In One Chart, Here's Why The Anti-War Movement Collapsed

[Hekate]

56. PBO's election did not start with a coup d'etat, for starters, but with trust

He did not lie us into war, but ended one and is winding down another. He didn't promise to be Mahatma Gandhi when he accepted the Nobel Prize, nor was he ever a pacifist, and the Nobel Committee surely was aware of that. He has told the Congress, publicly, that they should be dialing back Presidential power, and that the country's laws should not be on a permanent war footing.

Obama has not betrayed the trust he started his administration with, despite bitter opposition from wingnuts and the GOP Congress. He's done his best in extraordinarily trying circumstances, and has made progress that benefits us all.

Some here have shouted in all caps that trust is earned. Well, if you didn't trust him when he was running for office or after he had been in for a couple of months, there's no expectation that you will ever feel that he has earned your trust.

Given that one of the reasons we voted for him was his promise to end the Bush Wars, and given that you can't pack up and leave the first day, what earthly purpose would it have served for people like us to march on Washington screaming that we wanted him to end the wars? Because I did that for Bush, for more than one reason, and more than once. I know how it's done. I worked diligently in my community during those years.

Obama has carried out those promises he made, even though it takes time and it's agonizing to wait and will be agonizing to watch Iraq and Afghanistan devolve into chaos when we finally leave. Why would I continue my anti-war activities when he already knows how we feel, said he'd take care of it, is taking care of it, and is juggling so many balls that I wonder how any human can keep on?

I'm sure I speak for the majority of Democrats when I say that I have other fish to fry much closer to home. It only makes sense to continue anti-war activities when you are (a) a committed pacifist, or (b) not being listened to by the president. Most people are not pacifists, and most Democrats are satisfied with the job this president is doing in that regard. It could change -- but not yet.

What really disappoints me is the way that activists completely dropped the ball on other issues here at home right after he was elected, and didn't GOTV for the midterm 2010 elections. That hurt us. A lot. I understand the post-Bush exhaustion, but I don't understand at the very least getting out the vote. Now there's a chart I'd like to see.