Obama, oh what hopes the world had.
It turns out that Obama likes to let others push through his reforms and is happy to have them watered down. He only has himself to blame for Democrat voters not flooding out in their droves to vote for his party in the mid term elections. Obama has blown it.
The Republicans and the Tea Party supporters would of attacked Obama and the Democrats with the same vigour with or without Obama's watered down reforms. So Obama should of gone for it anyway, gone the whole hog. It's ok to have enemies in politics. It motivates your own side to and gives clarity to your positions.
However this is not all good news for the Republicans, they better watch out to. Because if the Tea Party are not happy with the new found power that control of the senate may give them then (and I suspect they won't be) I can see the Tea Party running as a 3rd Party with perhaps plenty of Libertarian right Wing Conservative Republicans standing as members of an all new Tea Party.
From movements do political parties grow. You have been warned.
It's a bit rich for a LibDem to criticise Obama for watering down his policies now that his party is in power. LibDems would never compromise their principles would they???
ReplyDeleteNo it's not. Obama is not a minority party in a coalition. It's a totally different thing
ReplyDeleteJoetote the democrats are no where near as left wing as you may think. Not compared to even right Wong parties in europe
ReplyDeleteBut Obama effectively is in just such a coalition! The Democratic Party is a coalition arguably just as wide (if not wider!) than our very own. Obama's problem was: (a) the stupid rule of cloture that means that nothing controversial can pass the Senate unless it has 60 votes, and (b) his own very conservative senators. It is telling that in the weeks after Labor Day (as they insist on spelling it), there were numerous Democrat candidates for the House bragging about voting against 'ObamaCare', but not a single one saying proudly that he had helped extend affordable healthcare to 99% of the population. The only way that Joe Manchin can win West Virginia for the Democrats is by attacking 'ObamaCare' (which he previously supported), virulently opposing cap and trade, banging on about gun rights, and even refusing to support the president for another term. This is the kind of political culture they have in the States, and it's only likely to get worse. I'm amazed Obama's done as well as he has, and he certainly doesn't deserve the pasting he's getting both in the US and over here. His only offence was to underestimate how hard it is to deliver change in 21st century America.
ReplyDeleteObama and the Democrats are about as Socialist as New Labour. It's astonishing how right-wing American politics is. If people bothered to read anything other than the garbage that the mainstream media fed us, there was plenty of journalism even before Obama was elected that he was more of the same, simple because his campaign was financed in record levels by Wall Street. Indeed, I emailed this blog's author numerous examples before and after the election, most of which were ignored or argued against. People were blinded by his eloquence and his colour, despite the fact he was arguing for not punishing the bankers, bailing out Wall Street and war expansion in the middle-east. His cabinet consisted of Clinton's financial-market-deregulators and Bush's war-advisors - so why the surprise now? His spending stimulus was too weak to work and not fully delivered upon anyway, not to those who needed it, so unemployment has risen as many (for example, Paul Krugman, Nobel award winning economist) predicted.
ReplyDeletekeV. I have carefully read all your emails and agree with alot of it. I tweeted links to them.
ReplyDeleteChains you can believe in more like. So-called Democratic Socialism is a failure just like all other left wing philosophies. Wealth creating capitalism is the true path to future prosperity for all.
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