Obama and the Democrats: Selling us Out Again

After being elected on a tide of disgust fueled by the Tea Party Republicans’ austerity war on the poor and the middle class, and Obama/Biden promising during the election that, “Social Security is off the table,” the White House is once again turning out to be a pack of liars.  Some of us could see this coming.

I did NOT vote for Obama and spoke up about what I saw as wishful thinking on the part of a number of Democrats I know who thought he would be better the second term, that he would protect the social safety net (instead of being the one to put it on the table as a bargaining chip), who made excuses for his signing the first NDAA bill that stripped us of our 5th amendment rights (even though he was the one insisting on Section 1021 and 1022 as he is now).  I warned that there was no rational basis for the idea that he would be “better” and that he likely would be at least as bad as he wouldn’t be worried about re-election; now it pains me to say he is doing the very things some of us predicted he would do.  Though I didn’t believe it, I was hoping I would be wrong.

We so desperately need better choices, and there were those choices this election cycle, it’s just that no one seriously considered them.  I’ll tell you why.  The Democratic Party and the Republican Party both fight any third party candidates participating in the debates, make up impossible rules for ballot qualification for third party and independent candidates, have allowed the hostile takeover of the debate moderation by the corporate Commission on Presidential Debates, who wrested control from the League of Women Voters who were fair and impartial, and continue to field candidates nearly indistinguishable from one another.  Surveys have shown that 70% of people surveyed would vote third party if they thought the candidate could win,  and we need to level the playing field so that third party candidates have a chance to get heard so that they are seen as viable so they CAN win!

As an example of the kind of fascist control the two-party tyranny exerts, Jill Stein and Cheri Honkala, the Green Party presidential candidates, were ARRESTED AND HELD in a special facility where they were bound for hours with no one knowing where they were at first,when they tried to attend the presidential debate in New York, even though they were on over 80% of the ballots nationwide??!! What an outrageous hypocrisy in a country always touting its freedom! There is a serious need for some actual democracy and plurality in this country, not this two-party rule, and my question to you Democrats is, when are you going to demand better from your party and stop enabling this kind of inequality?!

Now you can “rather have” Obama sell us down the river by cutting Social Security, rather than Romney.  What’s the difference?!  This “deal” is coming from the White House, just like the demand that our 5th amendment rights in the NDAA bill be thrown out.  I would have rather had someone way better than Obama, like the P & F, Green, or Justice Party candidates that ran—wouldn’t you??!!  We need to change this system that stomps all over the chances of everyone but the Democrat and Republican “choices.” This is especially true for President; there are much better Democrats in Congress (the House AND the Senate) but since “their guy” in the W. H. is selling us out, they are going to go along with it, whereas if a Republican were in the White House, they would be putting up more of a fight, because party politics always win out, not standing up for the citizens of this country.  This is why I say we need to do away with parties altogether, so that we can deal with the issues rather than play out endless partisan struggles for power, but in the meantime, we could at least have a plurality, so that there would be more choices and more voices, some of whom are bound to be better than this continuing charade!