I have been very and openly critical of Senator Obama and his apparent reversal on a number of issues that are very important to me.  To recap, here are the top 5 hits:

I won’t get into the details, merits and political manuevering of each of these now (the links above have covered these issues better than I ever could - though my hero does it best) but what has really been the most disturbing about it all - for me - is the way many of Sen. Obama’s most ardent supporters are quick to dismiss any and all policy reversals and even have the cojones to suggest that being critical of Him is some kind of sacrilege;  that we are supposed to blindly trust that what He will do the Right Thing.  And nothing is more important than the coronation of this benevolent King in January of 2009.

Excuse me, but have these people not been paying attention to the past 7 1/2 years?  This is the exact same attitude we’ve had from the Bush Administration and their supporters and look what it has gotten us.  The idea that we need to put blind faith in our president and trust that he will keep us safe from danger and protect our interests is the attitude that has allowed the suspension of habeus corpus, the invasion of Iraq, the Katrina debacle, torture….the list goes on and on…at what point did this country abandon the notion that we are a nation governed by laws and not personalities?  Isn’t the very foundation of our country the idea that the people rule via their elected representatives to prevent the tyranny of One?  I happen to believe that oversight and criticism of our leaders is absolutely essential to a functioning democracy so I take huge offense to the “just shut up” argument, especially from people who have admitted they “don’t have time” to follow any of the issues.

Of course the pragmatists will say we have to vote for Obama to prevent McCain from winning.  I get that and shared that view at some point in the not too distant past.  But then my epiphany: if there are no meaningful differences between the two candidates on the issues that are the most important to me (and dare I say most important to the nation) then why do we continue to practice this kind of Team Politics?  Is it really just more important to have a guy with a “D” by his name than an “R” as he whittles away our 4th Amendment rights or stays the course in Iraq or bombs Iran or grants immunity to telecos?  I just don’t get it anymore.  I continue to ask my friends who support Obama unconditionally where their line is or what issues would cause them to rethink their support because a lot of the stock responses are “well, it’s stupid to think you are going to agree with someone 100% of the time”.  Of course no one will answer that question and instead I get things like (actual quote):

Your words are like an abused person who is afraid the new
husnabd(sic)/wife/parent is going to abuse again.

Uh, yeah.  I actually agree.  It’s called learning from the mistakes of the past.  Also, I’ll point out using the same metaphor - blindly following and excusing someone who “beats” you is actually a much more abusive situation.  “But he loves me, that’s why he hits me”.

It’s sad.

But ironically Senator Obama did inspire me.  I really believed in his message of change and hope.  I had really thought that he was going to help re-frame and elevate the ridiculous dialog that passes for public debate in this country and make an honest attempt to eschew politics as usual.  I thought he really meant a more transparent government was a more effective one.  I thought he was actually going to take on such Karl Rove created memes as “if you don’t give absolute warrant-less wiretapping authority to the Executive we’re all going to die”, or “if you don’t wear a flag-pin you hate America”.  I thought he was really looking forward to these kind of debates with the army of netroots, progressives and others at his back in the coalition he had built with his beautiful and inspirational rhetoric for which he is undoubtably gifted.  So it was extremely painful to watch him tack to the “center” or whatever it’s called these days and therefore undermine everything that resonated for me from what he had been preaching about for nearly a year.  I’m just not seeing much in the way of change or deviation from the politics as usual.  Instead I’m seeing the consolidation of power by the oligopoly of Republican, Democrat and the Mainstream Media (a topic for another time :) ).

Besides if win at all costs or “the lesser of two evils” is your strategy, haven’t we learned that running towards the principles of the GOP and the neo-cons is a trap?  Tell me, which president or candidate in the past 20 years has won with this strategy?  Do the names: Dukakis, Gore, Kerry, or Hillary Clinton mean anything to you?  (Note: yes Bill Clinton won re-election with this strategy but that was a re-election that came after the nation sent a message with the 1994 midterms - oh by the way what did the nation say in the 2006 midterms?)  Does that jog the memory at all?  Do we not remember how each and every one of these people were eviscerated by the opposition for “flip-flopping” and thus were forever (and rightly) painted with the “weak” or “unprincipled” tag by the laughing Republicans.  Either Obama is unprincipled or he’s practicing the politics as usual he was so vocally against.  How is this “Change you can believe in”?

So anyway, my plea today is not that you abandon support for Senator Obama.  Despite accusations to the contrary I don’t hate the man at all and we could do worse.  But rather, on this 4th of July of all days, think about what it is you stand for…what principles are important to you and the people you love?  And then be absolutely steadfast in holding your candidates to their promises when they start triangulating their positions to get elected.  What happened to the fierce urgency of now?

Be safe and have a happy 4th of July everyone!

update: I just read a great post by Digby and this closing passage so succinctly summed up what I’m trying to say it’s close to embarrassing for me.  Hopefully I’ll get better.

I have hoped that this would be a moment to fashion a new narrative around conservative failure and progressive promise. The door is open and people are inviting us in. But the powers that be are taking a more standard approach. It’s a Democratic year and the prudent move is to keep the beltway wags calm and fight a defensive campaign against the rather desperate attacks from the doddering Republicans. Why take risks if you don’t have to, especially when you have a bunch of celebrity bimbo pundits riding your ass like Zorro to “prove” your Real American bonafides? But it seems to me that one of these days somebody’s got to start figuring out ways to fight on terrain where we don’t always have to win the battle by losing the war.