{"id":707,"date":"2010-11-04T22:55:33","date_gmt":"2010-11-04T22:55:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/apagansblog\/2010\/11\/thoughts-on-the-election.html"},"modified":"2010-11-04T22:55:33","modified_gmt":"2010-11-04T22:55:33","slug":"thoughts-on-the-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2010\/11\/thoughts-on-the-election.html","title":{"rendered":"Thoughts on the Election"},"content":{"rendered":"

Anyone wishing something worthwhile
\nwould come out of Washington has got to be disappointed in the outcome of
\nTuesday’s elections.  <\/span>Disappointed,
\nbut not surprised.  <\/span>Even though as
\nboth a party and on almost every issue the Republicans poll begind the Democrats,
\nthey whipped them soundly in the House. 
\n<\/span>The reasons are many, have nothing to do with people opposing
\nprogressive and religiously tolerant issues, and begin with the smooth talking
\nfraud in the White House.  <\/span>But do
\nnot end there.<\/p>\n


\nObama made three basic mistakes and
\nfaled to listen to people who warned him. 
\n<\/span>I knew they were mistakes at the time, but obviously do not have access
\nto His Mightiness, but others with similar perceptions and better informed on
\nthe details did.<\/p>\n

\n

1. A president’s greatest power is
\nin his first year in office.  <\/span>Obama
\nsquandered it away in an imbecilic quest for “bipartisanship” with the most
\nsavagely partisan crowd ever elected in our lifetimes – until Tuesday.  <\/span>It was imbecilic because he proved
\nunable to learn fro experience.<\/p>\n

2. He failed utterly to provide
\nleadership towards the “change” he had continually promised.  <\/span>Campaigning against business as usual,
\nhe immediately began business as usual. 
\n<\/span>The first hint in this dereliction was his appointing almost entirely
\nClintonites. But it was hardly the last.<\/p>\n

3. He treated his strongest
\nsupporters with disdain.  <\/span>The gays
\nare the most visible recipient of this stupidity, but Hispanics, the young
\nand all progressive Democrats (who were responsible for his beating Clinton for
\nthe nomination) were treated no better.  He played “11 dimensional chess” alright – against his supporters, using them as sacrificial pawns.  Problem is, he’s a bad chess player.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

One could add<\/b> that in those areas where he had the power to
\ninitiate change without getting Congressional approval, he mostly did not.  <\/span>No investigation of Bush era criminal
\naction. He failed to support Dawn Johnson when he could easily have done so.  <\/span>No follow through on promises for
\ntransparency in government.  <\/span>Quite
\nthe contrary.  <\/span>The Iraq War ended
\nby renaming our troops as support troops. 
\n<\/span>No investigation of the banks. 
\n<\/span>Very little attention paid to the economic needs of any one but the very
\nwealthy.  <\/span>A secret committee made
\nup of many hostile to Social Security to report on its “deliberations” between
\nnow and the end of the year.  <\/span>He
\nlet BP control our Gulf Coast during a time of crisis.  <\/span>I could go on at greater length, but
\nyou get the point.  <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

That right wingers call him “left”
\nmostly shows how utterly incapable they are of even the most vestigial
\nunderstanding of politics. But then they want power and do not care about ideas or policies. He is a slightly more enlightened tool of the
\ncorporate elite compared to his Republican opponents, but little more.  <\/span>Look at the stock market performance rather
\nthan mumblings by paid liars to see the proof he has been good for
\nshareholders. The stock market does not rebound when businessmen fear for their profits..<\/p>\n

He was better than Bush, but did
\nnothing to encourage his supporters that he was a man of his word and showed
\nno strength of leadership.  <\/span>He did
\nthe opposite.  And now he (and we) are paying the price.<\/p>\n

Might Obama suddenly take fire,
\nreverse his mistakes, and become a mensch?  <\/span>Stranger things have happened, but not often.<\/p>\n

Add to Obama’s miserable performance
\nperhaps the worst Senate leader in history, Harry Reid, who gave Bush little opposition
\nwhen in the minority and the Democrats little success when in a big majority,
\nand you have a party dominated by weaklings and incompetents.  <\/span>Voters all too often simply admire
\nstrength, and while Republican “strength” is built on lies, hypocrisy, and
\nposing, it still looked impressive compared to Obama and Reid.<\/p>\n

So what does this mean?  <\/span>I think it is the final proof that the
\nClintonian politics of cybical triangulation is a dead end, particularly against the radical right.  <\/span>It is also proof that we have for all
\nintent and purposes a two party oligopoly where the corporations win both ways,
\nand the people lose – quickly under the Republicans and more slowly under the
\nDemocrats.<\/p>\n

There are three things Americans
\ncan do right now to try and reverse this dismal picture.<\/p>\n

\n

1. Challenge Blue Dogs and other
\ncorporate servants in any primary where a candidate can be fielded.  Many Blue Dongs died, opening up their districts to decent candidates when the tides turn.  Make sure decent candidates are in the primaries. But this is a stop gap, no matter how successful it can be at times.<\/p>\n

2. In states with initiatives, push
\nfor majority vote elections and an instant runoff.  <\/span>This is already being tried in some cities and chaos has not ensued.  It means a vote
\nfor a third party is not a wasted vote because your second choice can be the
\nmajor party candidate least awful.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Those are prerequisites.  <\/span>Then . . .<\/p>\n

\n

3. Public funding of all
\ncampaigns.  <\/span>If a candidate spends
\nhis or her own money, or other money, or there are political mass media ads
\nfrom other parties, public funding will match it dollar for dollar.  <\/span><\/p>\n

4. No public employee may ever work
\nas a PAID lobbyist after leaving public service.  <\/span>For life. Don’t like it?  <\/span>Don’t be a public employee. This measure should be strengthened every way that is constitutional.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anyone wishing something worthwhile would come out of Washington has got to be disappointed in the outcome of Tuesday’s elections.  Disappointed, but not surprised.  Even though as both a party and on almost every issue the Republicans poll begind the Democrats, they whipped them soundly in the House.  The reasons are many, have nothing to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[111],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events"],"yoast_head":"\nThoughts on the Election - A Pagan's Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2010\/11\/thoughts-on-the-election.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Thoughts on the Election - 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