Left And Right Politics

Wouldn’t that line from “Stuck In The Middle With You” make a great slogan for the Libertarian party? LOL

Speaking of the left, seems a growing number of them are dissatisfied with Obama. Josh Gerstein from Politico writes;

Barely four months into his presidency, Obama is confronting growing dissatisfaction among members of his liberal base, who feel spurned by a series of his early decisions on issues ranging from guns to torture to immigration to gay rights. A few, like MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, have even hurled the left’s ultimate epithet – suggesting that Obama’s turning into George W. Bush. For liberals who viewed Obama as something of a savior after eight years of Bush, the discontents are piling up.

A growing number of organizations, bloggers and pundits, many of whom kept quiet about slights in Obama’s first few months, are now going public with their disillusionment.

Michael Meyers of the New York Civil Rights Coalition said many Obama supporters (with support from voices on the right) built him up to be more of a liberal icon than his public speeches and writings ever justified.

“They invested in Obama everything they wanted the next president to be. They thought, ‘He’s black, liberal, anti-Iraq War… urban, young.’ He was all of that and smart and he went to a radical church. They just knew,” Meyers said. “They exaggerated him. They saw him as a messiah. No president is a messiah.”

“He’s not the person that people thought he was,” Meyers said. “The left is finding that out and the right is finding that out.”

Also from Politico, Andy Barr writes about Republican leaders who are backing Cheney’s criticism of Obama;

Republican leaders on Sunday backed Dick Cheney’s attacks on President Barack Obama, calling the former vice president
a strong asset for the party.

“It doesn’t hurt us, it helps us,” House Minority Leader John Boehner said on CNN’s “State of the Union,” calling Cheney a “big member in our party.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said ” We know Obama changed his mind in Iraq and decided to follow the advice of the military generals, and we also know that he’s now ordered a surge in Afghanistan just like the one that was successful in Iraq. So I think the administration has responded to the critique of the vice president” that the country is moving in the “wrong direction on national security issues.”

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Before I switched from a Democrat to a Libertarian, I considered the Green Party. I still subscribe to their mailing list and wanted to share an email they sent me.

“Is Change On the Agenda”?

On January 20, George W. Bush’s presidency will end.  President-elect Barack Obama will take office, having been elected on a platform of “change”.  Many Americans are eagerly waiting to see what the new Obama Administration will do; but we already know from his Cabinet picks that “change” is not really on the agenda.

• Hillary Clinton, Obama’s choice for Secretary of State, ran a hawkish campaign and will continue her husband’s aggressive pursuit of “free trade” agreements which have undermined human rights and the American economy.
• Robert Gates, Obama’s pick for Secretary of Defense, is a carryover from the Bush Administration, and has overseen continued human rights abuses at Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere.
• Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s new Chief of Staff, is an extreme Zionist and hawk, whose presence on Obama’s staff, combined with Clinton’s, undermines any serious potential for Middle East peace.
• Tim Geithner, Obama’s selection for Secretary of Treasury, has been heavily involved in the ongoing bailout of financial firms, and began his career working for Henry Kissinger’s firm.

These choices for the most critical of Cabinet positions make it clear that the only “change” Americans can expect on the major issues of the day out of the Obama Administration are that different people will be in charge of selling out the poor and middle class.

And get this:  with an administration in place that is pro-war, pro-bailout, pro-nuclear power, anti-equal rights, and anti-universal health care, the so-called “opposition” party in Washington will be the Republicans.  No “opposition” party will have ever had it so good.  But, of course, we know that come January 20 there will be one real opposition party:  The Green Party.

With your support, an invigorated Green Party can reach new heights in the number of candidates we run and elect in 2009 and 2010, candidates who will be fighting the Democrats in control of Washington on issues that matter to people:

• Bringing our troops home. The Green Party opposed the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan before they began.  Now Obama wants to move troops from Iraq to Afghanistan, without pulling the plug on either war, while simultaneously rattling the sabres at Iran and Pakistan.
• Demanding single-payer universal health care – now. The Obama plan might well insure more Americans, but most of those benefits will go to the insurance companies, not to the people who have been economically crippled by a corrupt health care system.
• Legalizing marriage for all people. While the Obama Administration opposed same-sex marriage, the Green Party remains in staunch support for extending equal rights to all people
• Bailing out working Americans, not fat cat executives. As unemployment rises, the same corporations who have been responsible for costing so many Americans their jobs whine about needing more money to keep their doors open.  Greens have long opposed corporate welfare and trickle-down economics as practiced for the last 28 years, and want to see an end to free trade agreements and other mechanisms which pad executives’ pockets at the expense of working Americans.
• Insisting on a real green energy policy. There is no place for mountain top removal or nuclear power in a serious 21st Century energy policy based on renewables and efficiency.  Greens have long understood this.  But Democrats waffle because they receive so much cash from electric utilities and other corporations.

Without serious, sustained, principled opposition from the Green Party, the Obama Administration will have a blank check to continue to push the “political center” to the extreme right, just as Bill Clinton did.  The Green Party needs your support to stand up for Americans and keep America from inching even closer to energy and economic catastrophes.

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New York, November 5, 2008 —While we still await results on California’s Prop 8 with several million ballots still uncounted, disappointment and pain over the anti-gay attacks in Arizona, Arkansas, and Florida, as well as California are balanced by so much good news from around the country, including the dawn of a new era in Washington, D.C. Pro-equality candidates for state office and Congressional seats won elections across the country and soon will take office, joining activists’ renewed efforts to continue the fight for equality in each state and our great nation.

Celebration also follows the defeat of the attempt by anti-gay groups in Connecticut to try and call a constitutional convention so they could write marriage discrimination into the state constitution. Sixty-percent of Connecticut voters cast ballots to support their high court’s decision to uphold the freedom to marry and now, marriage equality is preserved in Connecticut. Same-sex couples can begin applying for marriage licenses on November 12th.

“Californians were bombarded by a massive $40 million anti-equality campaign of deceptive scare-tactics and lies. No matter the final vote on Prop 8, the campaign will not be the last word,” said Evan Wolfson, executive director of Freedom to Marry and author of Why Marriage Matters: America, Equality and Gay People’s Right to Marry. “Public opinion moves in favor of fairness, we have truth on our side, and 2009 will see advances toward marriage equality.”

Legal groups in California today filed a challenge to Proposition 8, in case it passes, telling the State Supreme Court that the state’s “initiative procedure cannot be used to undermine the constitution’s core commitment to equality for everyone.”

“The effort to defeat Prop 8 and attacks on gay families in other states inspired an unprecedented and tremendous outpouring of volunteers, donors, and supporters, gay and non-gay, from across California and around the country,” said Wolfson. “With the dawn of a new political era in America, this diverse and engaged movement for justice will seize opportunities to redouble the conversations that move people to fairness, win victories in 2009, and soon restore the freedom to marry in California as we advance toward marriage equality for all.”

— Freedom to Marry Staff

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Freedom to Marry is the gay and non-gay partnership working to win marriage equality nationwide. Headed by Evan Wolfson, one of America’s leading civil rights advocates and lawyers, Freedom to Marry brings new resources and a renewed context of urgency and opportunity to this social justice movement. Freedom to Marry brings the work of its partner organizations and their many approaches — litigation, legislation, direct action, and public education — into a larger whole, a shared civil rights campaign that fosters heightened outreach to non-gay allies.

Here are the important battles and the right way to vote , alongside the presidential and other key races:

CALIFORNIA: Vote No on 8

FLORIDA: Vote No on 2

ARIZONA: Vote No on 102

CONNECTICUT: Vote No on Question 1

ARKANSAS: Vote No on Act 1

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