Making A Case for Our President - Democratic Underground

louis c

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Sun Jul-18-10 06:20 PM
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Making A Case for Our President

Edited on Sun Jul-18-10 07:08 PM by louis c

Let me first start out by saying that I agree that President Obama left many progressives at the alter, especially labor. I know the teachers are unhappy with charter schools and the lack of support on collective bargaining. Card check legislation didn't even get a vote, and now we'll be facing increasing opposition in a new Congress. The Health Care Bill left out single payer and a public option. It was compromised to hell. Iraq and Afghanistan are still unresolved and moving on a trajectory not much unlike the previous administration and with basically the same personnel and policies. OK, I understand your discontent, I have my own.

Now, on to the main point. I'm personally a product of the 60's. I was politically active before I was sexually active. I campaigned for Eugene McCarthy in 1968, at the age of 15. I remember all the adults at the time being pissed off about the Chicago Convention and Humphrey's nomination that we figured there really wasn't a difference. Guess what, there was. We ceded the God Damned country to Richard Nixon out of spite.

I remember 1980. Ted Kennedy was our stalwart. I was now 27 and Kennedy was the "real Liberal". So, fuck Jimmy Carter. As a result, we ended up with the Reagan Revolution, the destruction of the middle class through the near abolition of unions, and a new right wing that we are living with to this day.

Fast forward to 1994 (Now I'm 42). Clinton won the Presidency two years earlier but supported NAFTA and GAT. Anti-union positions that were a body blows to organized labor and the American working class. We sat on our hands in the 1994 mid-term elections. Enter the Republican Congressional majority that lasted over a decade. They nearly obliterated the middle class and organized labor. They even repealed Glass-Stigell.

In each case, we had a right to feel let down and left out. In each case, however, we bit our nose off to spite our face and the result is an America that has moved so far to the right I can hardly recognize it.

The Obama election was a lucky break for us. If it wasn't for the September, 2008 economic meltdown and McCain's ineptness, I don't think we would have won that one. But, never the less, we're in and with a majority of both houses. I'm 57 now. I've learned my lessons. I'm for Obama because the alternative scares the living daylights out of me. So, here's my case for MY President.

When Barack Obama took over the Presidency, we were losing upwards of 750,000 jobs a month. Now we are gaining jobs. We may be gaining jobs at a rate less than we hoped, but Obama's policies have stopped the bleeding. The unemployment rate is a misleading indicator. By extending unemployment benefits from 26 weeks to 99 weeks or greater, more unemployed stay on the roles for a lot longer, increasing the rate. Another factor keeping that number high is that as the economy improves, more workers enter the workforce looking for work, and that increases that percentage even further. The real number is jobs created, not unemployment rate. And it must be kept in mind that adding jobs, at any rate, is way better than losing them.

The deficit was one trillion dollars. On top of that, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were "off the books". Some sort of emergency accounting ploy to keep that number out of the budget. Obama campaigned on the fact that that number would be included in the budget. He kept his word, and now our opponents are acting like the money spent under Bush for the wars is actually a deficit under the current President. Why aren't we explaining this to the public?

The Stock Market has increased nearly 25% since Obama took office. If you take into account that february and March of 2009 were horrific months that could hardly be blamed on President Obama, the increase from the March lows is nearly 40%. That's not chicken feed. A lot of working Americans have there lives' savings in a 401k or pensions. I remember when that drug addict, Rush Limbaugh made the point in March of 2009 that the market dropped 2,000 points since Obama was elected (not inaugurated mind you, but elected in November 2008 thereby making him responsible for shit that happened before he was even sworn in). Not a word about the rebound or an ounce of credit for the bounce back from the right, now that the market has recovered.

President Obama saved 350,000 good, middle class, union jobs with benefits in the Auto industry. The right wing likes to cal it a bail out. but it wasn't. I remember assholes like Senators Corker and Bunning calling for a boycott of AMERICAN cars for the president's actions. Good thing we didn't listen to them and we should be touting the President's courage and the American auto industry for the success of this action.

The stimulus bill IS working. One third was in the form of tax breaks for the middle class and, extended and increased unemployment benefits for the people out of work. One third was for aid to states and cities to keep teachers, police, fire fighters and other public servants working. If the president didn't do this, the unemployed would have doubled. That money helped prevent a catastrophe. The final third was for infrastructure and to underwrite new energy jobs. The right likes to look at the net jobs instead of all the jobs that were saved. Of course, the tax breaks for working Americans, instead of the very wealthy.

Banking regulations to hold our largest banking groups accountable. No matter how you feel about the war, his administration has killed or captured more high ranking al Queda operatives in 18 months than the Bush Administration did in 8 years. The U.S. Borders have more personnel manning it than under Bush. More companies are being held accountable for knowingly hiring undocumented workers than the previous Administration, and he's done all of this with no help from the Republican nay sayers.

Sure, President Obama isn't the fire breathing progressive we all thought he was going to be when he won the presidency in November 2008, but he's the best we're ever going to see. Especially if you're 57 years old or older.