But I've had a friend take me to task over my questioning of Obama's liberal credentials or his ability to fight to keep his campaign promise to oppose the tax cuts for the rich. This friend tells me that it's wrong for liberals to turn their back on Obama just because he gave in to Republicans on this one issue. He would be right if it was just about this one issue, but it isn't. There is a whole litany of issues where Obama has failed to keep his campaign promises or just continued the failed policies of the Bush administration.
Consider the following list of Obama failures:
* Right after assuming office he requested and signed an extension of the Patriot Act -- an unconstitutional invasion of privacy of American citizens. Now the administration wants to go even further than Bush and get free access to internet sites to investigate Americans without a probable cause warrant. Our Founding Fathers tried to protect the rights of Americans by requiring a warrant before the government could intrude into the private lives of citizens. But together, Bush and Obama have pretty much destroyed the warrant requirement contained in the Constitution.
* While on the campaign trail Obama promised to close down the torture prisons at Guantanamo and give the prisoners housed there a fair trial. That has not been done, and now it looks like Guantanamo will remain open for many more years.
* While campaigning, Obama promised to get out of Iraq and Afghanistan and bring our soldiers home. While his administration trumpeted the withdrawal of "combat" troops from Iraq, the fact remains that there are still about 50,000 U.S. troops in that country and no timetable for withdrawing them. As for Afghanistan, things just seem to be getting worse there, and military leaders doubt we will be able to withdraw from that country by 2014.
* Obama told us he was opposed to the DADT policy of the United States military and would end it. He could have ended it by executive order (like Truman did with segregation), but he didn't. He also could have ended it by directing the Justice Department not to appeal the decision of a California federal judge who ruled it unconstitutional, but he didn't. Instead, he sat back and hoped Congress would do the job for him, and now with the Republicans taking over the House, it doesn't look like it will happen at all.
* Obama promised to rein in the greed-mongers on Wall Street and make them treat consumers fairly by passing new and strict regulations. He could have used his "bully pulpit" and gone to the people to defeat Republican intransigence on this issue. The people were angry with Wall Street and would have backed Obama if he had fought for real regulatory change. But he didn't. He allowed the regulatory bill to be watered down so much that Wall Street is now back to their old greedy ways (and giving out even larger bonuses than before).
* Obama promised to fix our broken health care system and cover all Americans with health insurance. He didn't do either one. The bill that was passed leaves Americans at the mercy of private health insurance companies, including making medical decisions that should be made by doctors. Insurance rates are still rising, and even after the bill completely takes effect, it will not provide health insurance for all Americans. While real change was needed, only cosmetic change was delivered.
* Obama promised to end the outsourcing of good American jobs (another case where the "bully pulpit" would have worked) and to provide a stimulus to create millions of jobs. The outsourcing continues, and the job stimulus provided was a paltry effort which included too much tax cutting (a terrible job creator) and too little actual money for public projects (like rebuilding America's crumbling infrastructure). It's another promise broken.
* Obama also promised a more transparent and accountable government while he was on the campaign trail -- something we are still waiting to see. And when WikiLeaks released thousands of State Department cables (which shouldn't have been secret anyway in a democracy) that did not compromise the national security (in spite of what the right-wing says), the Obama administration wants to prosecute WikiLeaks founder. The truth is his talk of transparent government was just that -- talk.
And now he has capitulated to the Republicans on economic policy. With the giveaway to the rich, I am having a hard time differentiating Obama's economic policy from the "trickle-down" policy of George Bush. The rich will get even richer, while everyone else gets poorer. And the recession will continue unabated (probably for years).
I thought I was voting for a fighter like Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman or Lyndon Johnson, but Obama has turned out to be much more like "Bush-Lite". I don't think I'm the only one who expected change that hasn't happened, and frankly, I'm wondering whether it is worth the time, effort and funds to support Obama in 2012.
I'm tired of continuing the disastrous Bush policies and Democrats getting blamed for it. If we are going to continue those policies, especially the economic policies, maybe the Republicans should be in charge -- so they can get the blame when the recession just gets worse.
There's still some time before the next election, and maybe President Obama will grow a spine and prove me wrong, but so far he's not shown any signs of being able to fight for Democratic values. I'm really wondering now if he has any progressive values.
Am I wrong?
i would like to add the attack on social security by defunding it through the payroll tax holiday...we could get by with it ok (borrowing more from social security) but there will be no spine left to revert back to the higher rate...thus destroying its ability to pay the recipients since social security cannot borrow from the general fund...by law... which is part of the republican plan to gut all social programs by strangling funding with tax cuts, etc. so very sad :(
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