I've been reflecting on the recent incarnation of the "Obama sucks/no he doesn't" argument trying to identify what the source of the angst and frustration is. People who don't like Obama, do so for reasons of policy and tactics. He's continuing too many Bush policies that we all fought so hard against and he's not standing up to republicans and rallying America to his platform. People who support Obama seem to do so for reasons of political strategy. The democratic party, and the nation as a whole, is screwed if Obama doesn't win re-election. The good he's done outweighs the bad that continues and far outweights the bad that will happen if he's not elected to a second term. Both sides have merit.
All the agnst and wailing and gnashing of teeth stems from the same thing: We don't have any good choices.
The 2008 election was electric. It was moving. It was inspirational. We had a CHOICE for the first time in so long between a pres/veep team that was clearly unfit to be in the whitehouse, and a team that was clearly superior. 2 years and some change later we are starting to question Obama. Many are disatisfied with the results and the lack of energy.
But what are the options? Vote republican? Vote third party? There sure as hell won't be a primary. Stay home on election night?
There are no good options. There are no alternatives that will get us a result that is better than what we have now. This election is not going to be between a good candidate and a bad one. It'll be between a bad candidate and a considerably less bad candidate.
Vote third party? Like they're going to be putting forth anyone better. Third and forth string candidates that no one's ever heard of and don't have a chance in hell of getting a single EV. You're better off trying to get a cow on the moon.
We have no choice and it pisses a lot of us off (on both sides of the Obama divide).
Now a lot of people will interpret the previous statement as me saying Obama is no better than republicans. That is absolutely not what I'm saying. I am saying we are in a very delicate position in this country. Disaster is looming from several directions. A "halfway decent president" is not good enough to get us out from under that, but that is the best option we have available. History has called for greatness and gotten no answer (although for a while there we really thought we'd found it and that just makes it more disapointing).
What are we to do? In 2008 we voted to save the country from the tyranny of conservatism and usher in a new age of progress. In 2012, we're told we have to settle for not letting the country fall to insane idealogues who want a freaking social darwin theocracy. But we still have to contend with all that other B/S: global warming, terrorism, multiple wars, dirty energy, threats to unions, death of the 4th ammendment. And who knows what else. We could have a freaking cat5 hurricane hit florida or yellowstone could blow up and destroy half the country.
It's looking pretty grim. And whatever hope we had has been smothered.
What's left?