Told You So

I cannot contemplate the mid-term elections with any degree of equanimity. It seems to be a dead certainty that the Democrats will be routed, and we'll be back to gridlock government. And why? Because the Democrats are going to stay home. Their president has given them no reason to turn out. You don't have to go far to find out what the progressives in this country are thinking. None of it bodes well for the Democrats. 


Take this for example, from The Smirking Chimp. He's talking about Obama and his choice to disregard the populist agenda that elected him:

Indeed, choosing the collaborationist route would mean replaying much of the Clinton playbook: reject calls for accountability on the outgoing Republicans; treat anyone who wants to know the full story of the GOP crimes as extreme; join in covering up Republican wrongdoing in hopes of some reciprocity; continue most of the foreign policy initiatives to avoid charges of “softness”; behave “responsibly” on domestic matters even in the face of GOP attacks and obstructionism; devise a health-reform plan that protects the interests of private insurers.

Drew Westen, a political scientist, writing in The Huffington Post complains of three Obama traits that are marking his failure: his laissez-faire leadership style makes him seem distant to ordinary people, his utter failure to articulate and defend "a coherent ideological position on virtually anything," and finally, the widespread perception that he cares more about the powerful special interests such as banks, big pharma, Pentagon, the insurance industry, and Wall Street "than the people they are shafting."


On healthcare "Scarecrow" in Firedoglake is scathing: 

But instead of doing the obvious, the reforms that actually work, the corporate Democrats and their corporate-shielding President have done the opposite. Every travesty in the Senate bill springs from an effort to preserve and shield the private industries that are financially and literally killing us. Instead of providing strong public alternatives, the bill will bail out the private system, and not merely by giving them hundreds of billions to subsidize their unregulated premiums and fees. No, we will force 30 million Americans who can least afford it to buy their overpriced, poorly regulated products, and pay only lip service to the economic hardship this imposes.

Now isn't this the exact same thing I've been saying--the same thing as all these guys--for some time now? I'm so utterly disgusted with Obama myself that I really can't say I care much what happens to the Democrats. I can't help but observe that I began souring on him earlier than many of my progressive friends. And I'm certainly not going to take any pleasure in telling the latecomers to the truth "I told you so."