Dear Friend,
Thanks for your email. I don't have a lack of "respect" for progressives who are angry with Obama. But I worked for Kennedy in 80 and got eight years of Reagan for staying true to my principles. You're just talking to someone who got badly burned, and won't play with fire again, is all.
You're also talking to someone who LIVES off of Social Security RIGHT NOW. My ex husband is 70, and the kids get SS checks that pay the mortgage on my house and all of my living expenses. I have no other income but the few dollars that come from the podcast when people feel like giving.
If this default crisis goes south and Social Security checks do not go out in August, I will be behind in my mortgage payments from day one.
I don't know what to tell you about Obama except that any Democrat running in 2008 except for Dennis Kucinich would have been the same, and Dennis Kucinich told reporters in 2007 that he wanted Ron Paul for his running mate. Yeah.
I'm going to work on issues rather than on candidates, because candidates are human and break your heart every time. And in terms of Obama running against any Republican, I am not going to vote for the person who will secure Clarence Thomas's political positions on the Supreme Court for the next thirty years.
Thanks very much for your kind words and thoughts. We really appreciate it.
Best,
Fran / BG
Understand, I read this blog frequently, but almost never comment. However, this post truly hits a raw nerve with me...as a progressive.
ReplyDeleteNot so funny is, your scenario is almost exactly our scenario. I am 70, on SS. Our two children also get SS every month. My wife who is 25 years younger, works, but in no way could we live solely on her salary. Her job provides us with half benefits of fairly good insurance, which of course is better than none. But her salary is probably less than average for a college graduate. She keeps her job for the benefits for all of us.
I have never, and will never vote for a Republican, because they simply do not understand the word compassion. That being said, even being the stanch Democrat that I am, I am so very pissed at this president that I can't think straight. I don't see the change...it isn't there, and never will be. He has not keep even one campaign promise (and don't throw the bullshit of an insurance reform bill at me...it is that, bullshit). I don't have to list what he has not done that he said he would, we all know what those empty promises are. We needed FDR...we got Mr. Milquetoast. Sorry, the man has no grit. His latest cave-in regards SS is almost comical, but predictable and the Republican bastards will jump on it, and chew his ass up (as usual). THERE WILL BE NO TAX INCREASES FOR THE UBER RICH, count on it. THERE WILL BE NO CUT BACK OF MILITARY BUDGETS, count on it. THERE WILL BE CUT BACKS ON SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICARE...count on it.
Unfortunately, I have to support the sonofabitch in 2012, but I have no illusions that he will work for me. Not going to happen. We have reached a place of lesser evils here in America, and both of us(you, me) can kiss our SS benefits as they are today...goodbye.
Quite honestly, if I were a younger man, I would pack up and move my family to a more sane, intelligent and compassionate country, because this one sure as hell isn't. But we can't do that.
Vote for Obama, but he is barely a notch above the pissants you don't want to vote for.
Sorry for the rant,but your sort of encouraged it.
Coupla things:
ReplyDeleteI just posted this piece
http://ramblings-fran.blogspot.com/2011/07/im-calling-bullshit-on-sky-is-falling.html
I AM calling bullshit on this bogus budget bullshit battle.
Because the reason why they are telling us times are hard & cuts must be made---
just this last friday
The House on Friday overwhelmingly passed a $649 billion defense spending bill that boosts the Pentagon budget by $17 billion and covers the costs of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Still, the overall bill is $9 billion less than President Barack Obama sought.
You KNOW the military spending is not on the table with all the other cuts they are flinging around, & Barney Frank said it really well:
"The military budget is not on the table. The military is at the table, and it is eating everybody else's lunch."
That's the crux of it.
We have money- but the Nobel Peace prize winning president is choosing to spend war monies 60% of the total budget pie, if you will, down the toilet of wars.
And just how crazy is the US with it's big ass military spending?
At nearly $700 billion, the U.S. military budget is bigger than that of the next 17 countries combined.
It's like the government needs an intervention.
they are addicted to war.
I'll point you to one more interesting article:
http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2011-07-09-black-unemployment-recession_n.htm
The part of the story of this black woman who worked her way out of poverty was this:
Some see a bitter irony in soaring black unemployment and the decline of the black middle class on the watch of the first black president.
"I thought Barack Obama could have provided some way out. But he lacks backbone," Princeton professor Cornel West told truthdig.com recently.
He said Obama had sold out the poor and become "a black mascot of Wall Street oligarchs and a black puppet of corporate plutocrats … I don't think in good conscience I could tell anybody to vote for Obama."
I found it jaw dropping- & had not even considered the black perspective on the Obama presidency.
To be fair the article has a quote saying Ms Goldring that she does not think the unemployment situation has a lot to do with Obama.
I agree the GOP would love for us to blame it all on Obama, when in fact their 8 years of Bush ignoring the economy & the lockstep GOP approving all of his supplemental war $ requests.
But now Obama can get us out of these wars that are costing more than ahlf the budget plus more wars in Libya and spilling over into Pakistan....
Im just saying, next time they whine about debt & cuts, we need to step up & call bullshit on the war spending.
those bastards took the war money first & then go to the budget table.
Who is going to argue $600 billion would not be a real shot in the arm for Soc Sec & Medicare???
Spend it on education, infrastructure, hell rehab New Orleans from the hurricane Katrina of 2005- because contrary to what Bush 2 said, Brownie did not do a heck of a job & much if it is still ruins. Or rebuild post tornado Joplin,
or pay to keep people in their houses & stop the abandoned home blight.
There is a shitload of better things we could be doing with that money.
Well here is what George Carlin predicted about Soc Security:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuH1D2OCnn8&feature=player_embedded
AS an aside-- I did vote for Obama. I worked the phone banks & promoted him big time, I really held hope that he would bring change.
ReplyDeleteBut for him to say Soc Security is on the bargaining table & at the same time slip in this big fat war fund, then pretend we are broke is bullshit. they are yanking our chains. the game is rigged & Obama is nowhere near the progressive he painted himself to be.
I sure as hell would not vote for Mitt or Bachmann.... but Obama has offended much of his base, him putting Soc Security on the bargaining table is kind of the final betrayal to the small people.
If he can pull those rugs out from under the people, then he will be a 1 term president. Not because there is a better candidate, but because people could no longer support him.
I hear lots of rumblings from angry villagers who say they will "just not vote" in 2012.
Not voting is the same as voting for a republican.
If Obama thinks he can pull this shit, and win as a "I'm not as bad as them" platform.....
he may have a rude awakening.
Besides wars he's kept a lot of the Bush 2 stuff (renditon, gitmo, tax cuts for the rich, and a bunch of Bush 2 staffers).
Where's the change???
Instead of saying SS & medicare are on the table he should be demanding the war budgets & wars be wound down.
He is headed in the wrong direction & if he screws with his base anymore. people will not tolerate being thrown under the bus by him repeatedly.
they still have a majority in the Senate & Obama has a VETO stamp.
Call the GOP on their bluff, but don;t think we are not paying attention to the war $$$.
It's the freaking elephant in the room!!!
Good morning, Blue Gal.
ReplyDeleteIs it possible we need to just start thinking of Mr. Obama as "President Not-the-Republican"? Because looking at your post, I noticed that you didn't list off reasons why we should support "Barack Obama"...just reasons why we should support "the person who's not the Republican".
I'm not saying I disagree with your logic. I just think that looking at Mr. Obama as "President Not-the-Republican" makes things easier.
You don't have to like "President Not-the-Republican".
You don't have to believe in "President Not-the-Republican".
In the end, the primary function of "President Not-the-Republican" is to keep things stable enough so that we can focus on people OTHER than him (including ourselves) to fix the country.
It's unfortunate, but that's what Mr. Obama has chosen to leave us with.
Okay, I'm done.
I can hold my nose and vote for him again, but that's about the extent of my support at this point.
ReplyDeleteSigh. Love ya, BG. I suppose I'll
ReplyDeleteIt either vote for Obama or see the Republican do countrywide what they are doing in the states they run. I honesty believe if they get control of the Senate and the White House they will kill social security and medicare. They will also cut taxes to the super rich again to make sure there will never be enough money to fund SS or medicare.
ReplyDeleteOk- I have one more thought (as if I did not post 2 long ass posts already!!!)
ReplyDeleteI think Obama would be wise to make good on his promise for government transparency.
Screw these closed door meetings-- bring on the full court press & let them capture on film all these GOP douchebags who are insisting on tax cuts for the rich.
Having that on film as a reference for the 2012 elections would be priceless.
Let the bastards go on public record as how they vote on line items:
Exxon's profit is up 69% & they made a profit of $116 BILLION in the first quarter, but you insist they continue to get tax breaks & subsidies?
If the GOP are being total jerks about this, make the negotiations public.
The Dems need to learn how to play hardball.
Now would be a good time to show some spine.
Personally, I will not vote for the lesser of two evils. Obama is a neoliberal monster. Why do I think that? Because he lied to the people who voted for him and promised a change in DC, transparency, public option, closing Gitmo...I could go on. Everything that is going on right now is kabuki. If we are going to get real change, we have to stop voting for people who lie to us. I'm with Fran. I've had enough of this bullshit.
ReplyDelete