Barack Obama (Photo by Elizabeth Cromwell)
It both saddens and infuriates me when I read Obama’s erstwhile supporters losing their cool and lacing into the President for not confronting the intractable GOP with like obstinacy. Why do I and a few others continue to believe in him? Andrew Sullivan explains himself:
If you ask why I remain such a strong Obama supporter, it is because I see him as that rare individual able to withstand the zeal without becoming a zealot in response, and to overcome the recklessness of pure religious ideology with pragmatism, civility and reason. That’s why they fear and loathe him. Not because his policies are not theirs’. But because his temperament is their nemesis. If he defeats them, they will break, because their beliefs are so brittle. If they defeat him, I fear we will no longer be participating in a civil conversation, however fraught, but in a civil war.
I’ll have more to say about this— what Obama’s up against— in a later post.
The reason Obama is seen as weak is b/c he has to deal
with the political blackmail that comes as a consequence
of having reactionary conservatives with a majority in the
House of Reps. The sad thing about it is that in order
to pass vital legislation in the future he cannot even say
that he, his party, the country and the world are being blackmailed.
Even Andrew Sullivan does not get specific when he
contradicts the popular prevailing political narrative concerning
Obama’s perceived weakness.
1) HCA & ACA – “O is a terrible negotiator, he never considered
single payer option and sold out to Big Insurance”.
Wrong, single payer it never had a chance b/c too many powerful
senators in his own party much less the entire Republican party were against it.
2) The START treaty with Russia – Obama had to give in
to blackmail just to get it passed and avoid worldwide
embarrassment. He had to give away the store to get
the necessary Republican votes.
3) How did Obama get Republicans votes to renew unemployment
insurance again and again. He had to give away the
store again and again. The same with the debt ceiling
which is still a threat being held over our collective heads
by the Tea Birchers of the RNC.