I didn’t vote for him, but when he was elected, I at least had hope for the change he promised. Then Day 2 came and it started falling apart. Now he has lost the House in the mid-terms and we are at the mercy of the even more corrupt, John Boehner.
Obama got the R’s elected, for the same reasons Bush got him elected: terrible leadership.
His appointments have been atrocious; Larry Summers, Tim Geithner, Rahm Emanuel, lobbyists for the financial and health care industries. And we criticized Dick Cheney and his Enron and oil company co-conspirators?
Obama should have said on Day 1:
“My Esteemed Colleagues, it will no longer be more of the same. The first bill I want on my desk is the Fair Elections Now Act. We will pass that using the reconciliation process requiring only 50 Senate votes, and there will be no more filibusters in the future.
Next I want a pledge from every Democrat in the House and Senate that he or she will refuse special interest money and only take small donations from their constituency under the Fair Elections Act’s matching funds. No money from out of state and none from lobbyists.
For those not complying, don’t even think of passing a bill without a veto. If I am to become a one-term president, it will be because of me, not because of a corrupt Democratic party. If it takes only the Democrats to run this country, so be it. We have the votes, and if we do our job right we will keep the votes.
Now let’s get to work.”
But he didn’t say that, and the R’s were ecstatic. He single-handedly blew his opportunity to be a historical president. Nobody else did this for him. Not even the R’s were smart enough to get it done. It took Obama’s special talent and a lot of special interest bribes.
He had 60 votes in the senate and instead chose “bipartisanship.” That, with an opposing party that promised him his head on a silver platter. But that’s what his corporate funders wanted and that’s what they got. He deserves the massive losses.
He remained totally and conspicuously mute while the corrupt Max Baucus took millions in bribes from the health care industry and kept a Medicare-for-all health plan off the table. A bill, incidentally, that was supported by 65% of the people and would have bailed out 100% of the employers that use U.S. workers, and helped to create American jobs.
Of course, Obama received $20 million too, so we know about his own motives.
Before we can fix the economic system or health care — or more importantly, the outsourcing of our jobs, democracy and economy — we must first fix the political system that got us to where we are today. Unfortunately, neither the politicians nor their corporate owners agree. Neither does the media, which gets massive advertising dollars from insurance and the financial industries.
We have serious problems. We desperately need good (better!) health care and financial reforms but these industries own our politicians, both Republican and Democrat alike. They work for us but take money from them. And the Tea Partiers are not helping matters, complaining about the effect but ignoring the cause: Cash bribes.
We must come together on this.