sagawizard (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} sagawizard) wrote,@ 2008-07-13 21:45:00 |
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You lost me, Obama.
Despiriting times for those of us who had been Obama supporters. I really allowed myself the luxury of buying into his messages about hope and change, and the last few weeks have kicked me hard in the teeth, driving home the message that this man is in fact, a politician, and a rather centrist one at that. His faith based stuff, his flag pin - annoying. His FISA vote - unforgivable. His change on the war in Iraq - an outright betrayal of those who voted him into victory, just like the 2006 Democratic Congress.
Time to face facts that this election will be, in South Park terms, one more runoff between a giant douche and a turd sandwich, at least on the issues I care about:
1.Restoring our raped Constitutional and privacy rights: Not only do neither Obama nor McCain support this, but both are accelerating the loss of our freedoms.
2. Iraq War: McCain is merely being more forthright about his decision to continue investing gazillions in a failed, unjust, immoral and ineffective war. If Obama keeps backsliding on his promise, he'll soon be pretty much equivalent.
3. Afghanistan War: Obama came out pretty early after his victory over Clinton into saying he wants to accelerate this war. So does McCain.
4. Environmental Policy: Both men talk a good game about finding alternate fuels and weaning off oil dependency, but McCain's plan is mostly coal (polluting) and corn-biodeisel (inefficient and robs us of food supply) and Obama's plan remains nebulous.
5. Education: Heard next to nill from either of them on it, but with most of our money going towards war, how will either of them do anything significant for this issue?
6. Gay Rights: Both oppose gay marriage.
7. Women's Rights: Ok, so this is the only choice voters have really had for the last 20 years in this "you can have a Model T in any color so long as it's black" political landscape.
8. Health Care: Here, too, there might be a difference, but once again, how do you pay for health care if the lion's share of federal resources go towards war?
The Democrats seem to have forgotten that abandoning the left to seek centrist voters, arrogantly claiming "who else are you going to vote for, the Republican? Mwahaha!", failed them as a strategy in the last two elections.
But I've pretty much written off that party as being good for anything. Obama gave me a flicker of hope it might be different, but now that's gone.
What hope I have lies in off-the-media-radar organizations. The ACLU, via the Supreme Court, won us back our right to Habeas Corpus, and marriage equality groups are fighting and, in many cases, winning battles for gay rights. Environmental groups are organizing consumers, with success, to pressure companies to offer all sorts of environmentally friendlier technologies. State and local governments are adopting stricter greenhouse standards. As for the war...well, the antiwar movement, sadly, has been an utter failure, because people just don't care enough to go to the wall, go on strike, block up shipping traffic, and do all the things that have stopped wars before. Things just have to get worse at home - maybe once we invade Iran, get a Draft, and all the public schools close due to lack of funding, people will start to consider stopping the wars a priority.
But my point is, no more money of mine is going to the Democratic Party on a federal level, period. I'm done being hoodwinked. Government, for the foreseeable future, is inescapably conservative and reactionary. Right-wingers, rejoice - you have well and truly won this round, this round being the 2000s.
Maybe some day, the Democrats will undergo a revolution from within, or maybe a new party will arise, but that's in the future. For the present, any hope for a more progressive future for this country is in the hands of small groups of concerned citizens, as Margaret Mead would say. That's where my efforts are going - screw the general election, it's just for the media circus.
- SW
Despiriting times for those of us who had been Obama supporters. I really allowed myself the luxury of buying into his messages about hope and change, and the last few weeks have kicked me hard in the teeth, driving home the message that this man is in fact, a politician, and a rather centrist one at that. His faith based stuff, his flag pin - annoying. His FISA vote - unforgivable. His change on the war in Iraq - an outright betrayal of those who voted him into victory, just like the 2006 Democratic Congress.
Time to face facts that this election will be, in South Park terms, one more runoff between a giant douche and a turd sandwich, at least on the issues I care about:
1.Restoring our raped Constitutional and privacy rights: Not only do neither Obama nor McCain support this, but both are accelerating the loss of our freedoms.
2. Iraq War: McCain is merely being more forthright about his decision to continue investing gazillions in a failed, unjust, immoral and ineffective war. If Obama keeps backsliding on his promise, he'll soon be pretty much equivalent.
3. Afghanistan War: Obama came out pretty early after his victory over Clinton into saying he wants to accelerate this war. So does McCain.
4. Environmental Policy: Both men talk a good game about finding alternate fuels and weaning off oil dependency, but McCain's plan is mostly coal (polluting) and corn-biodeisel (inefficient and robs us of food supply) and Obama's plan remains nebulous.
5. Education: Heard next to nill from either of them on it, but with most of our money going towards war, how will either of them do anything significant for this issue?
6. Gay Rights: Both oppose gay marriage.
7. Women's Rights: Ok, so this is the only choice voters have really had for the last 20 years in this "you can have a Model T in any color so long as it's black" political landscape.
8. Health Care: Here, too, there might be a difference, but once again, how do you pay for health care if the lion's share of federal resources go towards war?
The Democrats seem to have forgotten that abandoning the left to seek centrist voters, arrogantly claiming "who else are you going to vote for, the Republican? Mwahaha!", failed them as a strategy in the last two elections.
But I've pretty much written off that party as being good for anything. Obama gave me a flicker of hope it might be different, but now that's gone.
What hope I have lies in off-the-media-radar organizations. The ACLU, via the Supreme Court, won us back our right to Habeas Corpus, and marriage equality groups are fighting and, in many cases, winning battles for gay rights. Environmental groups are organizing consumers, with success, to pressure companies to offer all sorts of environmentally friendlier technologies. State and local governments are adopting stricter greenhouse standards. As for the war...well, the antiwar movement, sadly, has been an utter failure, because people just don't care enough to go to the wall, go on strike, block up shipping traffic, and do all the things that have stopped wars before. Things just have to get worse at home - maybe once we invade Iran, get a Draft, and all the public schools close due to lack of funding, people will start to consider stopping the wars a priority.
But my point is, no more money of mine is going to the Democratic Party on a federal level, period. I'm done being hoodwinked. Government, for the foreseeable future, is inescapably conservative and reactionary. Right-wingers, rejoice - you have well and truly won this round, this round being the 2000s.
Maybe some day, the Democrats will undergo a revolution from within, or maybe a new party will arise, but that's in the future. For the present, any hope for a more progressive future for this country is in the hands of small groups of concerned citizens, as Margaret Mead would say. That's where my efforts are going - screw the general election, it's just for the media circus.
- SW
