there are people out there, democrats, that are saying this presidency is a failure. that president obama, as he works with the republicans is a failure because he's not sticking to his guns. if there is a failure, it is our failure.
greedy democrats have wanted to shove it down the republican throats, to run up the score. since he hasn't, we're pissed. but you know what? that's not how it's supposed to work. the parties are supposed to work with each other, while checking each other's power as well. our government shouldn't work with a motto of, "we're in power so we're going to do whatever the eff we want."
i don't care if we feel that the other side did it when they controlled the house & senate. that doesn't mean that's how we should have been working.
now, i also don't think that the president or the democrats should give up on all of their ideals or plans and just give the republicans whatever they want. and, i also think that if the republicans are going to just drag their feet on everything we need to do a better job exposing that, letting the public at large know that nothing is happening because people being unwilling to work together to make a better america.
8 comments:
Good post. This is why I think different parties in the executive and legislative branches is the best situation.
I don't think Obama deserves a lot of the heat he's getting. Besides the fact that he's succeeded in many areas of his agenda, he also ran on a platform of changing the tone, working together, etc. The fact is, the country is divided. Not in terms of some objective right vs. wrong, but by subjective (and sincere) ideologies. The only way to govern a body like that is through compromise.
P.S. Nothing irks me more in politics than when one side complains about something the other side is doing, then later does the same thing and excuses it by saying, "but they did it first". Our principles seem to only apply when they're in our favor.
Great comments/perspective Ed. I wonder if anyone is taking his campaign promises and seeing how he is doing on those. "Pass or fail" him on those since that's what he said he was going to do.
Is there any way to redeem the overly-partisan politics in the USA?
I agree that it is too much to say that he is a failure.
However, I do think that the repeated attempts to compromise have resulted in little in the way of concessions. The democrats haven't had the balls to push republicans to actually filibuster, to actually stand up and say we are going to vote NO on extending unemployment. What they have done is tie things like the repeal of DADT to larger bills, and have severely limited the number of amendments, etc that could be proposed, debated, and voted on. Essentially they have given republicans an opportunity to reject legislation on procedural grounds. They have even turned off republicans that were willing to vote with the dems, because those republicans were upset by the political trickery.
Admittedly Harry Reid is one of the biggest problems, but Obama is supposed to be the leader of the Democratic party, as much as that is possible.
I would also say that many people are judging Obama by campaign promises. Admittedly he has made progress on many of them. Unfortunately he has failed on others. I keep coming back to DADT, because I think it is a fundamental issue of justice, and I think that his administration has dropped the ball. More than that, they argue that they need to continue to enforce the policy and defend it in court because it would be "better" if congress repealed it.
My last comment would be that the President and his PR department are not doing much to endear themselves to the democrats. For months now they've been bad-mouthing dems that are unhappy. Shouldn't people in your own party be allowed to express frustration without being labeled as cry-baby elitists. When the president has to compromise, shouldn't he anticipate that people may be frustrated, and be willing to listen to their frustration without essentially telling them to get stuffed?
More than anything that's what has pissed me off. I think he has taken a condescending attitude towards members of his own party that rightly or not believed that his administration would bring more transparency (which it hasn't) would address immigration in an ethical way (deportations are at a record number) and various other promises.
He promised BIG, and when people become disenchanted he tells them they were childish to believe in dreams.
Call me a greedy democrat, but I don't want to shove anything down anyone's throat. I think the dems should have changed the house and senate rules that allow for anonymous blocking of bills and nominees. They should have changed the rules that allow a few to block debate. They didn't, and they haven't indicated that they actually plan to. They could have taken steps to help the system work better, but they haven't.
Somehow I don't see how that's my failure. I started writing to my elected officials during this administration. I tried to speak up as best I could. Short of entering politics what should I have done?
Sorry, long diatribe. It's something I've been thinking about lately.
good comments.
justin, your comments are churning in my head as i consider what you're saying.
did you see this article?
What's the response we should have when Dems lose power and compromise even more? The last administration and its party had some really harmful policies (like the tax cuts or reduction in transparency; both things the current party is letting slide as well) and they don't sound like they're going to dump those policies when/if they regain power.
In other words, I appreciate having ideals, but what's the practical application?
Also, I really dislike David Brooks and the fact that he gets paid to write gassy columns that amount to pretty much nothing.
Post a Comment