I think it is healthy that the "left" criticizes the President.

After all, are we a Party of ideas or of a man?

Like many here, I criticize the President but I will most likely vote for him in the next election, considering the Republican options.

I think those that have a problem with criticizing the President are misguided. Their intentions are good but they have tunnel vision. How can we ever make the changes necessary within our society if we all accept the status quo?

Should we still be in Guantanamo? Should the wars still be going on? Should we be fighting harder to save Social Security and Medicare against the Republican onslaught? Should we extend the taxcuts for the wealthy? There are many things the "left" disagrees with this President on. Should they be silent?

Because we all need to be united to defeat the Republicans, we are told. I would suggest that if we are united in an unjust cause, we are serving no noble purpose.

Furthermore, I would suggest that we are not critical enough. The ideas of our Party should not be discarded to accomodate the radical Republicans. We should not have "gangs" to work out a "compromise" on Medicare while the other side does not know the word and wants to give more and more to the wealthy of this country. We should not negotiate away Medicare - we should fight for it. Just as an example.

Next thing you'll be wanting a rainbow pooping unicorn.

;)

:hi:

and vomit rainbows.

And if you don't agree, then piss off!!!1!

:hi:

And I definitely trust his judgement more than someone claiming to be the "left", on an anonymous internet web site.

So, we are at an impasse here.

Don

Just curious?

Let your imagination wander.

So far he has been a lot smarter than them. I hope he keeps it up.

Don

Or do you think it might make him a better President? After all, he said he wanted you to make him do the right thing.

and if the GOP puts up a reasonable, intelligent candidate to exploit the issues and RW media backs him/her up then who knows what could happen. Never underestimate the stupidity of the America voters... eg. Bush 2004.

He is OUR President.. the leader of OUR party. We cannot risk losing the WH back to the evil empire.

Thats fine... feel free. But we have to keep the big picture in mind.. which is stopping the GOP from running rampant over this country.. and endlessly bashing the President is not the way to accomplish that.

...is the long-term success of our country (which
is nothing more than the amalgam of all of the
citizens of this country).

The long-term success of this country may be dependent
upon more factors than whether any given Democratic
politician wins any given election; it may depend on
much larger, long-term shifts in the body politic.
And, in fact, these necessary shifts may be impeded
by the short-term success of not-very-democratic
Democrats.

Tesha

I would argue that if we ever let the GOPers take back the WH and congress we may have a very hard time getting it back. Already these idiots are pushing for voter regulation changes in various states that could serious reduce number of qualified Dem voters. I can only imagine what these idiots would do once they get control of all three branches of our government again.

We need to be fighting the enemy ourselves, just like Wisconsin is. They're in it for the long run. Soon half a dozen Republicans will be recalled and Democrats have a good chance of picking up seats. Next year Scott Walker will be recalled (I can't imagine it not happening) and the State Supreme Court will overturn his illegal and unconstitutional legislation. And if that doesn't happen chances are possible that they'll get voted out of existence. The unions and their supporters are showing us how it's done. We need to pay attention.

Wisconsin's reaction to the assault on them in the name of the Koch brother's deepest desires of having total power has been to organize, set goals and do the slogging work of manifesting them. Not to kick their heels in a tantrum blaming Obama for not fixing everything their Governor and Republican legislators are doing. I don't think I've heard a single attack on Obama out of Wisconsin since this started.

:thumbsup:

Option A = Option B = No options.

This might come as a surprise but there is a vast middle you're ignoring.

and have no particular attachment to any one politician. Sorry. If a given politician cannot maintain a reasonable loyalty toward either the progressive platform or the semi-progressive platform he ran on, he loses my support. I'm no ideologue and would happily support a certain amount of political concession. But BO's take re whistleblowers and the PAK drones constitute, at the very least, a severe breach of trust, for as far as I can tell they are not concessions in any form, simply BO policy.

I do applaud his commitment to forgive Egypt's debt, an unusual move for western economic institutions. If he really does allow mideastern states to choose their own form of government and economic policy I may be tempted into overlooking the aforementioned abuses of power. If he coerces these states into hardcore laissez faire then I really could care less about the guy.

Unfortunately, instead of that we get a lot of screams that he's a republican, or bought by corporations. That's not criticism, that's just wailing, gnashing of teeth, and emotional venting.

I'm all for analysis of the issues. No patience for the emotional hyperbole.

I will tell you, however, that his policies are to the
right of Richard Nixon (who you'll remember created the
EPA). Almost the entire Democratic Party as we now know
it is to the right of much of the Republican Party of
the Sixties and Seventies.

I want a Democratic Party that is not only unambiguously
to the left of the Republicans, I want one that has moved
most of the way back to the values *THEY USED TO HOLD*
back in their hey-day.

Tesha

It has become the Republican Party of 1970. The country has swung to the right since 1980, but I have faith it'll swing back eventually.

However, I can't hold Obama responsible for not moving the entire party/country back by himself. The only way the party is going back to the left is if the voters start forcing that at a local level. Then work up. A top down attempt by Obama wouldn't succeed.

To hell with this libertarian-style "no silly emotions allowed" stuff. Most usually it simply amounts to a convoluted defense of the status quo. Despicable acts rightly make people angry.

that is really what most of it is.

ran into massive unified opposition.

Of course we should be out of Iraq and Afghanistan, but we who complain are not in the position of having to make the decision and face any consequences. Or face the serious opposition to pulling out.

And so it goes... This is a large country, with people who genuinely believe our "progressive" ideas are wrong and with powerful forces cynically exploiting them.

Better than the whining and bashing because we didn't get what we want would be the hard work to actually support grassroots efforts to save what we have and expand on it. To do that, though, we have to first compromise with ourselves-- we can't have tantrums and stamp our little feet when we don't get the impossible.

Excellent post.

And I will remain observant AND very critical when I disagree! Remember folks, Candidate Obama told us to!

Nobody like the "lesser of two evils" nature of our system, but the "greater of two evils" is obviously worse and is what we have in state legislatures and govenor's mansions across the country. I have many of the same criticisms of Obama, but I'm not going to stay home on election day as my way of expressing them.

The republican menace is bad enough that we need to throw anything in its way, like the movie character that knocks over garbage cans while he's being chased. Meanwhile, the valid critiques of the Democratic leadership should continue, so we can stop running, turn and fight.

But we have almost none of that here. Most of it is knee-jerk, emotional, misunderstands the President's position or has not bothered to research the issue or the limits and details of a President's power. It follows the media, as if the President has unlimited power and is personally responsible for everything.

And there are several posters who do nothing else. That's a bit strange, isn't it?

Further, when anonymous internet posters claim the President should do something a different way and say a different thing, it's not "cheerleading" or blind following to think the perhaps the President's choice of how to proceed is more informed than that of the anonymous internet poster.

However, the extreme left also need to be ready to take the incoming criticism that's likely to occur.

but unlike you, i most likely will not vote for him in 2012. at some point this shit has to stop.

Lock step has never been the Democratic way of doing business. We are the "question authority" crowd aren't we?

wouldn't let him. Hell, they even pressured him about where to hold a fucking trial. And I don't think anyone actually believes he wanted to extend the tax cuts to the wealthy: it was a political deal that extended unemployment benefits and helped get DADT repealed. In fact, when he announced the compromise re: the tax cuts, he specifically said he opposed extending them.

And this is part of the problem: the President makes some bad decisions, yes, but often "his" bad decisions are decisions made by the Senate....it's just that the blame ends up in his lap.

All its doing is, well, criticizing the President. How we wish all the tea party did was "criticize" the President on the internet for 2 years. NO, they go out and start a bullshit movement and get tons of media attention AND a platform for each member, primped and pampered for every Sunday talk show so they could "criticize". The President told us himself NUMEROUS times "Make me do it", and what does the Left do? Sit on the internet and "criticize" the President. How about we start making the President hear OUR voices, I doubt he checks our "blogs" and "twitter" accounts. I also doubt that if heard our voices LOUD and CLEAR he would ignore them. If we REALLY wanted single-payer then we could...IF we really want it.

The Left used to REALLY want it. Now, we just join the tea party in "criticizing" our President. Now I'm a firm believer in free speech so go right ahead and criticize away, BUT, just reminding people that you can turn negative energy into positive energy. Thanks to the tea party we know that any moron can spew hatred. But showing love to one another is a symbol of evolution.

Though some seem to think that having a (D) after his name imparts immunity for misdeeds and failures.