Our server costs ~$56 per month to run. Please consider donating or becoming a Patron to help keep the site running. Help us gain new members by following us on Twitter and liking our page on Facebook!
Current time: March 29, 2024, 4:49 am

Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
Open Letter to Obama
#1
Open Letter to Obama
Dear Mr. President,

Since the run up to the last midterm election and up until the recent speech you gave, you've been expressing, to put it mildly, frustration with your base. Prior to the midterm, you told us to "buck up" and "stop whining". You apparently feel that we progressives are a bunch of spoiled children who don't appreciate all the wonderful things you've done. This letter is an attempt to try to explain to you and other leaders in the Democrat party why you're in the situation you're in now.

A sports analogy might be helpful here. To those non-Americans reading this, I know our version of what we call "football" isn't played much outside my country. Hope this doesn't cause you any confusion but our version of football best fits the metaphor.

Imagine, Mr. President, that you are the receiver for a football team. We've been pushed all the way back to our own goal line. Then you are sent in from the bench. You run all the way out to the other side of the field. The team works perfectly up until now. The blocking keeps the Quarterback open, he sees you out there, he throws a perfect pass right into your hands! The crowd is going wild! You're wide open and only 10 yards away from scoring. Your team is so elated at the turn of events. Everyone is cheering.

And then you start running the wrong way.

We're all screaming "What are you doing? Are you crazy? Turn around!"

But you keep running toward the middle of the field. You finally get tackled in the middle at the 50 yard line. You're doing a victory dance, so obviously proud of your accomplishment. After all, you got us 40 yards on the field, right? Sure you didn't score but that's progress. Why is the crowd booing you? Why are your teammates yelling at you? No one seems to appreciate the progress you made for the team. You tell everyone to "buck up" and "stop whining" but that doesn't seem to help.

This analogy should assist in your ability to understand why progressives are so demoralized. It's not because you didn't give us everything we wanted. It's because you have a bizarre political strategy of prematurely compromising before you even get to the negotiating table and then capitulating on nearly everything else.

The health care reform is a good example to use here. Before the process even started, you took single payer off the table. "Medicare for all" should have been a good selling point for the country and kept it simple enough for everyone to understand, but you gave it away before you even got started. Then you were quick to yank the public option off the table, followed by the trigger and the medicare buy in.

What was left was still progress, like the receiver and the 50 yard line in my analogy above, but quite frankly, it's not attributable to any brilliant leadership from your office. It has more to do with the fact that we campaigned for you and got you such overwhelming majorities in Congress that you couldn't lose.

There is also the stimulus package. The best economists told you it was inadequate to the task. After Bush, it was evident that tax cuts to not stimulate the economy. Even still, you tried to placate the Republicans but trimming down the package and loading it up with near-useless tax cuts. At the end of it all, you had an stimulus bill that was too small to bring real recovery to the economy and yet you got no Republican votes to show for it.

Again, what you accomplished was progress. The sluggish unstable recovery we have now is still better than the total meltdown of the last quarter of 2008. However, given the hand you were dealt, you should have done much better.

A person's accomplishments, as with the receiver in my football analogy, are not just measured by the changes he or she brings about but also by the situation he or she faced. Yes, you've made a few accomplishments, some of them even historic, but many president elects could only dream of walking into office with what you had in January of 2008. You had a landslide margin, a mandate from the people, supremacy in the House and a comfortable margin in the Senate, all with an opposition party that was leaderless and all but broken.

The problem, Mr. President, is you won't fight for anything. You give too much away as if the other side would be impressed with your magnanimity and then are quick to capitulate on the rest. Your recent speech to your base has only underscored that you still don't get it. It's not what you didn't accomplish. It's what you chose not to even try to accomplish.

We voted for "yes we can!" What we got was "Aw, c'mon guys!"

What's even worse, is your inability to take a stand has emboldened the radical right wing in America. After all, why should the Republicans ever compromise or be moderate when they can just bully their way into getting 98% of what they want? As in dealing with bullies, "being reasonable" or compromising only encourages them.

Put bluntly, we progressives are forced by your decisions and the decisions of the rest of the Democratic leadership into one of two ugly choices:

1. Hold our nose and vote for you and others like you because the Republicans will be much worse
2. Vote 3rd Party, knowing the Republicans will win but maybe the Democrats will get the message and find some candidates that have spines for the next go-round.

We've been employing the first option since Kerry and things have only gotten worse. Democrats have learned they can take us for granted and they continue to run after the elusive center. Republicans meanwhile continue to fire up their base and run further to the right. As a result, the center keeps moving rightward and there's no reason to think this will change if we keep supporting you.

The second option is also unacceptable but it's looking like the only hope to arrest the rightward swing and regain the two party system (meaning a real opposition party to the Republicans, not a Republican-lite party). The question is whether or not we could bite the bullet and endure the next period of Republican rule, considering what a disaster the last one was.

Both options are ugly but they're not working for you either. Moderates are less likely to vote and independents are just as turned off by spineless appeasement as your base is. So just who are you trying to appeal to?

The outcome will come down to how bad the Republican nominee is. If you are running against Mitt Romney, it may be a good year for 3rd party candidates. Sure, he's a corporate whore but we'll survive and maybe return in four years with a better candidate. Rick Perry, on the other hand, will ensure a lot of nose holding during the voting process. Either way, you have been and are a phenomenal disappointment. I hope now you understand why.

Sincerely,
Atheist Forums Hall of Shame:
"The trinity can be equated to having your cake and eating it too."
...      -Lucent, trying to defend the Trinity concept
"(Yahweh's) actions are good because (Yahweh) is the ultimate standard of goodness. That’s not begging the question"
...       -Statler Waldorf, Christian apologist
Reply
#2
RE: Open Letter to Obama
Very nice DP
Reply
#3
RE: Open Letter to Obama
Hehe, DP...
Cunt
Reply
#4
RE: Open Letter to Obama
Very well written, D-P.

Now, which of these fucking lunatics


[Image: GOP-candidates-2012.jpg]


would you prefer?


[ The choice is limited, you see? ]
Reply
#5
RE: Open Letter to Obama
Bachmann has some cankles.

"...the illegality of cannabis is outrageous, an impediment to full utilization of a drug which helps produce the serenity and insight, sensitivity and fellowship so desperately needed in this increasingly mad and dangerous world."

- Carl Sagan
Reply
#6
RE: Open Letter to Obama
(September 30, 2011 at 12:46 pm)Minimalist Wrote: Very well written, D-P.

Now, which of these fucking lunatics
...
would you prefer?


[ The choice is limited, you see? ]

It's not a matter of preference. It's a matter of which of the two unacceptable options is less painful, long run and short.

Huntsman: Vote 3rd party and fuck Obama

Bachmann: Hold your nose and vote for Obama

Romney: Vote 3rd party and fuck Obama (sure, he's a corporate whore and a two-faced flip-flopper but so's Obama)

Perry: Hold your nose and vote for Obama

Cain: Think about it

Paul: Think about it
Atheist Forums Hall of Shame:
"The trinity can be equated to having your cake and eating it too."
...      -Lucent, trying to defend the Trinity concept
"(Yahweh's) actions are good because (Yahweh) is the ultimate standard of goodness. That’s not begging the question"
...       -Statler Waldorf, Christian apologist
Reply
#7
RE: Open Letter to Obama
Nothing to think about with those last two losers.
Reply
#8
RE: Open Letter to Obama
From this side of the pond it looks likle Obama is doing a good job in difficult circumstances.

What appears to have happened is that americans have voted in a politician not some sort of demagogue, I know your not used to 'politics' but its how democracies should run.

You got yourselves a grown up.



You can fix ignorance, you can't fix stupid.

Tinkety Tonk and down with the Nazis.




 








Reply
#9
RE: Open Letter to Obama
(September 30, 2011 at 2:42 pm)downbeatplumb Wrote: You got yourselves a grown up.

I just wish we could get a two party system again, not Republican Party and We're-just-like-Republicans-only-not-quite-as-crazy-but-hey-who-else-are-you-liberal-bitches-gonna-vote-for Party.

Minimalist Wrote:Nothing to think about with those last two losers.
Hey, I'm not saying I'd welcome President Paul with a song in my heart but I'm thinking long term strategy. President Paul would finally discredit libertarianism and maybe we'd finally get a real progressive candidate in 2016. Sure it's a long shot strategy but what other option do we have?

Right now, the Democrats act like they own us. As long as we keep unconditionally supporting jellyfish Democrats or conservaDems only because they're better than the Republicans, they know they can take us for granted as they entertain their fetish for "bipartisanship" and "centrism".

As I mentioned in my open letter, the situation is getting worse, not better. The "center" in America keeps moving to the right. If we stay on the current trajectory, we will be a fascist nation before long. I don't think that's hyperbole, given what we've seen in the last decade. Something drastic and risky has to be done to shake up the system.

Progressives rising up and bitch slapping the Democrats with a strong 3rd Party showing is what may be needed to wake their leadership up and make them realize that they work for us, not the other way around. Even if the Republicans make short term gains, we can come back with stronger candidates at a later time.

This is not my preferred option. I think we're in a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" scenario. More specifically, it's "Play it safe and most likely bleed to death" vs. "Take a big risk, bring on the pain in the short run, and hope there's a long run."

If anyone sees a 3rd way, I'm all ears.
Atheist Forums Hall of Shame:
"The trinity can be equated to having your cake and eating it too."
...      -Lucent, trying to defend the Trinity concept
"(Yahweh's) actions are good because (Yahweh) is the ultimate standard of goodness. That’s not begging the question"
...       -Statler Waldorf, Christian apologist
Reply
#10
RE: Open Letter to Obama
Quote:President Paul would finally discredit libertarianism

I doubt it. As Void and Adrian have pointed out, these fascist shitwits masquerading as libertarians are no such thing. And plenty of Americans are fascists....

[Image: tumblr_kzzwqbaqaD1qz58dwo1_400.jpg]
Reply



Possibly Related Threads...
Thread Author Replies Views Last Post
  An Open Discussion on Russian Identity Leonardo17 10 881 December 4, 2023 at 11:54 am
Last Post: The Grand Nudger
  You think people who hate Queen Elizabeth 2 is same reason MAGA people hated Obama Woah0 13 1199 December 20, 2022 at 3:55 pm
Last Post: brewer
  Justice Obama? BrianSoddingBoru4 33 1442 August 26, 2020 at 5:28 pm
Last Post: Gawdzilla Sama
  Michelle Obama Crushes It BrianSoddingBoru4 32 1472 August 19, 2020 at 11:00 am
Last Post: onlinebiker
  An Open Letter to Congress Secular Elf 14 936 March 4, 2020 at 5:16 pm
Last Post: LastPoet
  Obama Eulogizes Elijah Cummings AFTT47 2 538 October 26, 2019 at 3:01 am
Last Post: The Grand Nudger
  Open borders onlinebiker 263 14582 August 14, 2019 at 6:43 pm
Last Post: Amarok
  AP: Obama's nose is growing John V 113 8894 September 17, 2018 at 6:26 pm
Last Post: Amarok
  Conservative Asskisser Wants Obama Back Minimalist 8 1951 July 20, 2018 at 9:02 pm
Last Post: A Theist
  One Reason Trump is Intent on Reversing Everything Obama Did Rhondazvous 9 1269 November 6, 2017 at 9:10 pm
Last Post: Rhondazvous



Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)