I'm offering my hand in friendship.

[last1standing]

Seriously.

I know I'm probably not well liked in this forum but I'd like to ask anyone who cares, to check out my latest post in GD and weigh in with your thoughts.

I'd also like to thank Clio for leading me to think of it.

Last1

[SeattleGirl]

1. Could you give us a link to your post?

Thanks!

[last1standing]

2. Sorry. I didn't want it to seem like a rallying thread.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7570936

[SeattleGirl]

3. Thank you. That was a good post.

I don't have a problem with people disagreeing with Obama either, but when that "disagreement" is just a disguise for slamming him, and for jumping all over people on DU who don't completely agree with THEIR point of view, then I have a problem with it.

I think that's what you are also saying in your post, is it not?

[last1standing]

4. That's exactly what I'm saying in that post.

I'm going to disagree with the president until he becomes a raging progressive who legalizes everything from gay marriage to pot to prostitution. I'm going to push him until bush, cheney and every other member of that evil cartel is behind bars. In other words, I'm going to criticize him as long as he's in office, but that's no excuse to attack you for not doing the same - just like there's no excuse for someone to attack me for criticizing him. These are our political views and we need to start respecting each other for having them.

[Arkana]

11. You, for one, have proved you're different than the rest.

I appreciate the olive branch--I just wish others felt the way you did.

[Hekate]

5. Thank you, that's a really good OP. Come back any time.

:donut: I'll keep the coffee on.

Hekate

[CTLawGuy]

6. I appreciate the olive branch

I think there's a difference between "pushing to the left" and what I often see here.

I see lots of talk about Obama listening to corporations over the people or being in the pocket of Wall Street. These are dubious characterizations. This is a man who rejected wall street to work as a community organizer and a civil rights attorney. He did what he thought was best to keep our financial system from falling into total collapse. (And yes, we need a mechanism to prevent too big to fail companies. It is possible to ask that of him without calling him a wimp or a corporate sellout.)

I see people expecting Obama to be like Bush, as in governing like Bush did. Obama is not going to have the same legislative success as Bush. Bush is from an ideologically narrower party that is easier to keep unified, the democrats weren't in unified filibuster mode, and 9/11 did a lot to silence Bush's critics. If you want Obama to ignore the law and the constitution for liberal ends as Bush did for conservative ends, you're going to be disappointed. You can whine all you want about 41 > 59 and the like, but it won't do any good. We are not going to use the ethically reprehensible and disingenuous nuclear option. The rules allow the filibuster, and if you don't like it, you have to punish the republicans who are abusing it, not reward them by getting mad at Democrats.

The republicans' strategy is to make Obama fail as hard as possible. Guess who benefits if Obama fails? The Republicans. When you push Obama to the left, keep this in mind. Spreading disillusionment among the democratic base is exactly what Republicans want. Why is there no public option, for example? The republican filibuster is EXACTLY why there is no public option. They REFUSE to let Obama and the dems govern, and some here want to reward them for that?

[gratefultobelib]

10. Good post. I copied and pasted it to reread and quote when needed. That's also a

very interesting tagline. I didn't realize the split in the votes for Civil Rights and Medicare.

[greenbird]

7. Good post.

I honestly get the feeling that there are some posters who use DU as their psychological trap door, so to speak, where they dump all of their dark thoughts. How do you explain people who can't find one single positive thing to say about anyone, or find any hope in anything? Who knows, maybe they adopt kittens in real life.

What frightens me more than anything about our current political state is the breakdown of civil discourse and the exchange of ideas. I've read Obama's books and from what I can tell about the man, he more than anyone welcomes discussion, disagreement, questioning . . .



edit for typo

[Kaleva]

8. I'm wondering about your comment about subforums where people plan their next attack.

Overall though, I thought your post was a good one. I don't know if you are well liked here or not. Being a moderate, I may not be either!

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

9. GROUP HUG!

:grouphug: