General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Why should I vote for Obama? [View all]MadHound
(34,179 posts)But let's go over the points you bring up.
If you honestly think that Obama is the greatest thing for liberalism since FDR, well, quite frankly you're wrong. Obama is in no way a liberal, and his policies and positions prove that. Continuing the tax cut policy of his predecessors as some form of economic stimulus? Most liberals believe in Keynesian measures, not trickle down. Liberals wouldn't take on a healthcare policy, birthed in RW think tanks and promoted by Republicans as the way to reform healthcare. Nor would liberals codify the abuse of civil liberties started under Bush. I could continue with more facts here, but let's move on, there is only so much time.
So liberals are "selfish and whiny", why? For pushing forward their agenda in anyway they think is right. But isn't that what every other group under this so called big tent party does? So why shouldn't liberals?
You can honestly sit there and say that liberal ideology has been rejected over the past forty years? That's some mighty good self delusion you've got going on, considering that it was liberals who have been one of the major driving forces behind women's rights, gay rights, no nukes, no war, liberalized drug policy, and a whole host of other issues, social and otherwise. We've won our victories mainly without the help of mainstream centerist Democrats, sometimes in spite of them.
However I concede that liberals have been fighting in losing cause over the past forty years, of course it's hard not to, when both conservatives and Democrats are arrayed against you. Our victories, in stopping nuclear power, in preserving our environment, in advancing womens' rights and gay rights have come is spite of Democrats, not because of them.
The fact of the matter, born out by his policies and actions, is that Obama is governing as a center-right president. Yes, he sort of embraced gay rights(after much pushing be the LGBT community and their liberal friends). But in the interim, Obama has continued the ongoing destruction of the Constitution, what with codifying wireless wirtaps and other civil liberty excesses of the Bush administration.
You're right though, no president prior from Carter to Nixon has embraced regulation. Carter started the deregulation madness, and Clinton continued it, what with the '96 Telecom Act and doing away with Glass-Steagal among others. Yes, Obama instituted regulations on the financial sector and healthcare sector, weak regulations that do little to curb the corporate excesses and serve mainly as window dressing. You want a Democrat to be perceived as a liberal when it comes to regulation, then reinstate Glass Steagal, don abolish it.
Speaking of healthcare, that you consider the ACA to be a success simply shows how far the expectations of some Democrats have fallen, embracing a healthcare reform policy who's origins lie in the Heritage Foundation and Nixonian policy, and who's direct blueprint comes from Obama's Republican opponent. You have given the insurance industry control of heathcare, what with a mandated monopoly and weak cost controls and no public option. We used to call that Romneycare, but now it goes by the name of Obamacare. Real liberal policy there
Oh, and every President talks about helping Americans, the question is what do they do about it. Obama has done about as much his predecessors, not any real great shakes. Yes, he gave us a stimulus, a stimulus that was far too small to really help, in part because it consisted of forty percent tax cuts and tax credits, more trickle down theory in action. Yes, he gave us healthcare reform, Republican inspired healthcare reform, with no public option, but a mandated monopoly given to the insurance industry.
The fact is, Obama is, at best, a center right president. His positions compare favorably with Clinton's and Eisenhower's. Again, the only way that Obama looks liberal is when you compare him to the batshit crazy RW Republicans. He is not the great liberal savior that you make him out to be, far from it. If you want to keep deluding yourself with that BS, fine, but don't expect those of us living in the real world to buy it.