Friday, June 22, 2012

Obama and MoveOn's circular firing squad.


On September 13, 2008, President Barrack Obama said this in a public, televised speech in Minnesota on health care reform. This is from the transcript:

" I think one of the options should be a public insurance option. (Loud cheers) Let me be clear. It would only be an option, nobody would be forced to choose it. No one with insurance would be affected by it. But what it would do is provide more choice and more competition. It would keep pressure on private insurers to keep the policies affordable, to treat their customers better. I mean think about it. It's the same way the public colleges and universities provide additional choice and competition to students. That doesn't inhibit private colleges and universities from thriving out there. The same should be true on the health care front. Minnesota I have said I'm open to different ideas on how to set this up and we're going to set this up but I'm not going to back down on the basic principle that if Americans can't find affordable coverage we're going to provide you a choice."

President Obama to the Washington Post in March 2010 after pushing through a healthcare bill with no public option:

 "I never campaigned for a public option".

*******************************

 A few days ago MoveOn circulated ballots for MoveOn members to vote on whether to support Barrack Obama's re-election or to support no one and concentrate on the Democrats controlling congress.

 At first it seemed amazing that the leadership of MoveOn had come to their senses and realized the problem for Democrats all along was Obama and that the problem was so severe that they were putting the question of whether to support his re-election to a vote. It seemed even more amazing given that they had been an organization that for more than four years had been so weak, so myopic, and so gutless in its responses to Obama and so intellectually dishonest about what has easily been the worst presidency in the history of the Democratic party that they had Obama's footprints all over their backs. So change seemed to be in the air.

 But then the results came in. And 91% of MoveOn members decided the best course of action was to continue to prove Einstein's definition of insanity which is doing the same things over and over and expecting different results, and they overwhelmingly voted to support Obama's re-election,  proving that much like the president they voted to support, they are soreley lacking in real principle, conviction and backbone. Not to mention out of touch with reality. Which is why they have been so ineffective in getting what they want.

There is a strange mindlessness, even cultish zombie like aura now around MoveOn and its membership that should make any rational Democrat or progressive uncomfortable. Its why Clinton supporters characterized Obama supporters as "drinking the Kool-Aid".

 Just as the tea party and the extreme right exhibit a mindless gross irrationality in their positions and political actions, and an irrational groupthink that defies independent thought, the same can be said for MoveOn and its membership. And any other Democratic or progressive group that thinks the same way they do.

But while MoveOn's membership continues to demonstrate Einstein's definition of insanity, another group of former Obama voters have apparently had enough and come to their senses. This is the college vote and based on most current polls and statistics, Obama has lost them.

 Obama in his four years in office gutted, reneged, buried and otherwise destroyed just about every aspect of the Democratic party agenda, squandering the biggest congressional majority any president had in 60 years, capitulated to Republicans on almost every front when it was completely unnecessary and destroyed the chance to pass the most transformative legislation in decades from genuine health care reform with a public option to sweeping financial reform, simply because he lacked the spine, principle, conviction or desire for that matter to accomplish anything. Instead what we got from Obama was blatant lying and misrepresenting of the truth on just about everything and doing it more easily than any politician in recent memory. And this is who 91% of MoveOn's membership voted to support.

 This is why conservatives get what they want from their elected officials even when they are in the minority and progressives, liberals and Democrats don't. Conservatives insist their politicians and representatives fulfill their ideology ( as distasteful and un-American as it is) and if they don't they replace them.

 Obama did more to trash and obstruct the Democratic agenda than any Republican and lied about it along the way. And still progressives and Democrats are too spineless to hold him accountable. Instead they try to pretend its everyone else's fault but Obama's.

 For destroying the health care public option alone and the great good it would have done for the country when he had the votes in congress to pass it, Obama does not deserve re-election. Add to that his constant reneging on everything from getting rid of the Bush tax cuts to closing Gitmo, his constant selling out of Democratic ideas and ideals, the ACLU's assessment that Obama's record on individual liberties and human rights is, in their words, " disgusting" he simply does not deserve to be supported or re-elected.

 By now most Democrats will concede he never deserved to be the Democratic nominee in the first place, and got there through chacanery and self-delusion, but the people at MoveOn, back in 2008 ignored the fact that he promised he would filibuster and vote against the FISA bill if it had retroactive immunity in return for their endorsement, and then, after getting their endorsement, not only didn't filibuster the bill but voted for it. And yet they still haven't learned.

 Maybe MoveOn and other so called progressive groups are still flummoxed over the issue of race and are too weak to treat Obama as any other elected official should be. But the best outcome for the country would be for the Democrats to regain control of congress and for Romney to win. Romney would be forced to compromise with a Democratic congress and he would. Which would accomplish a lot more than Obama caving in to a Republican congress. And at the same time it would send a strong message to Democrats as to what Democratic voters thought of the Obama presidency and his constant selling out and it would send a message to other elected Democrats for the future.

 In the meantime MoveOn needs to indeed move on and to think about changing their name to something more appropriate, like StillStuck.org.







6 comments:

Alessandro Machi said...

I think it needs to be said. Move on is a front for the militant gay and feminist movement. I would have no problem with that, except they are so militant, angry and unbending in their viewpoints that they've ruined the biggest democrat base, the moderate base, in exchange for their own selfish agenda.

Anonymous said...

StillSuvks is better than StillStuck.

Roberta
Ohio

Anonymous said...

Editing previous comment

StillSucks

Sorry for typo.

Fiona Bernard said...

People should stop looking to elections, to politicians, or to wholly-owned cheerleading squads for politicians (Move-on) to do anything that might really help working people. They are all invested in the current system. They all make lots of money under the current system. They have no interest in changing things, just throw a few crumbs to the peasants as they jet past on their way to European conferences and other gatherings of the useless rich.

There is no point in wasting time. The elections are useless. Anybody who wants to vote should do so, but campaigning or giving money is a waste.

People should instead focus on organizing groups, or participating in groups, which are issues-based, not elections-based. For example, anti-war. Any group demanding a national healthcare system funded with a progressive income tax is a good place to put time. Any group demanding a living wage and full employment. How about a return to the 40-hour week: I don't know anyone who doesn't work at least 50. Whatever happened to the 40-hour week? Just one more victim of corporate fascism.

I discovered the truth about Move-on years ago when I attended a house meeting and they asked us (virtually, connected online) to choose the issues that we thought were important. I looked down the list: no anti-war? I asked why, and they said many of their members were "conflicted." WTF are these people, and why should I waste my time with a group that supports the U.S. Wars Against Iraq and Afghanistan? There's no point in talking further once you realize they are simply pro-war whores probably funded and directed these days by the Democratic party.

That's the thing. A lot of these groups and individuals care only about their own personal status. They want to sell books, be called intellectuals, invited to conferences. They don't care about doing anything useful, they're too busy staring in the mirror admiring themselves.

Forget about Move-on and Obama and the elections, and focus instead of working with people who are issues-oriented.

Anonymous said...

Excellent article, and spot on about MoveOn. The organization has become a joke. Many of its members who supported Hillary in 2008, left when it "voted" to support Obama. I was one of the (former) Dems who left, and have not once regretted doing so. Its recent decision to continue to serve Obama, rather than to support true Democratic ideals makes MoveOn irrelevant and absurd.

freespirit

sonrisa said...

I left MoveOn in 2008 as well, shortly aftr the FISA vote. MoveOn lamented the vote, then turned around & defended bam-bam for voting for it. Their excuses sounded alomost Hitlerian & a chill went down my spine. I decided right there & then it was time to move on & uinsubscribed from them