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Out of context: Reply #15

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  • ukit0

    You know what stands out in this debate is that not only do we not agree on the solutions, we don't even have anything close to the same preconceptions in terms of what the government is trying to do. Even though I hated Bush I felt like I always knew what his motivations were, even if they were the most vile shit imaginable you kind of understood the reasons behind what he did.

    Now depending on where you sit in the political spectrum, your view of the current government could range anywhere from

    1) Obama is a far-left radical determined to move the U.S. government into socialism.

    2) Obama is a progressive Democrat who wants health care with a public option, negotiating in good faith with a more conservative Congress. He might make some compromises out of practicality, but in the end, he's doing this all to advance a mainstream progressive-left (not far left) agenda.

    3) Obama is a corporate Democrat sellout to the health care lobby (among other lobbies) who now make up the money base of the Democratic party, and will almost certainly move to strip the "public option" out of any final bill.

    4) Obama is a complete puppet of the ruling class, and it doesn't matter who's in the government, the keys to the castle just get handed from GWB to Obama and nothing changes.

    Now (1) seems out of the question to me. It's definitely true that Obama was on the actual left when he was younger (see: Rev Wright and some of the causes he advocated for when he was in Illionois state politics), but like most politicians he's moderated those views to gain and maintain power.

    #4, likewise, seems too simplistic and unlikely to me. Why would opponents of the liberals be spending millions of dollars and organizing grassroots campaigns to whip up anger if it didn't matter who was in power?

    When I voted for Obama and advocated for him on the campaign, I was hoping he was going to turn out more like the second option in that list. I've never been on the far left, and I just hoped the government would clean up the mess left by the Republicans and enact some smart reforms in terms of the environment and health care. At the same time, and especially lately, there were always worrying signs that he was more like #3.

    Maybe the most ominous sign of this is the activity of Tom Daschle, who was always a key part of making Obama a credible force in politics, advocating on the part of the health care industry and collecting hundreds of thousands in speaking fees while Obama was running for president. If you recall Dashcle was actually Obama's choice to be the Health and Human Services Secretary before he was suddenly forced to refuse the nomination (and it's still not entirely clear why).

    In recent weeks, we have been hearing a lot of "the public option is dispensible" and "we were never all that big on the public option." It seems remarkably dumb to go into final negotiations talking down the public option if you were actually trying to get it in there.

    I think what happens with the health care bill in the end will say a lot about what we can expect from Obama in the next three years. If the younger generation of progressives are completely betrayed by the Democrats, they are definitely going to start looking around at other ways to influence the government.

    ukit 0Permalink
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    • I always saw O as a moderate centrist with lefty rhetoric...TheBlueOne
    • I'm actually surprised only in that he seems more centrist than I expected...TheBlueOne
    • The fact that he's being labelled as the 2nd coming of Mao by the repubs just points out how out of touch they areTheBlueOne
    • But I agree 100% with your 1st paragraph there..good point.TheBlueOne
    • Yea, but the actual motivation matters, doesn't it?ukit
    • For instance, reading this

      http://www.nytimes.c…

      doesn;t make me feel all that great about health care reform      ukit
    • has gotta give you some pauseukit
    • I suppose...I dunno I always expected Obama to disappoint the left..in that GetDepressed is correctTheBlueOne
    • I was hoping for a left surge to push O that way after the election..like what happened with JFKTheBlueOne
    • Sadly the only pushing I'm seeing is coming from the insane right...TheBlueOne
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