We Need to Stop Focusing on One Figurehead and Get Back to Real Issues, Or We Will Pay Dearly
I've been on DU for over a decade, and these days, I see a collective group which appears to have lost focus. I took a step back from all the positive/negative Obama posts, reading dozens and dozens of arguments from both sides, and I feel this divisiveness is a poison. Rather than focusing on the true enemies, so many "progressives" and "Obamabots" here have chosen infighting. Sure there are a few for which Obama can do almost no wrong, but they are a small minority. Some people see a liar. I see an often flawed pragmatist who is not the turncoat liar he is described as being, or a "piece of shit used car salesman." With the exception of FDR, I can't think of any other president who has systematically stood by campaign promises and consistently done the right thing. I can only think of few politicians who have been even remotely "pure" in actions and words. However, this is all beside the point.
The media, discussion groups, general public, have so much to talk about when it comes to Obama, and often little else otherwise. Obama obsession is a symptom of the underlying problem. You can have a President who does lots of good things or bad things, but a President can only do so much in that role, and it is all is influenced by the power structure beneath and around him/her. The makeup of the House and Senate, and their actions, will have a huge amount of influence on what sort of battles the Executive Office feels they can realistically fight. The media also have a huge influence on this. I'll guarantee you if we had a heavily Democratic House and Senate (or in a perfect world... people focused on the public good, with lots of real independents - not embarrassed Republicans) and media interested in true reporting, you'd see a much different side of any president... or even better nominees, like Warren or Sanders.
We now have this semi-official purist/pragmatist test for being a "progressive" or a "true democrat," and it hides the true problem, because it focuses on ONE person. We're all so hyper-focused on what OBAMA did or didn't do/say. There's endless bickering about "Obamacare," rather than what it really is called... The Affordable Care Act. It's all focused on whether Obama is some sort of prophet or complete demon. People have forgotten how right of center Clinton was at times. There are a LOT of things which I don't like about what Obama has said or done (domestic spying, drones, etc.), and the same goes for Clinton. However, on their worst days, they have been nowhere near the level of outright cynicism and deviousness displayed by nearly ever Republican member of the House and Senate. Just follow Darrell Issa's actions for a single day.
What really irks me is the complete lack of focus by most House/Senate Democrats and party strategists, who have run away from ACA and Democratic principles/issues, rather than fighting back and focusing on the bigger picture. When the election cycles come, they're so quick to abandon their principles. The way in which Democrats laid down and served Jimmy Carter up for the slaughter is a prime example of the way the party has operated for a long time. On top of that, you have media outlets who constantly play into the whole thing and fixate on Obama over Congress. When was the last time you heard anything about the wretched disaster Congress has become?
All this fixation and extreme negativity/positivity toward Obama rather than Congress and actual issues is, in my opinion, what is likely to end up handing the Senate over to Republicans in November. If we can't get past this current obsession over the actions of one person and focus on the public good, the Senate will be Republican-controlled in the fall, with the only potential damage control being the Senate filibuster process.
BTW - Hats off to Grasswire for a great post related to this subject, and starting the right discussion.
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few days! So many posts had this same message, verrry interesting. 
