Liberals: What do you dislike about Obama?

Politics & Elections
21

As a moderate conservative now reluctantly supporting Obama (largely in order to preserve Obamacare much as I would have supported James K Polk in 1844 largely on westward expansion), I agree with a lot of liberals in that he has not pushed enough to end the War on Drugs.

Adams I passed the Alien and Sedition Acts, Lincoln suspended habeas corpas, Wilson imprisoned anti-war Socialists, and Roosevelt II interned a 100,000 Japanese-Americans. While these actions were and are certainly questionable to be charitable, I don’t see any real slippery slope here.

How is he “gaggingly Christian”? The President barely discusses his faith except in the most general and ecumenical terms.

Our military interventions have gone well-our policies in Libya, Yemen, Somalia, and Pakistan have been by and large successful.

22

He stopped officially supporting torture, but the only person prosecuted was the whistleblower who confirmed its use. That’s like saying you don’t support the Mafia, despite going out of your way to make an example of a key witness.

He is Guantanamo’s strongest proponent. He tried to import everything that was wrong with Gitmo onto US soil. He argued in favour of indefinitely detaining US citizens without trial. His administration has challenged the ruling that indefinite detention without trial is unconstitutional.

His government is committing war crimes by its use of “second strikes” against non-combatants trying to help the victims of earlier attacks.

23

The fact that somebody or other probably sat him down and said, “Look, you want this gig, you better pick your battles. You don’t mess with the Patriot Act, you don’t fuck with the Bono Act, you don’t shed a tear for Glass-Steagall. You want to end two wars and kick the insurance industry in the jimmy, there has got to be a price. This is the price.” And he nodded politely and said nothing.

24

Again, this is counterfactual nonsense. It was already decided in the US-Iraq Status of Forces Agreement in 2008 that all US forces were to withdraw from Iraqi territory by the end of 2011.

Obama wanted to keep thousands of troops in the country anyway, and only went through with the already agreed upon withdrawal because Iraq refused to give them legal immunity from prosecution.

25

I wish Obama had been more vindictive toward Republican stonewalling. Yes, vindictive. He should have gone all LBJ on their asses, should have called congressmen into the Oval Office, and tell them if his jobs bill doesn’t pass, the military base in their district is going to be closed, or the military hardware manufactured in their district will be shut down, or anything else the President can do by presidential directive. Punish the voters in their district until they start electing representatives that support liberal programs. Fuck bipartisanship; we know that is exactly how they would play the game if they were in power. What good is political power if it isn’t used to destroy your adversaries?

26

I thought he made some questionable cabinet choices. I have no idea what Sebelius & Napolitano were seriously supposed to bring to the table aside from removing a couple fairly popular Democratic governors from office.

I know what the talking points were regarding their value, I just don’t think they brought enough to be worth the cost.

27

One thing that bugs me about Obama is his tendency to start a sentence by saying “Look…”

If I ever address someone like that it’s because I’m telling them off.

28

More likely they’d elect a conservative president.

I dislike the ramping up of both the Afghanistan war and the drone attacks. I really dislike the targeted killings of an American citizen (not matter how loathsome he might be). I think the HCRB was a huge handout to the insurance industry. And I give him a little :rolleyes: every time I see him do the little jog he does whenever he’s ascending or descending stairs.

But I’ll be voting for him again this year. In fact, I think my ballot came in the mail this week, so I’ll be doing it this weekend to get it out of the way.

29

All I know is that is how LBJ got the Civil Rights Act passed, Medicare passed, and all the rest of the Great Society programs. He threatened Congressmen with local cuts and local pain, and they knew he would do it, so they went along. That is the nature of political power, and that is how things get done, not by letting those who lost the election dictate your agenda.

30

I’m sorry he hasn’t been much more vindictive, and done semi-legal things like force through a series of untraceable underlings the info out of the IRS about Romney’s tax returns and leak it to the press, and sneak all sorts of socialistic redistributive stuff into legislation, and commute the prison sentences of corrupt Democratic pols while ignoring the requests from anyone he might suspect of ever having voted Republican.

But there’s hope for all these things if he only wins a second term.

31

Obama is an acceptable technocratic administrator, even if he gives Wall Street self-importance and Reaganism a bit too much of a hearing, considering their track record.

What he is not (at least as far as I can tell from my home in a GOP-dominated district) is an effective leader of the Democratic Party. My impression is that he’s not cultivating legislative candidates to work with him rather than against him, in the way that Reagan and LBJ did.

That’s much of it.

Also, he represents the betrayal of the anti-war movement by the Democratic Party. If they had actually impeached Bush (however unsuccessfully) after 2006, and changed the foreign policy course after 2008, they might have had more credibility–and more turnout in 2010 and next month.

He’s a moderate Democrat who governs like a moderate. On a few issues, he’s to the right of center. Sometimes I think he’s practically a Bob Dole Republican but for his party affiliation and skin color. And that’s his prerogative, but of course there will be criticisms from the left:

I can accept that there were political reasons for using tax cuts for half the stimulus (with multipliers below 1 and not as stimulative as more federal hiring, possibly not as stimulative as only doing the spending side of the stimulus). But Obama doesn’t seem to know enough economics to have come out and explained why that wouldn’t work so well.

He has doubled down on the idea that the President can kill anyone outside the USA–and now wants the authority to kill anyone within it. The War Powers Act was written back in the 1970’s to stop this kind of crap (consider that the PM or South Vietnam was probably killed by US agents in 1963, and what kind of foreign policy that was). Obama accepts the normalization of US lawlessness.

The borders with Canada and Mexico have tightened under his administration. The GOP may play the nativist politically, but W Bush was pro-immigration and his administration was not as hardline as the present one. This is a disappointment to people like me who thought Obama’s personal history would inspire a more easygoing immigration régime.

So that, and the total con the Democrats pulled on the anti-war voters in 2006 and 2008.

32

this.

but as a democrat I will vote for him because Romney would be so, so much worse.

33

Those were largely Congresscritters in his own party that he was fighting. Also, Johnson’s Congress, on election, was:

House: 295-D 140-R
Senate: 68-D 32-R

Now, one might argue (as many have) that Obama has not been successful in shepherding his legislation through Congress, but the conditions were vastly different for Johnson.

34

You think that would have stopped LBJ?

35

Well, what I like about Obama so far might be ameliorated in his second term when he doesn’t have to worry about re-election (here’s hoping):

-In the name of bipartisanism and appearing to reach across the aisle, he doesn’t call a duck a duck, the republicans are almost wholly psychotic and the American public needs to hear over and over again how they’re screwing over the country for political gain (debt ceiling, etc)

-Terrible negotiator. He starts at giving them 85% of what they want, and then ends up caving and giving them around 95% of what they want anyways.

-Needs to tell people GOVERNMENT and unions are what keeps corporations from kicking workers back to the 19th century regarding pay and safety. There is a HUGE portion of this country, mostly all conservatives, who have zero concept of history and think it’s the magic of the free market that brought decent wages and safe work environments. No, that was unions and government regulation. If unions are killed off and regulations eliminated we will go back to those dark days OVERNIGHT because corporations ONLY ARE GOOD AT MAKING PROFIT AND NOTHING ELSE. They’re sociopaths that need to be watched like a hawk with rules enforced so that they don’t poison society with pollution etc.

edit: It’s a complete joke with the entire American public furious at bankers he couldn’t find some tokens to throw in jail.

36

We’ll never know.

37

Seems like there are only 2 possibilities:

  1. No laws were broken (or it’s just too hard to prove).
  2. Obama is afraid of crossing bankers.
38

You’re not the only one:

Obama running down stairs is funny

39

There’s movie from 1972 called The Man starring James Earl Jones that I never see shown anymore.
James Earl Jones becomes the first black president by succession – President, Vice President, Speaker of the House all die.
On his first day as president, a bunch of white guys come into his office, uninvited.
They tell him something like: "Look, just because you’re president, don’t think you run things. We’re here to explain how things work.
James Earl Jones’ character just nods and says “I understand.”

I often wonder if something like this happened with Obama.

One of my major criticisms of Obama, similar to what others have expressed, is that he took office but didn’t wield power.
Either he doesn’t understand the use of power, or just has no stomach for it.

40

I was responding to a post in another thread but I realized that there might be a better thread for my response. When I found this thread, I decided that was the case…

This whole attitude makes for a nice soundbite which may sometimes be completely valid — except for one thing: Obama is not evil. He is imperfect, but that doesn’t make him evil.

Also, he’s certainly not a Lefty himself (despite the conjecture from Republicans) and never really was one.

I get quite irritated with Lefties who feel otherwise, like they were duped or something.

What is their rationale? They scream NDAA (and ignore the politics behind it and the Signing Statement that muted it or the judges who overruled it).

They scream about how the Patriot Act and wiretapping is still happening. On this one they have a legitimate beef as I disagree with Obama however I don’t see this changing in a positive direction with Romney in the White House yet it might change for the better when Obama is under different circumstances (i.e. not facing a contentious reelection with an obstinate Congress.)

Guantanamo Bay is still open? This has a lot to do with the situation he inherited there (is he supposed to just cut people who we knew were bad people who wanted to do us harm free after the previous administration totally fucked the chance to make a conviction stick?) and a lot more had to do with the obstructionist Congress. He is still saying he wants to get it closed down. I think he’s more likely to do so than Romney.

They don’t like how cozy he is with Wall Street and the corporate zeitgeist. I also don’t like this and wish he would take a harder stance towards meaningful regulations but unfortunately, too many Americans resist this. The Occupy movement was not a success (and I say that as someone who supported them and visited my local Occupy on several occasions.) If Americans are disinterested in this issue, how can any politician in a representative government go out on that limb?

I want money out of politics but Obama is a lot more likely to put justices on the court who might reverse Citizens United than Romney ever would.

They complain that he’s a war-hawk and about drone attacks when in reality he is getting us out of more wars than into them and using far less firepower and military strength in dealing with new conflicts than Romney ever would.

What else do they complain about? He’s soft on gun control? I don’t care about gun control and view the whole debate as a poisonous distraction from other issues. I am fine with his hands-off approach on this issue, even if gun control lefties are not.

Some were angry that he didn’t come around quickly enough on Don’t Ask Don’t Tell or some other promises but he did eventually come around.

And in a general sense, I took issue with Obama’s compromising with Republicans when he first took office, at least at the time. I wanted Obama to lead a bold charge, but his nature was always to try and unite people. This is a for better or worse part of his make-up - on paper, I agree we should be more united and be less divided. In practice, Obama was dealing with petulant babies who would not negotiate in good faith because they preferred allegiances to party and Grover Norquist over country.

So no, I don’t think Obama is a lesser of two evils. He is imperfect and not a Lefty but Lefties have to face facts: Bernie Saunders will never be President of this country. This country has moved far to the right. As much as Obama’s centrist tendencies might irritate you, he’s still way to the left of the GOP which has careened to the far right the past several years.

You want that pendulum to swing back? So do I. But it won’t happen if Liberals spite-vote third parties and Romney gets elected. That will only embolden the far right and the portion of the country that supports them. If you think that the Democratic response to such a thing would be to get farther left, there is room for that debate, but I disagree.

I will paraphrase one of my favorite quotes on the subject, made by Stephen Colbert:

Obama duped liberals by not doing every single thing they wanted. So now, they’ll all vote Republican, third party or simply abstain from voting. It’s like when I want some bread, I won’t settle for half a loaf. Instead, I will have a muffin made of broken glass.

Vote for whomever you want. Vote for Jill Stein or Gary Johnson or write in Mickey Mouse. Or choose to not vote. As counterproductive as I find that, it’s certainly your right.

But if you think that this country will get better because of your principled stance, well, Ralph Nader says hi. And if you think that your principled stance is more important than making this country better, I feel that you are missing the forest for the trees.