President Barack Obama campaigned on the power of hope. We supported his dream for America — and what we thought was the dream for us. For many of us, hope is all that is left now that reality has slapped us in the face. In recent days we have seen the administration discount some of us who worked to get him elected. We have become disillusioned and disappointed in the White House as we our dreams for America — change we believed in — has melted like snow on a warm winter’s day.
Most recently we have seen the White House and Congress squander their political capital, distancing themselves from those of us who campaigned on their collective behalf for the closure of Guantanamo and for real health care reform. We have been dismissed as liberal left wing bloggers and/or activists who are on the fringe, who stand too close to the edge. David Axelrod stands before the camera dismissing our discontent. President Obama now measures the distance between his administration and the popular vote of the young idealistic liberals and old-timers with one last dream of America as we would like to see it. We are the ones who mobilized America for Obama.
There are three main complaints against President Obama, Congress and Washington in general. First of all, there is Guantanamo. President Obama promised to close it. Apparently, it will be closed. However, moving the locks on the gates and doors from Guantanamo Prison to Thomson, Illinois does nothing to change the status of the people behind the bars and barbed wire. That is not the closure we sought. It is a farce at best. It is a disgrace for the nation.
The President, in light of being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize is advancing the war in Afghanistan. The acceptance speech tried to justify the war, but for those of us who have loved ones on the ground in Afghanistan there is no justification. Even those who were hell bent on attacking Al Qaeda following 9-11 have realized that Afghanistan is not Al Qaeda. Our battle in Afghanistan is nothing short of nation building — call it what you will. It is nation building. Otherwise, we are fighting an invisible army that perhaps the CIA or some black ops group should be fighting, not ground troops.
Health care reform should be totally abandoned at this point. The bill that is likely to pass the Senate is playing right into the hands of insurance companies and pharmaceuticals. There is nothing left in the bill that will help the uninsured or underinsured in America. The White House and the Democrats in Congress have compromised reform away. Quite honestly, none of us really expected to see a single payer system. But, we did expect to see some sort of public option.
Abandoning the effort to pass health care legislation would be “a tragic outcome,” said David Axelrod, senior adviser to President Barack Obama.
Truer words were never spoken. The failure of health care reform will defeat the Democrats in the next two elections. However, passing the bill that is presently being debated in the Senate is a joke. The Democrats who promised to support universal health care have given the candy store to the Republicans and a few moderate Democrats. And, with Senator Ben Nelson standing in the wings ready to insert an abortion amendment it is beginning to look as if the so-called health care reform will take away more than it will give.
These are three big national complaints against the White House and Congress. We haven’t even mentioned how the ball has been dropped on gay rights, immigration reform, and a plethora of other issues.
For those of us who knocked on doors and visited with our neighbors to sway them to vote for the Obama team, for those of us who held campaign parties in our homes, for those of us who spent weeks driving early voters to the polls and spent all day on election day making sure every last vote was cast, we have been overlooked since inauguration day. We have been used and abused.
Today I am not making phone calls to support our President or health care reform. I am receiving them. And, no I will not spend another day of my life volunteering for an administration who promised hope for the future but has slapped us with the ugly reality of status quo. Change we can believe in? Where?
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