I Don't Think I'm a Democrat Anymore
I know these days I'm supposed to feel the power of hope and change. Democrats are energized and more people than ever are excited about the upcoming election. Barack Obama, according to most polls, is ahead and looking forward to becoming our next commander-in-chief. Young people are involved in record numbers and apathy is falling by the wayside.
Plus the lead singer of Wilco took a shower and smiled the other day at an Obama rally. That's gotta count for something.
Yet, while I listen to Barack Obama talk about his plans to bring us closer to war's end and more affordable health care, I find myself chuckling and rolling my eyes.
Cynical all of a sudden.
Except it isn't all of a sudden. My disillusionment has been building for quite some time. It seems to me that we pick candidates who are moderate in their beliefs and appeal to more people. They tell us what we want to hear. Then they get elected and do all kinds of nothing. For me and you, that is.
I turned down an invitation to be involved in this year's Democratic convention and although a majority of the reason had to do with a new job in Florida, I also had no desire to celebrate a political party that is failing so miserably in Congress. Failing me and you, that is.
Gas prices are high, the economy is in the toilet, the housing market is a mess, men and women are dying in Iraq, and there's a rise in bankruptcies due to medical issues. What exactly is Barack Obama going to do to solve these problems?
Ask most of his supporters and they can't tell you anything except how the man makes them *feel.*
Don't get me wrong, I'm glad he's getting people pumped up. However, what if he gets elected and turns out to be *gasp* a politician after all? What if nothing changes as the rich get richer and the poor get poorer?
I'm afraid the people of this great nation will only feel further polarized and cling even more to guns, faith, and American Idol.
And I'm not so sure we can survive that downturn.
So here I am feeling all negative and then I went and finished Matt Taibbi's book The Great Derangement.
Check it: "The people who really run America don't send the likes of George Bush and Dick Cheney to the White House to...commit massive criminal conspiracies on live national television; they send them there to repeal PUHCA...and slash fuel-efficiency standards and do all the other shit that never makes the papers but keeps Wall Street and the country's corporate boardrooms happy. You don't elect politicians to commit crimes; you elect politicians to make your crimes legal."
That's what we're electing in November, no matter what political party we align ourselves with. You see, the joke's on us.
Me and you, that is.
posted by kate @ 8:08 AM
18 comments
18 Comments:
I don't think this is, as the title suggests, an issue of you not being a Democrat any more, Katie. It's more an issue of being put off by politics. You know what you stand for and you know right from wrong. There has been so much wrong the last few years -- ethical and moral -- that the concept of right from wrong has become void. It's about what wrong's can be tolerated.
There's also the fact that, politically with thanks to the last Democratic administration, the race to the middle is most important. While Obama talks about bipartisanship, the last guy who won an election also talked about Unity to a grand extent and working with people. Yeah, Dubya was the Uniter, not the divider.
But back to the point about the race to the middle... That race, politically, has stunted all progress in this country. You have regression and you have status quo from the political parties. There is no progressive... "Progressive", in the Democratic sense, is holding onto the status quo.
I can't say that I don't expect Obama to have all the answers, I can say that I trust him going forward more than someone who has been up front about his lack of both understanding and answers for different sitautions facing Americans (McCain). That doesn't change the failings of congress and the lack of moral and ethical leadership in Washington.
But maybe it's proof enough this isn't about Democrats or Republicans - it's the political process. And that should leave everyone disillusioned.
Any hope a progressive has that Obama is running rightward and then would veer left is, ironically, from Bush. Bush ran as the compassionate conservative with a record of compromise in Texas, and then shifted hard, partisan, right when he got into office.
Even if Obama gets in and manages to get progressive legislation through the DCL Senate, there is always the Supreme Court to consider. Remember the problems that Roosevelt had with his Supreme Court?
It's nice that Obama can energize people to vote, get involved. But if these same people think that all they have to do is vote for Obama and everything will be alright, they have another thing coming. They have to make an everyday commitment to holding every politician's feet to the fire.
It took the right wing forty years of persistent effort to get a conservative President and Congress. Can these new, energized voters keep up the fight even 4?
They have a problem holding their attention for even 2 weeks, with thanks to the media spin on stories. Let alone 4 years.
Voters tend to be too misinformed or uninformed in the end... Or just too indolent to give a care after the Big election every four years. Even if Congress is turned over -- there is still the local government and their back asswords policies and planning (look no further than hillsborough County)... We can see problems at the top, why can't we see them at the local level? Why do we allow the idiots and ideologues to retain places in local government? Let alone national...
Sorry to hear you've joined me in the "cynical of Obama" seats, flirting with playing for Team Independent. It's hard to have continuing faith in a party that not only takes its members for granted but can't really come up with a better reason to vote for them other than, "Hey, at least we're not Republicans."
My key source of frustration with the Obama campaign, well, my TWO key sources of frustration with Obama campaign have been and still are the seemingly ill-informed nature of his more fervent, vocal supporters and his own seeming desire to run a wholly conceptual campaign. Indeed, it's that second one that's been the most galling because instead of outlining exactly how he's going to actualize this "hope" and "change" he's so fond of implying only he can bring, he is content with just developing buzz words...just like every other politician.
And that's exactly what he's proving himself to be, with reverses on Iraq, FISA and abortion rights. Suddenly the "change" and "hope" we were promised has taken a back seat to getting votes and donors and the policies he does clarify he either can't stick to or veers off-course from. For someone who has such little political experience, Obama sure seems like a quick study on how the game is really played today.
And his fans keep cheering him on, making excuses for why Obama changing his stances and playing the game isn't as corrupt as the other guys doing it. Seriously, I've never seen Olbermann spin quite so fast. It would be funny, except it's the exact same mentality that the Religious Right exhibited when they propelled their desired officials into public office. The fact that so many of his supporters don't actually know his policy stances or actual plans doesn't seem to bother them and, in fact, even questioning them on it means you're obviously a conservative backwards thinker who's probably a racist. I don't like it from the Right, so I have no idea why I'm supposed to stomach it from the Left.
Now, with that all said, I'll still vote for him over McCain any day of the week because McCain is not only stupid, potentially crazy and pretty much Bush with the Cabal Of Evil advisors, but when it comes to charisma and public speaking he shrivels up and dies in comparison to Obama. Sure, Obama's suavity is part of the problem, but when one is choosing between vomit and vomit-flavored ice cream, go with the ice cream because at least it's cooling on a hot summer's day. Right now, things are pretty damn hot.
Self examination is for elitists.
Horny elitists.
Go seduce Mr. Robinson, cast your inevitable vote, and buy something plastic.
It's the wave of the future!
We all get a little cynical, Kate, it's cool.
I've been mad at James Carville the last few years, but he had a good line: cynicism is harmful, but skepticism is healthy.
When I'm feeling like I think you're feeling, I always give myself a gut check: am I feeling cynical, or is it just a healthy dose of skepticism creeping in. I usually find it's the latter.
If you're not buying that, let me also suggest this to you: that it is not Obama's recent retreats and political tacks which are causing your bout with cynicism (or skepticism, or whatever).
It is Bush.
Think about it. Eight effing years of your senses being violated by all the things that Taibbi points out (and so, so much more). This is all you've had for nearly eight years, with the brief, glimmering exception of Dean followed by, of all people, John Kerry.
And now all of a sudden a guy comes along -- a guy who is sharp, hell, a guy who can complete a goddam sentence -- and it's like introducing something foreign into the only environment you've known, nasty, putrid as it is, for the last eight years.
It's gonna seem a little funny at first. But politics is a pendulum, and it is starting to swing our way. We must remain diligent, and most important, steady, in ensuring it continue to swing our way.
Don't give up now. The road if finally leading in our direction.
Now that you have a real job in the "public" sector it was only natural that you become a real American, one of us, the party of Lincoln! A REPUBLICAN!!!!
Now, Kate, you know you're a Democrat. Like most Democrats, I'm frustrated that what looked like was going to be big change might be chump change, but any change has got to be better than what we got now. No?
from your quote, Kate:
all the other shit that never makes the papers but keeps Wall Street and the country's corporate boardrooms happy.
because Wall Street is so happy now?
And QJ:
McCain is not only stupid, potentially crazy and pretty much Bush with the Cabal Of Evil advisors
Even for you, that's over the top. I'm writing that one down.
I think it's spot on, actually. But do me a favor and write it down correctly, because I flubbed it. It should read: McCain is not only stupid, potentially crazy and pretty much Bush without the Cabal of Evil Advisors.
That does make a difference. Done and done.
When Nancy Pelosi gets up on television and says Bush is a failure, I'm thinking to myself, "What the heck are you but a failure as well?"
Unlike some weakminded people I know, I'm not going to stay quiet just because I may want a job with these failures some day. No thanks.
Of course, I'm not going to vote for McCain. I'm getting more progressive in the "real world" not more conservative.
However, I'm finding myself contemplating Independent-hood, like QJ. My current party is too damn incompetent lately. And I'm not going to continue to complain without some action to back it up. That means a change in political affiliation and advocacy writing, but it also means financial support and activism on behalf of progressive candidates instead of candidates who just repeat the party line.
Especially local candidates...
I suppose I'm saying Obama is it. If he doesn't get in there and do what he should with regards to the war, health care, and other important issues, I'm done.
And I bet I'm not alone.
Well, another possibility, Kate, is to continue to fight within the Democrat party to make it responsive to issues that matter. Ralph Nadar might've been able to do some good as a third party candidate if his issues had been adopted by the Democrat party. He does nothing to help out as a third party candidate except drain votes from a potentially winning candidate whose views are closest to his own. I fair chance for people to compete in the economy (including an educational leg up to the ecomonically disadvantaged), some shared risk in things like health care, and a fair balance between collective safety and individual liberty is what we should all care about. The most of that for the most people. It's not right versus wrong, it's about different approaches to common problems. Don't vote for Democrats with the idea that Republicans are evil, only that their approach has only helped a small percentage of people and has hurt a lot more people. The Democrat approach can hardly be worse.
...er, might oughta check my spelling...
The fact that there are just two parties is a huge problem. Everybody, it seems, has to fit into one or the other.
The problem with the national Democratic Party, as I see it, is that the label Democrat means different things in different places. A Democratic Senator from Florida or Louisiana is a long way from a Democratic Senator from Massachusetts. Some are DLC-corporate first and others are true progressives. And, in the past 16 years, it seems that we have added more of the former than the latter. And, as much as we hate to admit it, sometimes a progressive will vote against type for political reasons, either to trade for a vote that means more or as a way to retain power. As a result, there is often so little difference between Republicans and some Democrats that I just throw up my hands and want to scream.
In every election, there will always be the feeling that it's just a choice for the lesser of two evils. Why? Because the person running is never going to agree with the person voting 100%. Even if one is voting for oneself, that person knows the number of times they have made mistakes, been wrong, or made decisions that were based on faulty reasoning, vanity, or just ignorance. So we don't even agree with ourselves 100%.
BJK's quote of the Carville comment is true. Cynicism will keep good (if imperfect) people from running and voting, leaving the field to others, evil, misinformed, or self-serving people. What is the Voltaire quote?
"Le mieux est l'ennemi du bien." ("The Best is the enemy of good" or
"The perfect is the enemy of the good").
Taibbi's comment is a bit paranoid and cynical. You can no more assume that there is one large cabal of "people who really run America" that wants the same things than you can say there is one Democratic Party that all members want the same thing. I doubt few people "elect politicians to make" their "crimes legal". It is to make your views law.
Obama, like all of them up there, is a politician and sometimes will come down on the side of political expediency. He is more progressive than what we've seen recently and has few differences from his opponents in the primaries. He will move towards the left, never as fast as the progressives want. I don't see him as a shill for any major industry the way that Bush/Cheney were to the Oil and Defense industries. But he will be hearing their voices, so we have to make ours louder.
So, don't hold your nose when you vote, take a deep breath and smell what this imperfect type of government smells like. And don't apologize for voting for Obama and don't apologize for Obama. In a way he's a blank slate, and if we keep after him, maybe the picture he paints on the slate won't be so bad. Couldn't be worse than the finger-painting crowd he will succeed.
See what a job in the "private" sector has dont to you! Soon you will be a Reagan Republican!
Incredibly poignant. I feel you.
However, I'm finding myself contemplating Independent-hood, like QJ.
Independents are sexy and we're definitely better in bed. Plus, we're the hot marketing demographic everyone plays to, so combine that with a Gen X outlook on ass-kissery and the possibilities for sardonic mocking of political buffoonery from both sides of the isle are legion.
One of us, Kate, ONE OF US!
Post a Comment
<< Home