Who here considers himself/herself to the left of Obama? And if you are, will you support him?

[freedom fighter jh]

228. Not sure and probably not

I'm a little unclear on what's left and what's right. Some said Obama was being conservative by signing NDAA. But don't conservatives believe in civil rights? Some said Obama was leaning toward socialism (that is, left) with his health care reform. But health care reform guarantees a whole lot of business to insurance companies. Aren't conservatives usually the ones to promote corporate welfare? So I don't want to say how far left or right I am, because I'm not sure what that means.

And November 2012 is too far away for me to know with certainty what I'll do. But if things look then the way they look now, I can't vote for Obama.

The biggest challenge we face is climate change, though it seems to be off the radar screen for most people. A couple of weeks ago there was an international meeting in Durban, South Africa, to try to hammer out a worldwide strategy to deal with it. There the U.S., a major greenhouse gas emitter, refused categorically to agree to any binding limits. The U.S. was perceived as the big obstructionist to any agreement. Not that the U.S. is the only obstructionist -- I'm sure other countries have obstructed as well -- but the U.S. should be leading here, rather than helping to seal the planet's fate as a place uninhabitable to anywhere near the number of people that it supports today.

Then there's nuclear power. Not once, but three times simultaneously, we have seen the worst case scenario for nuclear power played out, leaving Japan severely, frightfully, contaminated and the whole world slightly contaminated. Until Fukushima, the worst case scenario seemed to be just a hypothetical, a nightmare baseline against which to judge any accident that might really happen. Now that it's clear that that scenario can play out, nuclear power looks a whole lot more dangerous. Worse, we know the same thing can happen here any time. Yet Obama wants to allow more nuclear power plants to be built in this country.

And the mortgage crisis. Many of the very many foreclosures going on are illegal. Homeowners are often defenseless, unable to hire a lawyer, because they've spent their last dollar trying to pay the mortgage. Obama participated in the effort to bail the banks out (yes, I know, he was not yet president then, but as a senator he did push for the bailout), but he doesn't seem to be able to help the homeowners in any way.

I suppose any run-down of Obama's first term has to mention health care. There is something wrong with any wealthy, industrial society that cannot care for its sick. Yet I can't see that health care reform has accomplished that. Many people are still unable to afford health insurance. Will that get fixed in 2014? Insurance companies are forced to cover some who were not covered before -- but that cost gets passed on to the rest of us. My monthly premium for next year is up $100 from this year. I would not mind paying to support the healthcare of my countrypeople, but a big cut of my outrageously high premiums goes to the insurance company. I can't see how Obama has does anything to change that. Health care reform just seems to lock in the insurance companies' profit.

A better second terms seems to me wishful thinking. The assumption -- correct me if I'm wrong -- seems to be that Obama has really wanted to do the progressive thing all along, but has done otherwise because he feared that the powers that be would undermine his reelection effort. If that were the case, why wouldn't he just give up on getting reelected, so that he wouldn't need that support, and do the progressive thing in his first term? I have no faith that a second Obama term will be any better than the first.

Many have said they'll vote for Obama because they don't want to vote for a Republican, who would be worse. I agree that given the present Republican field, a Republican would almost certainly be worse. But at the same time, given two unacceptable choices I can't pick one. The only option left to me is to say I'm not playing this game. I feel that this option is a whole lot more viable now than it was four months ago, before the Occupy movement was born. I want to say that if many, many people refuse to vote for either major-ticket candidate (but could vote for a minor-party candidate, or could show up at the polls and vote for other offices but leave "president" blank) then the message would be sent that the American people will not accept the false choice between two candidates who will both promote the interests of corporations over people. I want to say that but I'm not sure I believe it. But I can say that I can't believe the change we need in our political system can possibly come from choosing the slightly friendlier face of corporatism.

That's why I can't vote for Obama.