Criticism from the left: eviscerating or progressive?

[illusionofjoy]

With Obama now in office, I've seen a multitude of articles from those who were his self-appointed fluffers during the campaign now finding themselves disillusioned with him. This week's Pittsburgh City Paper contained a cover article which I threw down and ceased reading after the first sentence of the second paragraph:

Let's be honest: We didn't vote for the Barack Obama his campaign advertised. We didn't vote for an African-American man, nor for a U.S. senator from Illinois, nor for a father, a husband, an activist or a young politician.

We voted for the Barack Obama we fantasized -- the progressive miracle worker. We voted for Change. Millions of us stood up and shouted, handed out fliers, talked to our neighbors, donated hard-earned money and drove people to the polls for Change. We screamed, hugged, kissed and cried when we learned Change had come to America. We knew Change wouldn't come overnight, that it would take time, but we were excited that we had elected a man who was open to Change, who said he wanted to consider real people's needs while in the Oval Office. We eagerly awaited the first hints of Change, as the president-elect's transition developed.

No, let's be really honest: we did not vote for Barack Obama. You god damned Kool-Aide drinkers voted for Barack Obama because you were unable or unwilling to separate fantasy from reality. Intelligent liberals such as myself saw through the Obama façade and with our powers of rational thought and reality-based decision-making rejected him. So don't you ever dare think I'm one of you; I may be a registered Democrat, but my principles come before the machinations and manipulations of any political party and it's cheerleading squad.

Meanwhile the insufferable Maureen Dowd penned a recent column where she is obviously in mourning that Obama isn't the liberal Jesus that she imagined him to be:

Once upon a time, America thought Prince Charming would glide in and kiss her, reviving her from a coma induced by a poison apple of greed, deceit, carelessness, recklessness and overreaching.

But then the prince got distracted, seeing Lincoln in the mirror, and instead gave the kiss of life to a bunch of flat-lining Republican tax-cut fetishists.

Hey Maureen, you dumbfuck: people like me were screaming about how Mr. O was going to sell liberalism up the river. Fuck, Obama himself was - and still is - crying "bipartisanship" when, with Democratic majorities in both the Senate and Congress, he should be looking at the Republicans and crying, "off with their heads!" Don't come whining to me now - I have no sympathy. You and those like you helped shove Obama down our throats; to drag a cliché screaming from the vaults: you made your bed, now lay in it!

Joseph Cannon takes a measured look at where we currently stand:

Make no mistake: I don't like Obama, and I don't wish him well. I think he's crooked. I would love to see him impeached and replaced by Joe Biden. My feelings about the man have not softened and never will soften.

But right now, he's the president -- the only one we have -- and times are perilous.

We were in a similar position back in September of 2001: Lots of people who knew that George W. Bush was a crook and a fool nevertheless rallied around him during a time of national crisis. Like it or not (and I hated it), he was the only president we had.

We now face another crisis. A worse one.

Such times force the president -- any president -- to consider politically risky measures. These measures include nationalizing some banks, letting others fail, replacing free trade with fair trade, creating massive public works projects, insuring that nothing like the derivatives racket ever appears again, printing more money, allowing inflation to rise, raising taxes on the wealthy, and imposing tarrifs on products created by outsourced labor.

Such things cannot be done by a Democratic president if the party is at war with itself.

Right now Obama is the only President we have; I see him as just another politician I am going to have to put up with until his term ends and I get the opportunity to vote again. In light of that, as he is my President, I want him to compromise with "the other side" only when he has to. Thus far, this has not been the case and he has been far too proactive in compromising for my comfort. Obama has two years to be bold and liberal; he would be wise to damn the torpedoes and take the opportunity. Let's face it: the Republicans are unlikely to remain minority party and it will make their frightening comeback all the worse if they can paint the Democrats and "weak" and "a bunch of do-nothings."