Is this Democratic Underground?

[DonCoquixote]

148. Criticism vs Backstabbing

I do think we need to be able to criticize Obama, even outright scream. If that pressure was not there, he would fall way far to the right. Sometimes we do need to scream >>>FUCKING A!<<< for the sake of our sanity, as well as to remind us where we need to be.

That being said, there is an elephant in the room, and that is that while some people have good motives, some people are frankly just plain dishonest. I am not just talking about the Right-wing plants/psych-ops (though we do need to pay attention to those folks, as they are sadly effective.) I am talking about people who frankly had an ax to grind two months before day one, and who are thinking that if things get ruined, people will go "we are so sorry, we will obey you."

For example, you get people who complain that Obama caved in on the individual mandate, yet they say in the same breath that we should have voted for Hillary. Read that person's journal, and you can tell who they voted for. As i said in 2008, if Hillary won the primary, I would have voted for her, and I would have voted in 2012, just like I would vote for her if she wins the nomination in 2016. That being said, I cannot help but call said person's motive into question, when we all know that Bill and Hill would be serving a right wing agenda as well (as sadly, they helped to get the ball rolling when they killed Glass-Steagall)

On the other hand, while I do wish we had a real left, it is hard for the hard-left to keep credibility. "Stop voting for the lesser of two evils!" we hear. Sorry folks, there have been TWO elections were people stayed home or voted third party in the name of their conscience, and both of them put Bush in office. 2004 was the real let down, but people wanted to punish us because St. Howard Dean decided to Yee-Haw his way out the election. Even Doonesbury got into the act calling Kerry "Herman Munster", as the last Presidential candidate that was both a war her and war protester got slammed, and the world saw that we were willign to keep Bush in office for four more years, which, let's face it, is when America lost of lot of her luster.

So, what is my point, the point is this, yes, there are good reasons to yell at Obama, to be angry with him, to make sure, that if he wins 2012, he does not get to so much as smell any victory cake before he starts firing half his cabinet and signing the exact orders that will make the folks that will enrage the powers that be, that will fire up the lynch mobs and paid assassins that he undoubtedly fears. Yes, we should pressure him so bad that his hair grays. But as much as Obama has been a disappointment, that does not give us a right to allow people into power that we know damn well will do more damage than even he would. Yes Obama may lean right, but we can at least push him, or ensure that any steps he makes to the right are staggering, lumbering limps, not let the GOP in that has been ready to RUN and STOMP.

The bottom line is, there are people that are willing to see the GOP win, because they, like it or not, have a big payoff waiting for them if they do:

I am not just talking about the Ralph Naders, Jane Hamshers, Jon Stewarts and even Michael Moores, all of whom will make BIG money if a Republican wins.

I am not just talking about our so-called "Democratic" congress critters, who make sure anything worthwhile was "off the table" and were surprised they they could not just collect a check for being "not the GOP."

I mean the voters who still refuse to admit that yes, their ego-trip helped put the GOP in power, and that makes them responsible, at least in part, for all that Bush did. That includes EVERYTHING from dead babies to Supreme Court picks.

It's an ugly truth, but that does not make it a lie, and yes, MY conscience is clear, because I knew that I had to play the cards I was dealt, rather than gamble with people's lives.