that proves some people never understood that Obama was a moderate all along. I feel sorry for the young people who actually believed the election-year rhetoric, and I am sad at the disillusionment that might well drive some folks from political involvement for good; but you can't really believe the political rhetoric from either party. The Republican candidate wouldn't have outlawed abortion, and most election year promises are like that: grandstanding. You have to look at larger party agendas and party accomplishments from the past, and you have to look beyond any one candidate.
Do you know the story about the snake? Here it is:
A man who was about to cross a river noticed a rattlesnake snake also trying to get across. The snake looked up and said, "Could you take me across the river? I'll drown by myself." The man felt sorry for the snake but knew that rattlesnakes were poisonous. He said, "You're a snake. If I take you across the river you will bite me." "I won't bite you," promised the snake. So the man picked up the snake, put him in his pocket and carried him across the river. When they got to dry land and the man took the snake out of his pocket, the snake bit him. "You said you weren't going to bite me!" cried the dying man. "You knew what I was when you picked me up," hissed the snake.Well, Obama's not a rattlesnake, but he was a moderate all along; and we knew what he was when we picked him up. He's been much better than the alternative, but a sainted savior and champion of far-left causes he never was. Compromising first and best is not the goal I want my president to aim for. Am I disappointed? Yes! Terribly, terribly disappointed. But to complain that he's not a flaming left-wing liberal seems a bit unfair since -as far as I can tell, he is the Obama that I used to know. The disappointment is understandable, considering what we wanted, but that's politics. He was -and is- better than the other party's alternative.
If we keep drifting right, though, I'm moving to the Green Party.
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What's scary is that there are people further left than Obama. As a conservative Obama looks to be pretty liberal but maybe that's because the left and right don't truly understand each other.
ReplyDeletei'm not scary, and i'm a lot further left than obama. i used to be a moderate, and my views haven't changed. from where i sit the political spectrum has drifted so far to the right that "moderate" looks like "right" now. i think the left and right used to work together, but the tea party fringe has made this latest congress unable to do anything but demonize obama.
Deletewhat's scary to me is that people seem to have a religious fervor about their politics. i think some christians have gotten confused about what that whole "salvation" thing is about.
You aren't scary because you aren't in power. Obama is and he spends money with no concern how he is going to pay for things. I know they all do but it seems like the left proposes more ways to spend that stretch the influence of government on our lives and society as a whole.
Deletethe difference between the parties is what they want to spend money on and how they propose to pay for it. unfunded wars, of course, are a whole 'nother thing
DeleteYou can argue whether the wars were necessary or not but at least defending the country through war or other wise is a legitimate constitutional function of the federal government. Also while we would all prefer that the wars had been funded they are at least a temporary expense.
Deleteit was totally irresponsible to go to war on credit. temporary expense? i doubt it. we'll keep troops there forever, and the interest alone will be high. there's still no plan to pay it off. bush supporters should be ashamed, and don't get me started on the national debt under reagan. we had a surplus under clinton. no, the argument that liberals are bad for the economy won't fly. that an unfunded invasion of iraq (remind me what the national interest was there?) was constitutional is another argument i'm not buyin'.
Deletei just wish congress would _do_ something, preferably something constructive, and not follow bachman's lead and bring up bills to appeal obamacare. sheesh. they've been singularly useless :(
Clinton only had a surplus through the use of social security funds being used to cover general expenses. He was also running deficets up until Gingrich and the Republicans took over congress.
Deleteif the republicans can prove themselves to actually _be_ fiscally conservative i'll be very much surprised. i'm willing to see it, but i'm not seeing it so far.
DeleteI totally agree about election-year rhetoric. I studiously avoid election-year debates and such, but I am pretty awake to what the politicians do once they are elected. I have voted green for years, as the Swedish greens used to think outside the capitalist box, and I thought there should be a few of those in our parliament. But they seem to have stopped doing that, so now I don´t know quite what to do with my vote.
ReplyDeleteIn Sweden, a lot of people assume that Obama is the equivalent of a Swedish social democrat, left but not crazy-left like the communists (who don´t call themselves communist anymore, just "the left-party", to appear less crazy). I think he is probably way more conservative than the sitting Swedish conservative prime minister.
i don't know how our parties compare with those overseas, but obama sure doesn't look left-wing from where i sit. i suspect the same corporate owners are pulling the strings on both sides.
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