Barack Obama has been POTUS for one year and one day. Hooray!!!!!!
It's been a rocky year, and i've tried to stay optimistic about it all, which is becoming harder and harder.
Through all this, especially with the results of the MA Senate race of this week, a lot of big questions have come up unanswered.
The reasons why I am still largely in support of BO are many:
- We have a President who does not endorse torture as a National policy
- Our President and his administration has a great respect for science and intellect
- Our President makes thoughtful decisions, about real problems, often in the face of political suicide
- The international opinion of the USA has shot through the roof
- Failed stimulus or not, he stalled a second Great Depression, which, in case you forgot, was brought on by the previous administration.
That's mostly what i've been feeling the last year, with a few bumps and bruises.
What i've been feeling in the last few days, on the other hand, is quite different.
I've known all along that deep down Obama is a pragmatist, not a progressive, and that has helped me stay afloat when he's become more centrist and relentlessly pragmatic while alienating the progressive base that got angry at the establishment and elected him.
Now he's the establishment that is making everyone, especially progressives, crazy. David Brooks, the smartest conservative alive, has an excellent column on Obama's first year and how his administration's hubris is killing him softly. I've been having an especially hard time staying positive this week, amidst the MA Senate debacle, the Supreme Court's heinous campaign-finance ruling and the reality that the house democrats just might let health care reform slip through its fingers.
I have long thought, with most democrats, that the purpose of government is to elect intelligent officials to carry out legislation and do what's best for the country. Since its introduction, both the House and Senate versions of the health care overhaul have been criticized and largely rejected by the american public. Being the liberal elitist that I am, I haven't been too concerned by this, thinking, "well, the government knows what's best for the country. That's why we have government." With Scott Brown winning Ted Kennedy's Senate seat on the platform of stopping health care legislation and being a Red Sox fan, i'm not so sure about my previous inclinations.
Yes, we need health care legislation. And badly. I honestly can't understand why so many republicans and conservative members of our nation are so vehemently opposed to a bill that is largely centrist and will in real, tangible ways help the welfare of the entire country. If they're so opposed to health care that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts will put the legacy of Ted Kennedy in the hands of hapless house dems with no good option, there must be something i'm missing. It's truly perplexing, but at the moment I know that deep down we MUST pass a health care bill, however flawed and politically suicidal. For what it's worth, the Democratic power in Congress and the White House is eroding quickly. We won't get another shot like this in a generation.
Many liberals have alluded to the fact that Obama's promise of transparency hasn't come through. He made back room deals with the devil (Big Pharm) and even some front-room deals with weasels in the senate (Ben Nelson). I understand that this is, regrettably, how our government works. I don't really know all that much about The Supreme Court's new ruling to overturn campaign finance laws, but I do know that it's bad. I'm terrified of the influence that big corporations will be able to wield, given the disgusting amount of pull they already have. I can only imagine the horrific commercials this November: "Vote for the CIGNA/AETNA Health Insurance Endowed Senate Seat, created exclusively for Joe Lieberman."
Sigh.....
