Dear President Obama:
With all due respect, Mr. President, where the hell have you been for the past six years? And why did you wait this long to shrug off your too-cool persona and stand up for something? I would say that it’s about damn time, but it’s probably way past damn time. For six excruciating years, we’ve watched as the Republicans stalled, bluffed, lied, and shirked their responsibility in a desperate bid to make sure that you didn’t succeed. Their only agenda was to derail your agenda.
This was obvious to EVERYBODY. Those on the Right openly applauded the vile, bitter and, yes, sometimes racist strategy designed only to keep you in your place. Meanwhile, your supporters and even some people on the fence who at least wanted to see you get a fair shake waited patiently, and then impatiently, for you to boldly and clearly state your cases(s) and then stand up for yourself. You had the greatest bully pulpit of all time and you let it fall into disrepair from non-use.
I knew guys like you when I was growing up in the ghetto. They dressed a little better than we did and they always seemed to have a little bit of money (compared to our no money at all). They had nicknames like Cool Breeze and you just knew that they believed they were better than the rest of us. Accordingly, they had a lot of acquaintances, but not a whole lot of friends. They’d play basketball and baseball—sometimes quite well—but never football. Too much chance of getting down and dirty at the bottom of a dog pile and maybe losing some of that precious cool.
I have no doubt that they thought that they were avoiding some of life’s unpleasantries, while I know for a fact that they were actually missing out on some of life’s most valuable lessons. Sometimes, you just gotta fight.
Personally, I wish you had chosen a different fight at a different time. Like maybe, early on, when you gave the country half a stimulus to start digging out after the Bush/Bank Blowout. It should have been twice as big, but you backed off when the Pollyannas on the Right started screaming about budget deficits. You don’t hear anything about that anymore, do you? It’s partly because deficit spending has never really been a problem, long term, and mostly because stimulus always leads to deficits coming down after a couple years.
If you had gone on the offensive, it wouldn’t have taken you so long to pass the Affordable Care Act. You should have been on TV every single day, reminding people that America is a compassionate country and that we take care of our own. You STILL haven’t pointed out how successful it is and how important it is to America. The American people deserve to know how good the program is and, once they learn that, it will have the additional benefit of showing just how petty and empty the Republican usage of “Obamacare” as a pejorative really is.
The economy is actually doing really well. (It would be going great had we not spent the last six years with your foot on the gas and John Boehner’s on the brake.) Unemployment is back down in the 5’s, where it was before the Great Recession started. The stock market is booming. People are buying new cars and the housing market is finally getting traction. Yet, somehow, two-thirds of all Americans believe that the country is headed in the wrong direction. Why don’t people know about all the good things that are happening? Because you’ve been too cool to tell them.
As Muhammad Ali would say, “This ain’t braggin’; it’s truthin’.”
Perhaps the most insane reaction to your announcement came from former drug addict Rush Limbaugh. (That guy has gone around the bend so many times, his nickname should be NASCAR.) He kinda sideways acknowledged that Republican presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush did what you are doing, but then added, “The reason it was okay for Ronald Reagan to do it is that people actually liked Ronald Reagan.” Great argument there, Oxy.
I also knew guys like Ted Cruz. They weren’t Cool Breezes; they were Hot Winds. They had some acquaintances and no friends. Cruz said that your action is in “defiance of Congress.”
How exactly does one defy something that doesn’t happen? I don’t get it. Congress has had decades to pass an immigration bill. Republicans didn’t want to do it because it was more politically expedient to pick at that scab than to try to heal the scar.
So now you’ve finally picked a fight. Just so you’ll know, I don’t agree with everything in your plan, but I’m pleased that you’ve come out swinging after all this time. If you had done it six months ago, the election results might not have been so dismal.
The best part of your speech was when you said “(If you don’t like it), pass a bill.” We definitely would have benefited from more of that attitude over the past six years. The Republicans don’t want to compromise; they don’t want to work together. They want to stop you cold. I’m thrilled that you’ve finally decided to put up a fight.
Give ’em hell, Barry!
This article appears in Nov 27 – Dec 3, 2014.
History teaches us all about amnesty.
Once amnesty is given, it just keeps coming back over and over again.
You can’t deny it.
Boring Tom. Democrats are good. Republicans are bad. Call Rush names again. Share the fact that you grew up in the ghetto one more time. No wonder Dan Gibson is leaving this sinking ship.
You probably bored him to tears. What next, another anti-gun article? Or the State house conservatives are evil?
Or maybe more anecdotal crap about how your wife is a great teacher, so all public education is wonderful. Tedious Tom. Break out of your rut man.
Evil Right Wingers, Obama is right about everything, blah blah blah. Seal the border, then worry about amnesty.
As long as there is a “Hastert Rule”, there will be no responsible votes in the H of Rs; many bills could have passed (bi-partisan ones even) if allowed to come to a vote. No Work, All Politics means No Progress – Ever.
Right-wingers have never been able to handle truth. It’s because they all live in a fantasy world. Things just never change; the cycle goes on. We are screwed.
Oh, yes, Mark Robert, let’s do seal the border. To keep those 240,000 Ford Fusions from crossing up from Hermosillo where they are built from the ground up. To keep those grain cars from carrying millions of tons of Iowa corn down into Mexico. To keep increasingly affluent Mexicans from driving up to Tucson where they spend almost a billion dollars shopping.
It’s obvious what Mark Robert meant. He’s talking about people sneaking into the country ILLEGALLY . Not trucks delivering goods or tourists coming here to shop or visit. RioRican, typical liberal. Dead from the neck up. As far as my ol’ buddy Tom goes it’s quite simple. He looks at the world the way he does and nothing that C.W. 13 or Rat T. or Mark Robert or Danehy Suxs or any other conservative who comments here says is going to change his mind. Just like what Tom and his legion of liberals who comment here are going to change how we feel. Let them rant on and on and on about Bush, Chaney, no blood for oil, the war on women, take away their guns, Obummer died for our sins, etc., etc. We on the right know that we’re called that for a reason. Tom did let me down though,with his remarks about Rush. Thousands of people including many of our Veterens start out taking pain pills for legit reasons and end up hooked on them. Drug dependency is a sickness, not to be laughed at. Call him a big mouth, a gas bag or what ever other civil name you can come up with, but leave the drug addiction out of it. It’s not funny and doesn’t help your cause.
Al, You’re right and I apologize. Many people do start taking them for legitimate reasons and get hooked. What has always bothered me is that Limbaugh did things that would have landed the average person in prison (not just jail). He bought himself free and then tried to play it off like it was nothing.
I appreciate that, Tom. As far as what Rush did or didn’t do or what he may have bought his way out of or not I really don’t know. I’m not privey to that information. However, if he did use money or his influence to avoid prison, all I can say is he ain’t the first and won’t be the last. The late Ted Kennedy comes to mind. Welcome to America. It’s just the way it is.
Once there was a douche named Danehick
Who could not write a column that was worth a lick
As a left wing nut, what he wrote always sucked
Always blowing smoke becuz he was such a dick …
Signed,
Danehick Sux
The Republicans should be proud of being the ‘Party of No’. They have at least paused our descent into European Socialism, perhaps….
Article too sick to comment on.
I’m at a loss to understand Danehy’s portrait of economic recovery in light of the enormous holes in the demographics of who is working and at what sorts of jobs. The real issues are underemployment, the growth of low paying, dead end jobs in the services sector and stagnant wages for those who have remained employed through the ongoing recession. Nothing has changed for those in the middle and lower ends of the economy.
The stock market is booming? Swell, so are the compensation packages paid to CEO’s of the same firms that threw the economy under the bus in the first place. The same pigs feed at the same troughs under the 6 years of Obama’s presidency as had feasted under his predecessors. The gaps between the most wealthy, the middle class and the most vulnerable in the US has accelerated during his presidency, not abated. Where are the promised reforms?
Where is the federal support Obama campaigned on for job creating major infrastructure projects, repair of deteriorating bridges, high speed rail travel, sluggish internet speed compared with other nations?
Obama rates a D in education policies with his continuance of the No Child Left Behind federal intrusion into state and local governance under his, and Arne Duncan’s, Race to the Top circus. Once again the federal government has caved in to the demands of profit making hucksters intent on rampaging through a trillion dollar marketplace while teachers and students are left to watch the carnage and wring their hands.
An end to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq? He’s ginning up the military-congressional-industrial complex for new missions in those theaters and engaging in mission creep in Syria. Guantanamo is still in business 6 years after he campaigned on shutting it down.
Privacy rights? His administration has done nothing to rein in the NSA and is fighting to maintain the status quo of unconstitutional sweeps of every US citizen’s telephone records and social networking behavior. Relations with Cuba? Don’t ask. don’t tell.
The mid-term slaughter of the Democrats is an indication that they and Obama have lost the support – as in going to the polls and voting – of the constituencies that elected him president twice. I voted for him both times as an Independent and like many of those who label themselves as progressives and moderates, I’m disappointed. Obama’s lack of substantive accomplishment, and abandonment of key policy pronouncements made as a liberal/progressive candidate ,coupled with his kowtowing to the same power brokers as his successors and opponents, make it easier each day to label him “Bush Lite.” And I believed you couldn’t get much lighter than GW Bush.
Obama’s pledge was that he “wouldn’t do anything stupid” not that he wouldn’t do anything. It is tempting to his supporters to blame the president’s lack of achievement to the obstruction of those dastardly Republicans and there is some truth to that defense. Another truth is that it is the job of the president to reach out across the aisle, find bi-partisan support for legislation and use the bully pulpit to mobilize the masses to demand change when needed. Here, especially in mobilizing the masses who voted him into office he has failed.
Not sure amnesty is the hill to fight on. It is real expensive…some say $3 trillion over the lifetimes of the 4 million illegals who got the golden handshake. That is based on the premise that they on average have a 10th grade education and those folks take $3 from the gov’t for every $1 they contribute. Also these folks will take jobs from native born and legal immigrants…. and depressing everybody’s wages in the process. Also… the word of free First World benefits for Third World types who sneak across the border will prompt more illegals.
If Obama was smart, his “cause” would be 4% GDP and income growth.The Congress would still be Democrat if he had done that 2 years ago.
If Obummer was smart. Kinda says it all, don’t it ?
At least the “comprehensive reform” (which doubles immigration) hasn’t passed. For illegals here for many, many years and with roots, obviously eventual amnesty is the answer. But not through the awful overpopulating wage-depressing mess that is “comprehensive reform”.
Unfortunately the answer to a”securing the border” is not to vote Republican. Republicans have demonstrated that when given power, they’ll just work for their big money donors which means more high immigration policies that will lead to U.S. overpopulation and continued depression of wages for U.S. workers, especially minorities.
Gotta give ya credit bslap. You’re origional.