THE DEMOCRATIC BASE IS ANEMIC IN THEIR ENTHUSIASM AND SUPPORT

MY REACTION AFTER A VERY STINGING CRITICISM COMING FROM WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY GIBBS

We voted and we were energized. We went to the polls with the HOPE and enthusiasm that was unequal in any other time in American history. We were hurting from the recently arrived banking and Wall Street crisis. But we had HOPE. We had hope because the Democrats and then candidate Obama told us that he stood for CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN.

There were very few dry eyes that election night when Obama was declared the winner of the elections. Even fewer dry eyes the day of his Inauguration as the 44^th President of our great nation. We breathed a sigh of relief; there was a light at the end of the tunnel albeit very dim and very distant, but we had HOPE.

It is now August of 2010 and there are a lot of disappointed folks out there. There are those who never did nor would ever support our President simply because he is black. There are others who would do anything, including hurting our country so that President Obama and the Democrats accomplish very little. These are people who have an allegiance to the Republican Party that is far stronger than their love for their country…damn the US if it means Obama gets a few programs passed.

Then there are the ever pesky Fundamentalist-Evangelicals…they are never happy with anything short of a theocracy. They showed their ability to mobilize great numbers of voters way back in the 2000 elections as they were used church and van buses to take people to the polls.

This religious meddling only grew to the point that there has been a blurring of the lines in the separation of church and state and these religious nuts think nothing of pressuring their congregations to donate great amounts of money to political candidates and to homophobic endeavors.

Almost immediately after taking office President Obama was willing to work on a bipartisan basis with those on the other side of the aisle…Republicans would not, they did not even make an effort to do that and instead stood steadfast on a position of saying NO to everything Obama and the Democrats proposed. Never mind that what he was doing was trying to rescue the country from economic disaster. Never mind that at the very least what these Republicans could have done was to cooperate and help out to clean and fix the mess they left America with.

And after taking office President Obama and the Democratic Congress embarked on a not too ambitious Health Care reform that from the very outset put away the idea of UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE and mostly ignored the PUBLIC OPTION which was favored by an overwhelming percentage of Americans.

One of my first clues that I was perceiving as erroneous was that this Healthcare legislation did not bring in any relief or alterations to the cost of medications and drugs. It was because the White House had already reached some kind of agreement to not touch them. I thought this was erroneous because one of the biggest drains of public treasure is the cost of drugs which can be reigned in with alternatives like cheaper generics or the ability to negotiate bulk purchases from manufacturers or buy them from other countries that are not screwing their users.

It would have been so terribly simple to accomplish what was needed: To simply extend MEDICARE to include everyone. No arguments, no objections, it was something the American people understood well and liked. SOCIALISM? Well it is sort of but most industrialized, advanced nations have some kind of program that gives their citizens medical care at a very low cost and surprisingly they get a lot more bang for their dollar. Canada is a good example, and why not admit it, Canada’s system is 100 times better than what we have here in America. Just ask and most Canadians and they would tell you that although there are some flaws in the system they would not exchange it for ours.

So when Gibbs said that we would not be happy unless we have something like what they have in Canada, yes he is right and fuck him and anybody who thinks differently because even if you call it SOCIALISM what they have up there is far better than what we have down here and they are not paying as much as we do…and you know what? Their life expectancy in Canada is an average of three years longer.

But Mr. Gibbs thinks that we should be impressed with the things Obama has accomplished so far. Some things we are and some things we think could have been better or more. But don’t ask us to be enthusiastic because we are not.