The Left Battles The Left

Recently I got into a debate with a fellow lefty. For my part, I was deeply annoyed at our "Democratic" President and his unwillingness to fight for Democratic principles. As the leader of the party I hold him responsible for the right wing legislative agenda that has continued to plague America. The one I was debating with held that Obama does not write legislation, but was nonetheless amazed at the success he had and was immeasurably pleased with his performance faced with such abstinence in the congress. In short, this person had built a hedge around the President, as completely powerless to influence legislation, but was happy for the most part for the Presidents accomplishments on the legislative outcomes.

We have four groups of voters in America. About 1/3 of them are racist christopaths who pervert a perfectly good religion for a dose of fundy red bull and are protected by a diamond hard ring of mile thick, bunker hardened ignorance. There is no reaching them; giving them facts is like giving medicine to a dead guy, why bother. Then there is the third that works so hard, they have nothing left to pay attention to politics and view politics like voting people off of an island to see who will end up running the "Meet The President" show for the next four years. They know it's serious, but it should be entertaining too.

Then it's the last third, divided in half. One half believes criticizing a Democrat, especially the President, is absolutely insane and we should support them because they are on our team. The other half (of this third) believes Democrats should enact democratic policies since thats what they were elected for--and criticize them when they do not. I hold it is wrong for the Government to prosecute whistleblowers. I hold it is wrong to "rendition" people and hold them indefinitely without trial. I hold it is wrong to wiretap American citizens without a warrant. Even if the President is a Democrat, these things are just as wrong today as they were when a Republican was in the White House.

I felt it was a colossal error to sacrifice the public option in the healthcare bill at the insistence of the insurance industry. The idea was to make the system more affordable and efficient. The health insurance has 500 square miles of 20 story buildings jam packed with denial clerks. That takes a lot of money, gums up the works and delivers not one ounce of health care. The progressive caucus, with several other democrats, signed a pledge not to pass health care without the public option, more than enough where it would be impossible to pass one without it. House teabaggers swore they would not raise the debt ceiling without massive cuts and no new taxes.

Why did the progressives cave on the public option? They will never be taken seriously. The teabaggers did not cave and Boehner said he got 98 percent of what he wanted. The same man was President in both cases. One was a victory for the far right fringe element and the other was a victory for AHIP and PhRMA. Both were major losses to the middle class of America. The insurance industry gets 30 million new customers, premiums paid mostly by the treasury, with copays so high the newly insured still won't be able to afford a doctor visit. A one-way cash flow from public funds to private industry, traded for campaign contributions.

Next, Dear Leader will look into cutting Medicare and Social Security. Will the Obamabots stand quietly by, dropping their laundry and grab their ankles while saying "Thank you Sir, May I have another?!" Perhaps they'll save their criticism for people like me, who think it is a good idea to enact legislation that polls in the high 60s and low 70s and a bad idea to cut programs that over 80 percent of Americans approve.