Progressives Can't Sit Out 2012

HyperSmash.com
Remember the unpleasant days of 2006 and 2007. Remember the daily lies, the head scratching
miscalculations, and the bottomless well of corruption given to us by the team I once dubbed the
“United States Wrecking Crew”. Surely you haven't forgotten the starting lineup, George W. Bush, the
figure head, Dick Cheney the real tactician, key role players like Don Rumsfeld, Condolezza Rice, Colin Powell, with minor support from clowns like John Ashcroft, and Alberto Gonzales. Ah... good times.

As a proud and unabashed big government socialist the one thing that got me through the dark period was the possibility of brighter days that would come with the presidential election of 2008. The possibility of electing the first African-American President in the history of the country was certainly appealing, but for me the identity of the eventual nominee didn't matter as much because surely a Democrat was going to pull this country back towards the left and away from the religious zealots and war hawks in the Republican Party.

Three and a half years later I have that what the hell happened look on my face. Yes in some instances The Obama Administration has been disappointing, yes in the perceived “War On Terror” they have been a mirror image of The Bush Team, and yes you can make a case that they haven't fought hard enough for the middle class and the working poor but all of those reasons are not good enough to sit out the election come November 6th.

Just like the Republicans and their clown show of a primary season, it's time for progressives everywhere to set aside their grievances with this White House and coalesce around President Obama. Trust me I know how hard it is going to be to swallow all of that pride and forget all of that anger, but considering what the other side is offering it has to be done. A Mitt Romney election means Republicans are going to move the football from there own 40 yardline to behind their own goalposts.

How many average Americans actually know that if Romney is elected and Republicans hold on to the House of Representatives The Paul Ryan Plan would become law through budget reconciliation no matter what the U.S. Senate says, particularly if it is still Democratically controlled. Yep that Ryan Plan, the one that offers very little if any tax revenue, but takes food out of the mouths of  poor children and the working poor and pretty much does away with Medicare and Social Security from seniors.

This is on the hills of Romney himself who has promised to defund Planned Parenthood and veto The Dream Act while tag teaming the poor and the elderly with Ryan using his own “power to the fat cats” economic plan. How would Romney deal with the ongoing crisis in Syria, this is the guy who thinks Russia is our number one geopolitical foe, you know because 2012 is just like 1961.

Even if your disenchantment with Obama is a great source of discontent, just remember 2010. The mid-term elections of that year gave rise to the tea party and clowns like Allen West, Joe Walsh, and Rand Paul. It all came from progressive apathy as if there wasn't going to be an attempted backlash for electing the first black president. In that sense the criticism of Obama from the left is kind of unfair. While the President wields tremendous power he can't do it alone and when he is facing an obstructionist congress hellbent on getting him voted out as we now know, that makes the task even tougher, and tramples over the political golden rule. “all politics are local”.

I would love nothing more than to see a James Baldwin W.E.B.DuBois styled socialist who advocated single payer health care, the end of U.S military occupation in other countries, and an honest living wage for the working poor, given what we've seen throughout his first term Barack Obama ain't that guy. I still hold out hope for a 180 degree turn and I soothe that angst with my fear of Romney and the possibility that those feelings of 2006 and 2007 could be tremendously worse under him.