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In reply to the discussion: I am so utterly sick of this Third Way shit. [View all]Scootaloo
(25,699 posts)You're right. Obama isn't really "good enough." He's not as progressive as you'd like; he's certainly not the hard leftist I'd like. But it's honestly time to face reality.
That is; tough shit. Look, neither of us are going to get our personal supercandidate, and we're damned sure not going to see such a person appear between now and November. Unfortunately that's just the way reality works. Can't please everyone. But I'll tell you something, and I want your fellow progressives to listen up.
I understand that Obama's not "good enough." But he is good. Look at our past thirty-two years of presidents. That's a third of a century we're looking at, and what do we see? We see thirty years of republican policy dominating everything, don't we? Reagan for eight years, Spook Bush for four, Bill "I signed NAFTA and welfare reform!" Clinton for eight, AWOL Bush for another eight. We are living in that legacy.
No, Obama is not my dream president just as he's not yours. But he's a damned sight better than what's come before, and most definitely better than option B. I look at him as a toehold for our goals and principles; he's not likely to take us there himself, but he can extend our reach by that much.
You had to have Teddy before we could get Franklin, basically.