Back in November 2008, I voted for Obama. I bought the dream and was teary-eyed as I watched events on Inauguration Day. Not that I could ever have voted for McCain—I just can’t vote for the mean-spiritedness and intolerance that is the Republican Party now. But I was so happy to be voting FOR a candidate for a change, not holding my nose and voting for who I thought was the lesser of two crappy choices, as is usual.
I feel like such a sucker now. The war in Iraq is still going on, the war in Afghanistan is escalating, we’re killing people in Pakistan, it turns out that the country really is a banana republic, credit card “reform” has kicked our collective ass backwards as far as paying off debt goes (gee thanks Senator Dodd), and health care insurance reform is turning out to be another joke that will probably wind up hurting us rather than easing the pocketbook pain we feel as we send of our health “insurance” check every month, and I know too many people out of work with no hope in site. Sure, the stock market is higher than it’s been in a while, but that can change at any second and it’s meaningless to most Americans, anyway. Obama won the peace prize for nothing and it still turns my stomach that he accepted it.
Why is it so hard for our leaders to do the right thing? To pull our troops home, to institute universal healthcare, to end the credit-card terrorism waged by the banks, to create real jobs, to rein in the greedy and regulate Wall Street, to house our homeless, to educate our students, to take care of our vets, to grant equal rights to all? Christmas time just makes it more acute that despite all the pious platitudes spouted by our so-called leaders, we are far, far from a Christian nation. Godless socialism is such a better deal for most Americans. At least a homeowner wouldn’t lose the house due to medical bills.
And I should have known better—I let my cynicism slip. I read William Blum and I know he’s been dead on for years. I’m so disappointed in Obama and the brain-dead wonders of our current “Democratic” House and Senate I’ve had to cut way down on watching the pundits blab on TV—the bullshit and the shittiness of most of the “leaders” is beating me into an even bigger funk.
Obama has done nothing. I don’t want to stop believing in him, but I can’t help it—unlike those who are able to have faith in the absence of any evidence, I need something tangible to sustain me. I sign petitions and send letters to my senators and representatives—what else can we do?
I think Matt Taibbi is right: first Obama needs to get Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street tune masters out of our government. Read “Obama’s Big Sellout” to see what I mean—Taibbi might not be without flaw in getting the details exactly right, but he gets the important stuff right and, more importantly, he gets the big picture right. He articulates my outrage.
All I can do is hope Obama cuts his puppet strings and starts working on the world he wants his daughters to live in. But I’m not holding my breath.