In My Opinion, The Only Really Useful Reaction to the SCOTUS Decision Is:
Use this decision in our GOTV and campaign efforts for the 2014 Congressional elections. Help people who think voting doesn't matter to understand how this SCOTUS decision means that their vote this year matters more than it ever has. The SCOTUS ruling was by five angry Republican appointees who want to limit the power of the voter and give that power to the rich.
We need to explain this emphatically in 2014 and in future elections and convince people to turn out in unprecedented numbers and Take Congress Back from the Republicans! Then we can, though progressive legislation, and maybe even a Constitutional Amendment, give the power back to the voter.
SCOTUS has ruled. No amount of objection to that ruling will change that ruling. Instead, we need to protest this by turning out the largest percentage of Democratic voters ever seen in November. We need to use this ruling to stimulate that turnout. Every last DUer needs to take part in this and to encourage everyone else to do the same.
GOTV 2014 and Beyond!
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trying to elect democrats sickens you to your core. why are you even here, to encourage people NOT to vote?
Seriously, Where have you been?
1. Appointing two Supreme Court Justices: When people consider their presidential voting decision, most don’t consider that amongst the most important and enduring presidential responsibilities is the president’s ability to appoint supreme court justices. This is arguably a president’s biggest opportunity to influence his country, because Supreme Court justices sit until they retire or pass away, so the impact of his decision generally will last many decades beyond his years as president. Obama has been fortunate enough to have two Supreme Court Justices retire in his first few years in office and he has managed to secure both of his nominations through wise selection and political skill. He has added two Democrats, replacing two moderate Democrats in the process. If a Republican has won the presidency instead, we would now be looking at an unbalanced Supreme Court with six conservatives and only three liberal judges – a balance that would have been in place for many many decades. In the appointment process, Obama also introduced needed diversity to the bench with two more women on the court, bringing the count to a record three women sitting, while also introducing the nation’s first Hispanic to the Supreme Court with his choice of Sotomayor.
2. Passing Universal Healthcare: Obama accomplished what no prior Democrat could in expanding coverage to 32 million more Americans while simultaneously reducing the deficit by an estimated $1.3 trillion over the next 20 years. It delivers on every provision of the Patient Bill of Rights that Bill Clinton unsuccessfully tried to get passed, including making it illegal to deny coverage for people with pre-existing conditions and capping out of pocket expenses when people get sick (so people don’t go in to bankruptcy after getting ill). It helps shift our medical system’s focus to preventative care by covering the cost of early warning tests so our doctors find diseases before they are too advanced - avoiding larger medical expenses down the road and requires the largest and richest American companies to provides insurance for all their employees. It attempts to lower health care costs by forcing all Americans to have medical insurance and pay their fair share so the system is more efficient – similar to how all Americans need to have car insurance – while providing tax credits to help the poor and small businesses afford this coverage. It increases competition by creating marketplace exchanges to make it easier for small businesses and those without insurance to shop and compare plans. It funds co-ops who can offer competitive insurance plans and provide further competition for insurance companies. It allows insurance companies to offer plans across state borders further increasing the supply of competitive plans. It provides funding, infrastructure, and support to automate, digitize, and unify the country’s outdated medical information system reducing system-wide costs, improving care, and increasing productivity. Perhaps most importantly, it sets up an independent commission of doctors and medical experts to identify and root out medical system waste, fraud, and abuse and includes many pieces of reform that will reduce the most wasteful medical system practices.
3. Financial industry reform: The most sweeping financial industry reform legislation since the Great Depression, this legislation tries to correct those industry issues that helped create the current recession we are still digging ourselves out of. It provides a system to allow the government to break apart large financial institutions that threaten the economy, creates a council of federal regulators to coordinate the detection of risks to the financial system, subjects a wider range of financial companies to government oversight, creates a Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection to help protect citizens from unscrupulous practices, and reins in banks’ ability to trade in risky financial instruments such as credit derivatives.
4. Preventing a 2nd Great Depression: While preventing a depression is not sexy and certainly is reactive, history may say that this is still one of his most important accomplishment to date. The vast majority of economists and experts say that the nation had a high chance of slipping in to a Depression had this stimulus not passed along with the innovative actions of the Fed. Obama has worked with Bernanke and the Fed, put a team of some of the best economic minds around him, helped save America’s 3 major car manufacturers from going out of business, passed the largest economic Stimulus Bill in the nation’s history, and executed other legislative changes to keep liquidity flowing in our economy, save jobs that would have otherwise been lost, and fund areas of our economy that are strategic and important for our long term economic competitiveness including health care, education, green energy, science, and infrastructure.
Of course, critics will say that the economy today is still sputtering, holds some risk of sliding back in to a recession, and that a real recovery will take many years. These are all true statements and Obama has not moved us from a possible Depression to a fast growing economy – but this is a completely unrealistic, almost childish, expectation given the severity of the financial crisis, our current debt, and other economic realities that we have to deal with. Could he have done more or done it differently? Certainly. I would have loved to see Obama do more, faster to invest in small businesses, help them get loans, and help them become more competitive with the large corporations that increasingly dominate our economy. But today we are not in a horrible depression and things are stable and this alone is a tremendous accomplishment.
Oh and much more here: http://3chicspolitico.com/president-obamas-accomplishments/
Oh another update...
President Obama Signs DADT Repeal Act of 2010
Obama said:
It is time to recognize that sacrifice, valor and integrity are no more defined by sexual orientation than they are by race or gender, religion or creed. It is time to allow gay and lesbian Americans to serve their country openly.
http://3chicspolitico.com/2010/12/22/president-obama-signs-dadt-repeal-act-of-2010/#comments
So sorry he has not done enough for you. Yet this is not about one persons needs, it is about all our needs a nation! We are The United States of America.
If we don't do it fast, the Billionaire Boys who will now own the government will use their power to bar the rest of us (the "riff-raff"
from ever voting again. Then they will have a total lock on power, and we can kiss our asses goodbye.
[font size=10]VOTE, People!![/font size]
NOW--while you still can!!
VOTEVOTEVOTEVOTEVOTEVOTE PEOPLE..... GO VOTEVOTEVOTE
GO VOTE!!!!!!!!
some would just rather curse the darkness.
They may be able to pour loads of money into campaign coffers but that still doesn't buy people's votes. As long as we GOTV, they can't win no matter how much money they get/give. In fact, we should probably encourage the Kochs, the Adelsons, et. al to put so much money into the political process that they go lose lots and lots of money and/or go bankrupt. Let's let them spend so much money that it makes them sick of it. After all, being the *shrewd* businesspersons they are, they'll eventually realize losing bets when they see them......eventually.
Unambiguously.
In the manner of Franklin ( "I *welcome* their hatred." Roosevelt. and Harry ( "gluttons of greed and privilege" Truman.
Call it class warfare, call it something else; if Obama is not unambiguously and enthusiastically on board with this message ... and thus far he's never BEEN on board with it... it is not going anywhere.
Not Biden, Not Reid. Not Bernie Sanders.
Obama.
The POTUS.
A defining moment for him, one might say.
