Obama is a Conservative…Only If You Think Equal Rights are Optional
Some people do not know the meaning of the word “conservative.”
A “conservative” is NOT someone whose DOJ enforces federal laws. He is not someone who bargains with the other party in power. (Remember the political acrobatics that LBJ and VP Humphrey performed in order to squeeze out Medicare and the Civil Rights Act?) He is not a president who failed to enact single payer health care as an executive order after Congress proved not to be up to the task. He is not someone who escalates the war in Afghanistan and hunts down Osama Bin Laden---that’s just called keeping a campaign promise. A conservative isn’t even someone who attacks the members of his own party who have different views.
You can only call Obama a “conservative” if you believe that equal justice is a luxury that has to take a back seat towards improving the economy. And yes, I guess if you are white and heterosexual and not a Muslim and not handicapped---if you drew a winning lottery ticket at birth, equal rights for those less fortunate than yourself may seem less important than money. Your money.
When I look at the current administration, I see a no tolerance for gay-bashing policy that is light years ahead of anything we have had before. Which former president threatened to cut off aid to schools that tolerate the bullying of gays? I see the first efforts by the DOJ to enforce the Voting Rights Act in a decade. I see the equal pay for women act---and an administration that is not afraid to cut off Medicaid funds to states that seek to deny women choice. I see a president who is not afraid to stand up for Planned Parenthood and the rights of a young Black man to walk down the streets of America without having to worry that his skin color (or choice of dress) will scare the shit out of vigilante with a gun.
If we want to see real and lasting improvement in the financial well being of workers, we can not adopt a "Let me get mine first and then the ____s can have a taste, too" policy. Every woman who is paid 74 cents on the dollar is wage depression for you. Every young Hispanic denied an education is an underpaid no benefits worker who will keep your salary and benefits low. Every young Black man sent to a for profit prison where he is paid pennies an hour to be a telemarkter is more taxes for you and less jobs for you. Every closeted, frightened gay is a worker who will take whatever shit the boss dishes out---which means more shit for all of us.
No man is an island, and that includes you, dude.
Now, I want to ask a question. How would you define journalists who accused Obama of wanting to chainsaw massacre Medicare every time the GOP House votes to end Medicare and replace it with private insurance subsidies that will enrich the coffers of Aetna, Blue Cross and United Health---without actually guaranteeing seniors the care they need?
I would define them as shills for the GOP. Yes, Washington Post, I am talking about you. The Washington Post wants you to know that Obama is going to destroy Medicare. They---and the people who quote them as if the WaPo is the voice of God---are going to assail you with this same old tired story, “Obama is a Republican in disguise” all the way up until November, because they are scared shitless that you might remember instead that the House has voted twice to abolish Medicare. Let me repeat that again, in bold letters this time:
The House has voted twice to end Medicare.
!!!!
On reflection, maybe Obama is a conservative---when it comes to conserving the gains the country made under FDR and LBJ. Maybe those who point fingers at him and call him “conservative” are actually pissed that he is not more reactionary.
“A reactionary is a somnambulist walking backwards.” FDR
= new reply since forum marked as read
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/12/mccain-rants-against-dadt-repeal-todays-a-very-sad-day.php
John Boehner Has Collected $742,000 For DOMA Defense, Top House Official Says
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/27/john-boehner-doma-defense_n_1382990.html
don't do regulation.
Signing the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act
http://www.whitehouse.gov/photos-and-video/video/signing-wall-street-reform-and-consumer-protection-act
Sid
The current administration is making the world hugely worse for the 99% and better for the 1%. That sort of discrimination really offends me. What race and gender preference the 1% are is of much less concern to me.
The current administration acts as though it believes a bunch of neoconservative dogma about world domination, corporate rule, and the abolition of human rights. That's conservative no matter how you look at it.
I've seen, many times on DU, lists of ten to twenty different issues in which the administration takes a stand substantially to the right of the population. I've seen many lists of progressive accomplishments, but no lists of twenty or thirty issues where the administration is to the left of the population. Maybe if I take Fox News' word for all of it. That also seems conservative by any reasonable definition.
The House is batshit crazy. They aren't a sensible reference for "conservative" (or even "Republican"
at all.
