No question about it, there is a lot of bullshit flying around this election season. We are bombarded with all kinds of crap from "You Didn't Build That" to "Your Mamma Ain't No American Indian." The problem with all this malarkey is that it leaves little room for any real discussion about problems facing this country. Candidates are not forced to answer the really tough questions that need to be answered. Regardless of who wins, that makes you and I the real losers this year.
There is no question in my mind that in a race between Mitt Romney and President Obama, there is only one clear choice for any working man or woman to make and that is President Obama. That being said, there is a lot not to like about Barack Obama and about much of the Democratic party for that matter when it comes to working class issues. Let's face it, over the last 30 or 40 years, we have been let down often by the Democrats.
Yesterday, Mr. and Mrs. Obama made an appearance on The View. Not exactly Meet the Press, but in an election season, I understand the value of them making such appearances. There was your usual fawning and banter by the ladies of The View until Elisabeth Hasselbeck asked the president this question: "Some would ask is it unfair to assume that Mitt Romney may fail the middle class when statistically speaking, they'd argue that your administration is failing the middle class," Hasselbeck said. "How do you respond to that?"
Now, I am no fan of Elisabeth Hasselbeck or her politics, but in fairness, her question was a good one. We (the middle class) are still suffering terribly. Unemployment remains high, the jobs that we are able to get offer low wages and little or no benefits. Banks were not forced to help homeowners in foreclosure even though they received hundreds of billions of dollars from the tax payers -- and they are now bigger and more powerful than ever. In fact much of Obama's economic team was stacked with some of the same players who were responsible for the economic collapse to begin with. And, when he had the chance, the president failed to even ask for a single payer health care system, much less fight for one -- this was essentially a major windfall for insurance companies and Big Pharma -- I could go on and on and on and on.
The president answered Hasselbeck 's question with his usual talking points of how we were in the worst recession in decades and we had to deal with that crisis as well as building a foundation for the middle class going forward... yada, yada, yada. Some of which is accurate. But let's not mistake President Obama for a bleeding heart liberal, 'cause he is not. And if he is reelected, and even if he isn't, we liberals must be prepared to do battle within our own party after the election.
Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick said it best at the Democratic Convention in Charlotte when he said "Democrats Need to Grow a Backbone." Having Democrats in power does not automatically mean our agenda is front and center. Left unchecked, the Democrat party can be as destructive as the Republicans when it comes to working class issues. Let's not kid ourselves, Democrats are funded by the same corporations as are the Republicans.
In the same way the Tea Baggers have muscled the Republican Party, we too must show our party who is boss and who they work for. I will vote for Obama, but I do so knowing that at the end of the day, he is a powerful politician and there is little daylight between him and the other guy.