Dear Professional Left Podcast:
Should I be offended much by all that people are saying about Obama being "back" ?? I find it funny and suspicious that Obama suddenly became someone we might be able to like after he announced his reelection campaign. It's amazing to me that people can talk about how awesome he is after he continuously hits them. He isn't a centrist. When you look at his record, he is a Rockefeller Republican. All of what he has actually done is very much Rockefeller Republican. Why is no one talking about how "Gee, isn't that interesting that he is suddenly telling us what we want to hear right when he needs our money..." Seriously. Look at what he is doing. He isn't fighting for the liberals/progressives. Why should we support him? Who should we support?
A listener to the podcast
Dear Listener:
suddenly telling us what we want to hear right when he needs our money.
He's not telling us what we want to hear, he's telling us what Sherrod Brown told him to say. And Sherrod Brown knows that no one will vote for Medicare killers.
This is not about us. We're irrelevant.
But guess what? Obama is irrelevant, too.
We progressives have to be careful to remember that this is not about Obama, who will be gone in six years or less. This is about us. Are we going to be about how no one in the White House is good enough for us, or are we building something bigger and longer lasting than one administration?
I don't focus so much on Obama because frankly, as far as Presidents go he's all we've got. It's not that he's better than Bush -- it's that in the long run he is just one more administration we've had to hold accountable to liberal values. That is such as it ever was.
I know it makes a lot of people on our side feel jolly to diss Barack as some sort of massive traitor. But they're rewriting history because saying "Obama is a centrist ahole" is just as easy as saying "Fuck Bush" and it turns out those progressives don't have much else other than a constant state of aggrieved righteousness. Obama was my FIFTH choice for the Democratic nomination. Hillary was SIXTH.
Sigh. So it's not about who should we support but WHAT. Union issues, elder care, education, infrastructure. Pick something, make it local, write to your paper (because old people still read tree killing stuff and they vote) write a blog, give money, shout in the streets, fight the power. And remember that the muckrakers did all that a hundred years ago and oh, don't get me started on what a fucking corporate shill Woodrow Wilson was.
Best, and thanks for your letter,
Fran / BG
