I don’t think even God, Krampus, or even Karl Marx himself could have written a better script for the Democrats. It looks like Obama may very well win in the biggest landslide as LBJ. The irony of this land slide is it will be a wasted one because Obama has no mandate. Like corporate friendly candidates before him, and Obama’s the most friendly of all, he will be forced to push forward business friendly reforms.
I know, I know, if you listen to the Neo Crybabies or McCain as of late you’d think we’ve just witnessed the second coming of Karl Marx. No, there is nothing radical about Obama’s tax plan. It is certainly without a doubt better than the Reagan and Bush 1’s tax increases in the 80’s. As I said earlier he is Clinton on steroids. Clinton looks you in the face and lies to you straight up, and you believe him. Obama looks you straight in the face and lies to you with a wink and a smile, and you just don’t care.
Don’t worry taxes will be fine, and the business community will be happy. They are not the ones we should be concerned with here. In the Senate Obama voted against an amendment to cap interest rates at 30%. He then offers an even higher 36% cap and uses it to campaign around the country that he’s getting tough with pay day loans. Obama’s rhetoric sounds like he’s for American jobs, even while his main economic adviser says job losses by NAFTA are simply a myth. Obama single handedly bullies the Congressional Black Caucus into voting for the bail out, and then has the audacity to say the tax payer robbery will help homeowners.
The biggest crime of all is that in a democratic election year Obama’s put forward a health care plan that even Romney could love. What we need is a health care system not a heavily, government subsidized, health care market. Obama’s health care plan is so before Sicko. The problem with the system is not so much the uninsured, as it is the insured or soon to be uninsured. Obama could have run on a universal, single payer, type system run though the states like Medicare. If he had selected that route, right now, he’d have the mother of all mandates to do something big about health care.
My biggest frustration this election season is how many progressives simply sold out. In the end game, I can perfectly understand someone pulling out the “Obama is better than McCain” card. In many scenarios that is probably true, but why show that card so early in the game. What was clear early on is Obama had the progressive vote tied up, and he did not have to earn one vote. The end result was he moved to the right of the supreme court on the death penalty, agreed with Bush on the Patriot Acts, FISA, and the Bush Doctrine, and was able to support the bailout bill for banks, even though, I have not met one person in favor of it, except for Mal of course. That one bailout (trust me more to come) cost more than seven years of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Now, to the wet dream part. Progressives, and less so liberals, have told me I’d vote for the Green Party or Nader, but the cost is too high. They usually say something to the tune if folks like Mal had not voted for Nader in 2000 we’d have had Gore the Bore for the last eight years. We’d very well have Lieberman instead of Obama at the top of the ticket, but they don’t want to talk about that.
This is a great year for progressives. They can be assured that Obama will win in a land slide, and also vote their conscience. Why waste your vote on a sure thing, when you can express your progressive values in a candidate like Nader or McKinney. This is a win – win situation. One the one hand you will have a president Obama in 2009, and a Tuesday you can leave the polls with your conscience intact.
