I'm also in CA. Of the people I know who pay close attention to politics, perhaps half who voted for O are very upset w/ his performance. Those people, of course, are the most progressive.
The other half mostly complain that they'd like him to fight harder for more progressive goals but continue to support him by clinging to the argument that McCain would have been worse.
I personally think Obama almost could not have done a worse job. By compromising to supposedly get things done, he has re-cast the definition of 'liberal'. By trying to make nice he has, at one and the same time moved the needle of the what is supposedly 'progressive' to the right while at the same time allowed the corporate media to paint him as an extreme lefty, even socialist.
He's effectively de-fanged the progressive wing of the Democrats yet drawn almost no blood from the right. If the right and their media are going to excoriate him as a commie no matter what he does, he might as well fight for some actual progressive causes. Instead, between now and election day, we're going to hear a growing chorus of how the 'liberals' had their chance and things are no better or even worse. If he fought for things like single payer health care and lost or sun-setting the Bush tax cuts and lost or prosecuting any of the self-dealing on Wall St. and lost or ending torture and closing Guantanamo and lost or ratcheting down the hideous wars (let alone starting new ones) and lost, he could have lost fighting the good fight. Now, if he loses, he'll not only lose the election, but he'll have allowed the entire spectrum of debate to be shifted rightward and progressive goals with be that much more discredited and that much further out of reach.
From a progressive perspective, he is possibly the most damaging president we've ever had. |
