Progressives 'Break Up' With Obama

MINNEAPOLIS -- President Barack Obama is decidedly "not [the left's] boyfriend anymore," progressive supporters of gay- and immigrant-rights said on Thursday, rebuking the White House for breaking promises to the left while also asking them for money.

The message to those in the room for "What to Do When the President is Just Not that Into You," a Netroots Nation panel, was be more demanding, don't take no for an answer and compromises aren't good enough.

Lt. Dan Choi, who was discharged from the military for running afoul of its anti-gay Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy, provided a visual when an Organizing for America volunteer stood up and asked him to support Obama in 2012. The man said he did not support gay marriage -- "civil unions?" he offered weakly -- and Choi promptly ripped up an Organizing for America flyer he had been given and threw it back in the man's face.

The four panelists -- Choi, immigration reform supporter Felipe Matos, America Blog writer John Aravosis and Fire Dog Lake Founder Jane Hamsher -- said they are planning to hold the White House's collective feet to the fire for its decisions on civil rights, whether it would hurt Obama's reelection chances or not.

"I would probably vote for the president in the end, but I'd also do everything that I can to shame him," said Aravosis, who writes about gay rights issues. "But I don't think they realize how damaging that is."

Although Obama signed a repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell in December, the panelists decried his failure to take a hard stance for gay marriage.

"We always say we simply expected what he promised," Aravosis said "The White House would rather not engage at all -- at least with the big stuff. We were told he'd be a fierce advocate, and he's been not fierce at all and not much of an advocate."

On immigration, Obama has been even worse, panelists said. He continues to deport a record numbers of undocumented men and women and has failed to pass the DREAM Act, which would give undocumented youths who graduate from college or serve in the military a pathway to citizenship.

At the same time, the White House has courted the votes of the gay and immigrant community.

"We're angry, and we know he's courting our vote right now," said Matos, an undocumented man who lives in Miami. "He went to Puerto Rico, he went to Texas... we're onto him. [As] a friend of mine said, we are not the type of people he wants to mess around with."

Immigrants rights supporters are beginning to mobilize against Democrats -- including Obama -- for 2012.

"That's the big threat that the president is scared of: That we're not scared to stand up anymore," Matos said. "We're willing to go as far as we have to go to pressure him to stop the deportation of DREAM Act students."

One way to ensure Democrats do not take progressive votes for granted is to stop voting for Democrats, Choi said.

"How many people here are lifelong members of a particular party?" he asked, prompting hands around the room to raise. "That's a lot of people. And I think that's a major problem."

Comments

[Marvin McHardy]

11:52 AM on 07/08/2011

While I am not as enamored of Obama as I was when he was campaigning , More so because of my seeing the reality of the Job take it's toll on his beliefs and how until now he simply tried to make peace instead of being the bull headed go getter he campaigned as. I do still approve of the things he has done that are not as widely toted , he has improved the focus on the national infrastructure, by getting local politicians on both side to see that rail, and road and our utility grids and distribution need upgrading and protecting. He has steered the focus away from sensationalist politics and FORCED the idea of put up or shut up, sadly for him that means he needs to bring his A+ game now to compete with politicians scrambling to consolidate their base constituency. Special interest and core Democrats seem to think everything must happen NOW, this instant no quarter given for time or practicality. Too bad, that impatience has led to some really stupid choices in the Gubernatorial races, that have Conservatives breaking up Unions, Squashing collective Bargaining and selling out the middle middle class , by giving the Wealthy and Big business even more tax breaks

[sammayer]

08:19 PM on 06/28/2011

Those on the extreme left, who say they are progressive, can continue to believe that but I tend to disagree, at a gut level. When one criticizes Our POTUS, and no other politician, and claims that Obama is not doing enough, my tolerance reaches the breaking point. Those far leftist liberals who want it all NOW are FIREbaggers.

They stayed home in 2010 because they didn't like the ObamaCare’s start. I think he’s created an incredible place to begin. My small business {I work for a church} will get back $12,000 from the IRS due to the employees’ company paid HealthCare plan. That is a great incentive. No one seems to notice it. The critical lefties are the ones who skip voting to teach the President a lesson. He failed to juggle an sharp ax, a flaming torch, a marshmallow, and a newborn baby, with skill and ease.

They are critical that he did not scale back the wars fast enough, he did not get taxes raised on the richest but simply delayed them, he did not make Don't Ask, Don't Tell and Gay Marriage a first and foremost issue. I'm a gay man and DNDT was not as important to me as the economy, the unemployment, the war on terrorism, and other more important issues. Those are the ones affecting the greatest number of people. He’s probably the most proficient President of all time and history will come to show that.

[sammayer]

09:29 PM on 06/28/2011

Obama had to compromise with the unmovable folks on the right side of the aisle, to ensure some progress and a second term, when there will be nothing to stand in his way. Can anyone note a more intelligent, level-headed, adult President in your lifetime? FIREbaggers, a term for those on the left who want to fire Obama or those professionally left, are really whiny and arrogant. To me they can be worse than the manipulated, hate-filled and fearful extreme right, who are ignorant enough to vote against their own best interests.

Those lost souls are mind-controlled by the American royalty's greed and the heap labor conservative corporate power. My take on today’s political spectrum is more circular than polemic; from 'right' to 'left' they are extremist conservatives, the Tea Party, the Republicans, the right-leaners, the centrists/Independents, the progressives, the left-leaners, the Democrats, the liberals and the FIREbaggers, who connect back to the extremists on the right side. I know I'm mixing politics with policy here but the divisiveness is so prevalent today.

[sammayer]

09:30 PM on 06/28/2011

I'm taking a risk here because I'm tired of everyone who is afraid to point out the giant elephant in the room. What ties the extremes of the left and right is RACISM. Of that, I have no doubt. It is so unspoken and in denial by those I engage with who will do anything to see Our POTUS fail, even if it harms the nation. The only reason Obama is getting so much obstruction and criticism, compared to every prior President, is that he's only half-Caucasian {LOL!} B.H.O. is too mindful a gentleman to point this out but I’m not because it boils under the surface of everything. It’s 2011 but racism is still alive and well in many areas of our nation.

In a few short years the pasty white racist inbred pockets of America will be in the minority. It will be farewell to the "Oh my, there's a Black man in the White House, down the street. Hide the women and children!" These bigots are now "in the last throes of the insurgency” All this can be simplified, if we all just remember that being “liberal”, “progress” or “civil” are ALL POSITIVE BEHAVIORS. When someone gives them a negative spin, illuminate and shine the light; advise them to kindly pull out their Webster’s.

[smile200]

11:50 PM on 06/25/2011

DADT
Matthew Shepard Hate crimes bill
June officially declared gay pride month signed by Obama
Gay pride party at the white house
Ryan White bill
People with HIV/AIDS allowed in the United States . Able to have AIDS summits here now.

pre-existing disease health insurance available now through the affordable health care act.

where was your vote in the Nov. 2010 elections. we less the most liberal senator Russ Feingold lose his seat.

Institutional racism is at it highest level right now. I have never seen an elected official held
to the standards this President has to live up to. WOW!
As an American and African American it just makes me sad.
Will someone please let me know what President has done more for gay rights?
Obama is our 44th president. Which one of the 44 passed the Affordable health care Act?
How many presidents came into power with 2 wars and a failing economy.
In 8 years 2019 African Americians will have been in this country for 400 years.
We are only one full generation away from oppressive laws.
I just have to shake my head when I read these posts and listen to the pundits.
President Obama hasn't been given a chance and if you think he has your wrong.

[Marcospinelli]

01:49 PM on 06/21/2011

Well, let's see how things go under Romney.

====================================================

I doubt that Romney is going to get the nomination, but if he should, and should he win, a Romney administration wouldn't be much, if any, different than this Obama administration.  After all, Obama's already gotten Romney's healthcare legislation into place.

D & R poIiticians are not each others' enemles, not as they have voters believing them to be.  Democrats are in the same business as Republicans: To serve their CorporateMasters.  

Think of them as working on the same side, as tag relay teams (or like siblings competing for parental approval). 'Good cop/bad cop'. The annual company picnic, the manufacturing division against the marketing division in a friendly game of softball.  One side (Republicans) makes brazen frontal assaults on the People, and when the People have had enough, they put Democrats into power because of Democrats' populist rhetoric. 

Once in power, Democrats consolidate Republicans' gains from previous years, then continue on with Republican policies but renamed, with new advertising campaigns. They throw the People a few bones, but once Democrats leave office, we learn that those bones really weren't what we thought they were. 

Whenever the People get wise to the shenanigans and all the different ways they've been tricked, when the People start seeing Democrats as no different than Republicans, Democrats switch the strategy. They invent new reasons for failing to achieve the People's business.

Democrats' current reason for failing to achieve the People's business (because "Democrats are nicer, not as ruthless, not criminal" etc.) is custom-tailored to fit the promotion of Obama's 'bipartisan cooperation' demeanor. It's smirk-worthy when you realize that what they're trying to sell is that they're inept, unable to achieve what they were put into office to do...And their ineptitude, like that's somehow "a good thing".

KEEP READING

[Marcospinelli]

01:53 PM on 06/21/2011

Everything that GeorgeWBush and DickCheney did was built on the foundation laid by BillClinton, just as everything that Obama's successor will do will be on the foundation laid by him.  That means that Bush's and Obama's claims of 'Unitary Executive' will be expanded beyond even what Obama has asserted (that presidents have the right to kill American citizens with no due process, no oversight, and his push for 'indefinite preventive detention' and no transparency of anything a president asserts should be his secret).  

Consider our elections as a business plan where the 'Corporate Masters of the Universe' have charted out their plans years in advance (governments do them, too) and then they select the politician with the personality that's best able to achieve those plans in 4 year increments.

If you want to l!e the country into war for oil and war-profiteering, then GeorgeWBush is your man to front it, with DickCheney, the former Secretary of Defense who initiated the privatizing of the military a decade earlier, actually running the operation from the shadows.  

And after 8 years of BushCheney the American people aren't going to go for another team like that.  They're going to want HOPE and CHANGE, with a persona they can believe in and trust.  BarackObama.   

Obama's 'most ardent admirers' just like the packaging better.  I'm not talking skin color, although that may be a factor for some of them; I'm talking about how a 'D' after the name is a brand they trust believe and trust in, despite the fact that it's the same 'soap' (product).

You continue to support Obama and Democrats at the expense of your own best interests. As long as his numbers remain high, he does the bidding of corporations and establishment elites.

Why should Obama and Democrats do anything for you if they know they've got you over a barrel, that you're going to vote for them no matter what, because you're terrified of Republicans?

[LonesomeRhodes70]

08:18 PM on 06/20/2011

Choi was sorta annoying on MSNBC last Friday, it matched the host of the show on the phoniness meter. Do Choi, and others of the marriage equality left, want another president who finds them disgusting sub-humans or do they want Obama -- the choice is clear, and if they don't support the latter. then I hope they have fun cutting their noses off to spite their faces. By the way, Choi litteraly said that he feels like an abused wife on Friday. Well, I'd love to hear him correctly lambasted by feminists over that statement.

[glddraco]

11:34 AM on 06/20/2011

This article is such a lie.

http://www.rollcall.com/news/Netroots-Nation-Straw-Poll-Obama-206608-1.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Maybe if the so called reporters on this site actually did some fact checking or had some basis to their argument other than a bunch of leftwing nuts such as Greenwald and Choi they'd actually get some where. Yet they don't quote data, just whatever idealogues that serve their corporate ideology.

[Justan Olfrend]

11:21 AM on 06/20/2011

Oh yea! For those of you yelling about individual liberty and freedoms. Blaming the President only shows that you don't get the process. It is the Supreme Court that is costing you your liberty. If you don't like the actions taken by either the Legislative or the Executive branch. IT IS THE COURT that agrees with their actions and codifies your lost liberty. If you don't get that then you likely will never get them back.

[Justan Olfrend]

11:18 AM on 06/20/2011

I recall the incumbent saying that if he were a one term President then "so be it" at the very beginning of his Presidency. Now he says that sometimes he thinks once is enough. This is a self fulfilling prophesy. You are being softened up folks. Get used to it. Save your donations and prepare for the GOP winter. Winners don't talk like that. If you want to win, you fight like heck and embarrass your opponent for saying "not so smart" stuff. You grab public support and rally the public and make powerful people uncomfortable. Trying to please everyone all the time is the recipe to an epic fail.

[laud]

06:02 PM on 06/19/2011

I don't know if he's doing "all that he can", but I know that change is painstakingly difficult, especially when dealing with a 100% rebellion from a side that ONLY wants their power back.

No matter what, you always gotta keep fighting for your causes.

If election day was here, I'd guess the fighters against Obama would still vote Democrat. How could they not?

[libobstruction]

05:09 PM on 06/19/2011

Sounds like Choi was fooled in 08' like the other 56, 999, 999 people were, many of those still are. Gluttons for punishment I suppose.

[Protocolor]

05:50 PM on 06/19/2011

Wrong. As with the Republicans, there are millions of Americans who vote Democrat because that is the brand they always buy; the team they always root for. Pepsi or Coke; Yankees or Red Sox; Ford or Chevy; John Cena or Randy Orton; Democrat or Republican.

The ones who were fooled were the progressives. In their youth, progressives will often throw their lot in with the Democrats, though they either soon give up their progressive ideals or become disillusioned with American politics ("Pepsi or Coke? They're both nasty!") and apolitical. Obama was able to mobilize millions of progressives and they handed him the election. Unlike rural trailer dwellers and religious conservatives, who can be recycled election after election because their memory is only good for about twelve seconds, progressives tend to possess much more sophisticated cognitive faculties and usually won't step in the same trap twice. The Democrats are realizing this and trying to change the game by campaigning on "At least we're better than the Republicans!" Unfortunately for the Democrats, progressives tend to vote FOR a particular platform rather than against a bad one.

What it amounts to is that because the Democrats squandered the opportunity handed to them by progressives, they have been having a hard time reigniting any enthusiasm among the progressives. Because of this, the progressives stayed home in 2010 and the Democrats got their posteriors handed to them by their opponents.

[Protocolor]

05:50 PM on 06/19/2011

Progressives are NOT gluttons for punishment. They learn fast. This has made things difficult for the Democrats. If only their whole base was as ignorant and easily fooled and frightened as the one the Republicans have, they wouldn't be facing these difficulties, but no; Obama made the mistake of riding a progressive wave into office then thumbing his nose at those progressives. He's finding the consequences to be problematic.

[guajiro]

07:28 PM on 06/19/2011

Summed up quite nicely.

[Ann Starke]

03:37 PM on 06/19/2011

This is a point at which progressives need to take a good look and decide whether they are going to be pragmatists or shoot themselves in the feet.

When I was younger ( I know that statements like that go over REAL WELL) I would die rather than "give in" to reasonable compromise.

But face it. What is the alternative? So Lt. Choi decides to break with the president because he did not get everything he wanted in the time frame he designed, what is the alternative? Really?
Is he going to vote for a Republican? Can he tell the difference between a Republican and a Teapublican?

We saw what happened when these "people of principle" sat on their duffs in 2010. The Tea Party had a party. We saw what happened when "people of principle" refused to vote for the Democrats in 2010 because President Obama did not perform miracles on the order of Jesus Christ in eighteen months for the economy. Again- look at the governors of Michigan, Florida etc.

So. Suck it up, Progressives. President Obama is our man. Support him or suffer the consequences. You think that you have little freedom now? You will hate what happens when the Teapublicans rule with their doctrine of hate toward the LGBT community and the undocumented immigrants.

Grow up and work with the Democrats. They are your best hope.

[MaryfromIL]

04:21 PM on 06/19/2011

It's either the quick death, or the slow death of a thousand small cuts.

Hard issue, GOP gets hold, we are the plummeting Argentina in a couple of years. You will have the choice of prostituting on the street, or collecting recycling for a living.

Democrats get hold, we slooowly go down the tubes for a few decades. Or until the GOP takes hold.

Guess it's too late to jump ship to another country.

[AZLibDem]

04:41 PM on 06/19/2011

"Guess it's too late to jump ship to another country."

Not at all; bon voyage.

[guajiro]

07:35 PM on 06/19/2011

You're right. A vote for Obama will certainly be better than voting for the Republicans who only want to enrich their military complex corporate owning buddies with perpetual war and it is better than voting for Republicans who only want to enrich their Wall Street and bank owning buddies who donate so much "free speech" that this allows them to hold on to their public office..........wait.......oh, that's Obama who has continued the war and is thinking of expanding in afghanistan and now Syria and it's Obama who also passed TARP, my mistake!

[Protocolor]

05:01 PM on 06/19/2011

If the Democrats are our "best hope", then there is no hope.

I helped get Obama elected in 2008 and helped to give him solid majorities in both chambers of Congress. I did that despite you Democrats not delivering anything of value in the last thirty years. I was a fool. I will not be fooled again.

[Ann Starke]

11:42 PM on 06/19/2011

So who are you going to vote for? The Republicans? The Teapublicans? The Libertarians? Who is going to provide the leadership necessary to accomplish what it is you value?

What party has the apparatus in place that will fulfill the promises that you want realized in the foreseeable future? You can vote against President Obama if you like, but anyone that you put up against him will fail, and will take votes away from the only hope we have against the real threat against our liberties that we face today.

If there was a party in place like the Tea Party for Progressives, a party that was organized and capable of making a real difference in the Democratic party this close to the 2012 election, I would say to go for it. There isn't.

The only thing that will happen if you "progressives" decide to abandon the President at the point, is that the Teapublicans will win, and this country will descend into a situation economically and socially from we may never recover.

Are you willing to take that chance? I am in my sixties. I am not going to live another 60 years to watch the world fall apart and this country deteriorate beyond repair. I don't think that you are. I think that you are going to have to live with your decisions for a long time.

Think about it.

[emperance]

03:05 PM on 06/19/2011

Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

[Loxinabox]

08:59 AM on 06/20/2011

His wife is singing

[Lam56]

12:50 PM on 06/19/2011

The way Obama has dealt with social issues is not what upsets me so much, especially after DADT ended. But I just finished watching the documentary film "Inside Job," which illustrates very clearly the fact that the President has done nothing to rectify the insane practices on Wall Street (and in the banking industry) that caused the 2008 meltdown and ensuing recession. Indeed, he appointed a lot of the same men who were responsible for it to key economic advisory positions. While I was basically aware of this before, the movie brought it home in a way that resonated this time. It's very depressing because any Republican elected is certainly not going to do any better at addressing this issue.

[Sibil]

04:17 AM on 06/19/2011

BS! I voted for him in 2008 and I will vote for him in 2012. Any President that can P!ss off BOTH parties, is alright with me....

Any moderate who wont vote for him is a fringe issue voter....

[dharmadhatuzoo]

09:27 AM on 06/19/2011

He's going to lose not because of fringe issues, but because of the only issue: the economy.

[shellshock30]

11:19 AM on 06/19/2011

Really?....and give the power back to the same people who messed up the economy to do even more damage to it?...the only thing Obama is guilty of is not cleaning up the repub mess fast enough. The economy would be booming if it wasn't for the repubs obstuction....the repubs ONLY goal is to destroy the economy, tear down the morale of the country and swoop in with their multi-million dollar lies to comvince the voters that Obama is taking the country in the wrong direction...without giving ANY information on where they plan to take country. If elected they would gut all social programs to make the tax cuts for the wealthy permenent while calling it a mandate. Dharmadhatuzoo either you are wealthy enough to withstand republican rule or just plain stupid. Whatever the case, as long as THIS voter can vote, you can keep your stupidity as the rest of the country can retain our President.

[johndomane]

02:30 PM on 06/19/2011

Sadly, in all probability he won't lose. The real travesty is there is NO one else to vote for! NO ONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[emperance]

03:06 PM on 06/19/2011

Absolutely!!!!!

[truly moderate]

04:01 AM on 06/19/2011

What is this about progressives not getting everything they wanted?

What was that about tea partiers not getting all the blocks checked in 2011?

That's the problem with some of the fringe elements of the group! I'm not referring to all progressives because there are a fair number of moderate progressives that understand the president is limited in what he can accomplish and that congress must comply in order for the ball to actually roll. Its the liberal progressives that whine and complain about this right and that right and ohhhh sympathy for illegal immigrants because they don't have so and so benefits that Obama should be glad to lose. Maybe if they spent more time working than protesting, they would reap the benefits of this country and stop being so pissy.

Also, I'm all for gay rights and I can support the dream act, but in no way will I ever support full amnesty. We need more troops on the border if anything to stop the bleeding of illegals, then we can deal with the issues from within and figure out how to get them to citizenship while deporting the criminally active illegals.

[MaryfromIL]

04:24 PM on 06/19/2011

Such a moderate! So liberal progressives don't work? Link please? The ones I know make 6 figure salaries, or high 5 figure.