Reply #86: I supported Obama in the primary

[WyLoochka]

after he rightly pointed out that Clinton had not succeeded in changing the political rhetoric or political trajectory in the US from the entrenched Reagan ideology.

I did expect to see much more progress from Obama on this very important front.

What have we seen instead? On most issues, essentially the same failed approaches that Clinton used - groveling before the Reaganistas for crumbs of little consequence that will not succeed in reversing the ever rightward moving ideological course we seem to be locked into.

Indeed, the predominant political rhetoric and trajectory seems to have moved much further to the right, and at mind boggling speed, since Jan 20, 2009, than at any time during my life.

Obama may be changing a few things here and there behind the scenes, bureaucratically. The problem is, that just as with Clinton's surpluses and success in starting to pay down the national debt, which he failed to have codified, small liberalizing adjustments in federal agency rules and operations can, in one fell swoop, be easily undone by the next asshole right winger who manages to get himself into the White House.

Reaganism changed the country from being liberal and became entrenched because he and his cohorts extolled the "virtues of conservatism." Even though there aren't any. They accomplished this in a country that had outright scorned and rejected conservatism for decades, exemplified by the landslide of LBJ over Goldwater just 16 years previously. Goldwater was rejected because people feared he was too conservative - today he would be called a leftist by the predominant political community of pols and pundits.

Obama and cohorts bash liberalism. How are we going to change things if our "leaders" bash us and what we stand for?

Since Obama had articulated the Clinton failure, I did not expect to see him do the same thing! I did expect to see him make more progress and put much more effort into changing the ideological trajectory away from the right wing cliff.