Dear Friends,
After President Obama decided to stop defending the Defense of Marriage Act, one of my sons sent me an email saying that now I could say something nice about President Obama. Of course, he was right. President Obama did the right thing on that issue.
Unfortunately, President Obama continues to break the promises that candidate Obama made. Lawrence O'Donnell on his show tonight, "The Last Word" on MSNBC showed a clip of candidate Obama from 2007.
The candidate Obama clip starts at about 1:50 and ends at about 2:16. You should watch it. Candidate Obama promises to be walking the picket lines as President of the United States any time the workers' rights to organize are threatened. Well where is he? In the segment Mr. O'Donnell also shows a clip of the White House press briefing this morning. A reporter asked whether President Obama was planning on going to Wisconsin to support the workers. The press secretary said that he knew of no such plans and then went on to talk about belt tightening and living within your means. He did not say one word about the labor movement or the attempt to destroy unions.
The workers of America, the labor unions in this country that have done so much good, the unions and their members who supported candidate Obama and are a significant part of the reason why he was elected and all of the rest of us that supported candidate Obama deserve better.
The attempt to destroy collective bargaining in Wisconsin is only the tip of the ice berg. There is a unified nationwide drive to destroy unions in this country and the politicians that have been elected by the working people of this country and people that support them are staying silent. The Democratic Party and the person that is the titular head of the Democratic Party (in this case the President of the United States) are not speaking out and marching in the protests in Wisconsin and other places. If they are not leading us, who do we expect to do that?
Why would I as a liberal continue to support the Democratic Party when it won't wholeheartedly and passionately support the working people of this country and the unions that have provided all of us with minimum wage laws, safe working places, living wages, reasonable benefits, some semblance of job security, etc.? Does President Obama assume that we will continue to support him just because he is not as bad as Sarah Palin or Michele Bachmann or Glen Beck?
I am afraid the time has come to admit that we need to focus on the long term. In the short term, the argument that anybody claiming to be a Democrat is better than the terrible Republican works, but is it what is best for this country? In the long term we need a party that will truly stand up for the traditional values that Democrats have embraced. The Democratic Party today is so far right of the mainstream Republican party of the 1960's that it has no right to call itself the Democratic Party.
Liberals need to begin a serious dialogue about how to either transform the Democratic Party so that it returns to its roots or how to start a new movement.
Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal
Thursday, February 24, 2011
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