? Haven't seen it (pun intended)

An end to rendition. Still going on

Closing of GETMO. Seems to be on the back burner now.

Patriot Act anyone?



That's just the first few things that popped into my head. I'm sure more will come up.

[QC]

33. I thought it was a marketing slogan. n/t

[SammyWinstonJack]

35. Exactly what it was and nothing more.

[QC]

37. Just like "New and Improved!" and "Now With 50% More ___!" n/t

[Liquorice]

36. I thought it was a campaign slogan, and a pretty common one at that. nt

[QC]

40. BC ran on "Hope and Change" in 1992.

It made for a great campaign, with moments like Barbara Jordan's immortal convention speech on change, but then it all ended up with a president repeatedly betraying the people who elected him in a vain attempt to win the love of his enemies.

Hmmmm....

[niyad]

38. didn't expect much of anything, and even so, am sorely disappointed, for reasons that

have been eloquently expressed in other posts in this thread. there are days it is very hard to see that the dems, not the death eaters--excuse me, the repukes-- are supposedly in charge.

[readmoreoften]

39. I thought it was a political slogan preying on the desperation and goodness of the American people.

The real power of the Obama administration has nothing to do with Obama. It's the power and conviction of the millions of Americans who voted and campaigned for him in hopes of a better world. We can argue all night about whether Obama wants to change things but can't or doesn't want to change things and can't change things, but the result is the same: we have a political system that does not represent the interests and needs of the vast VAST majority of Americans.

Now we have to be the change we hoped for. There is no hero-celebrity figure who can do it for us.