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No matter what you may feel or think about Barack Obama, no matter how disappointed you may be by his failure to live up to the promises he made in 2008 or the hope he inspired four years ago; it is essential for every progressively minded American to do what they can to keep Mitt Romney out of the White House. The only instrument the American people possess in this case is their vote and the only realistic alternative to Romney is to reelect Barack Obama.
The following clipping from TPM by Sahil Kapur, explains the situation perfectly.
A potential Mitt Romney presidency carries huge implications for the Supreme Court that have conservatives excited and progressives fearful about the future. Liberal-leaning Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 79, and Steven Breyer, 74, are likely candidates for retirement during a Romney administration. The GOP nominee has vowed to appoint staunch conservatives, and the influential conservative legal community will make sure he follows through. Replacing even one of the liberal justices with a conservative, legal scholars and advocates across the ideological spectrum agree, would position conservatives to scale back the social safety net and abortion rights in the near term. Over time, if a robust five-vote conservative bloc prevails on the court for years, the right would have the potential opportunity to reverse nearly a century of progressive jurisprudence. For all those reasons, conservative legal activists anticipate that a Romney win would be the culmination of their decades-long project to remake the country’s legal architecture.(…) a Romney presidency — even a one-term presidency — would pose a slow-release threat to key progressive accomplishments, and why small-government conservatives view his candidacy as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. (emphasis mine) Sahil Kapur – TPM
The idea of wiping out all the progress made in over a lifetime of legislation and rulings… a veritable coup d’etat by the most reactionary elements in America, is truly too horrible to contemplate.
54 Comments
And, how did we manage to get ourselves into this position?
And Obama grand vision for his second term is a “grand bargain” involving a bit more tax on the wealthy and a bit more austerity for the rest of us. Balance, you know. It must be balanced. (I’m beginning to think that Obama doesn’t really want to be re-elected.)
Very good question, but now it comes down to protecting a progressive legacy that may stretch all the way back to Roosevelt (Theodore, not just FDR). So this is not just about Obama, is it?
I am amazed that liberals always want to use the courts in a perverse manner to circumvent the true nature of our constitution (Roe v. Wade as a perfect example) …. even though I believe everyone who is a legal citizen should have the right to vote the wise men who wrote the Constitution did not believe women had that right and neither the courts nor congress changed that — the states did through the amendment process. If we cannot convince our ELECTED officials to pass laws then we have the aforemention process. The ERA did not pass muster because in was not important enough (women already had equal rights). We should not look to the courts to try to remedy “social/moral issues” …. those are for our legislators to pass laws or through the ammendment process — We control both situations ourselves with our right to vote.
Agreed. Rec’d.
YES, Obama has failed to “live up to his promises”. How about restating that as “has worked against his promises and is not, in fact, a Democratic president in the sense of in any way following the platform of his party as of the 2008 election”. He did not “fail” a passive term, he actively TRICKED US.
Obama is not so slowly peeling away our social progressive achievements.
No reason to think Obama will pick Supreme Court justices who are in any sense progressive, or supportive of all those things we progressives are the best in America.
We are hosed, period. So we might just as well vote for anyone we feel like.
That is why, based upon Obama’s demonstrated record, I am voting for Jill Stein.
For documentation with over 850 references see
Civil Rights – http://newprogs.org/blog/2011/11/09/civil-rights-under-democraticrepublican-uni-party
Economy – http://newprogs.org/blog/2011/11/10/economy-under-democraticrepublican-uni-party
Economic Graphs – http://newprogs.org/blog/2012/03/02/economic-graphs
Education – http://newprogs.org/blog/2012/01/14/education-under-democraticrepublican-uni-party
Election Reform – http://newprogs.org/blog/2012/10/01/election-reform
Environment – http://newprogs.org/blog/2011/11/08/environment-under-democraticrepublican-uni-party
Health Care – http://newprogs.org/blog/2012/04/03/health-care-under-democraticrepublican-uniparty
Poverty – http://newprogs.org/blog/2012/10/12/poverty-getting-worse
Transparency – http://newprogs.org/blog/2012/02/27/transparency-under-democraticrepublican-uni-party
Unions – http://newprogs.org/blog/2012/02/05/unions-under-democraticrepublican-uni-party
War – http://newprogs.org/blog/2011/11/11/wars-under-democraticrepublican-uni-party
Whistleblowers – http://newprogs.org/blog/2011/11/09/whistleblowers-under-democraticrepublican-uni-party
How’s Spain treating you, comrade Seaton? Must not be inspiring confidence in the stability of your chosen society, and you quite understandably feel a bit panicked about it.
Maybe that explains this hysterically over the top appeal to “progressives” who are quite righteously pissed off at Barack Obama and the rest of his despicable Democratic ilk.
Come on, comrade! It’s not that bad. Obama’s going to win this election no matter how many people on sites like FDL vote for Stewart Alexander or Jill Stein or Rocky Anderson or any other third party candidate. Relax.
I recommend Zen meditation.
So that’s what we have here, a choice for Obama to put moderately right-wing judges on the Supreme Court instead of the even more grossly biased right wingers Romney would nominate. Pretty pathetic isn’t it David? But, whether a few died in the wool progressives at FDL should vote for Obama isn’t the issue either is it? Obama has to convince a wide ranging public that he has a much more effective plan to end the depression than he had in the first term, but he knows and the public knows he hasn’t got one other than to inflict a little pain on the rich and a lot more pain on those that rely on the social safety net as Wigwam observed. Progressives loose more of their legacy each election because the Democrats are just not that into it anymore. Until we begin to organize independent of the Democratic Party and put some teeth into threatening the Democratic power structure we are going nowhere.
Okay, how about until you figger out how to put teeth in it, just grit the teeth you got ‘n vote for Obambi, and hint to family & friends as well.
I don’t like him much either, but Romney over the last 2 months has proven himself much more callow and dangerous than I’d even imagined. Debates 2 & 3 – “I’ll just sit here and be agreeable and parrot the Prez, so I can get in office and do whatever I want to anyway”.
Romney makes Bush look smart on foreign policy, so it’s Obama’s continuation of policies we don’t like partnered with a complete dumbass running them. Romney’s budget proposal from August is both nonsensical and a raid in waiting on lower income brackets. Romney’s plans for Medicare are atrocious, his record in gutting companies is hideous, and all of his sucking up to both Sheldon & Bibi make some unneeded altercation with Iran much more likely.
The truth is that he may not win. If and when this happens it won’t be because of progressives, it’ll be because of Barack Obama.
For far too long the onus has been on the electorate to pull someone across the finish line instead of on leadership to provide good leadership and a reason to vote FOR them.
That can’t end until people step forward and demand different. It has to start somewhere. My vote will go to demanding something different than bad or worse.
Yes if Barack Obama opens the door to Mitt Romney I shall never forgive him.
He’ll be butt hurt over that, all the way to the bank.
This presidential election is over. Trust me. Obama will win this, for, unless some video emerges showing Obama drowning puppies or something, there’s no way Romney will carry Ohio.
I can read state polls well enough to say that with at least 95% certainty.
But it doesn’t really matter much to me. Like you, I voted to demand something different than bad or worse.
Sorry, no pain no gain. Progressives only have one party who needs our votes to win seats and if we dont hold that party accountable then what good are we? I cant vote for someone who drones innocent women and children living in third world countries. I cant vote for someone who believes he has the right to kill US citizens without due process. I cant support someone who turned down an offer to write down home mortgages when he had a chance to do so. I realize if Romney wins these things will continue but the blood of the innocent will not be on my hands. I am a swing state voter and I voted for Dr. Stein.
It’s kind of sad that David doesn’t understand that his position on third parties isn’t even consistent with the national party and he’s being used to propogate a false anti democratic two choice system.
Apparently the way things work is its only the Democratic elite that get to determine when it is strategically in their interest to utilize third parties like in the cases of Joe Lieberman in Connecticut or Angus King in Maine. The rest of us aren’t supposed to have access to the levers of power that might mean a real change.
Essentially, capitalism is for business. Socialism is for people. Wilbur m romney is a pirate. He is NOT a business man. He schemes for a win as his objective and that a business succeeds or fails is quite inconsequential to him. In fact, if he ever had an idea that for a business to succeed whereby he would make $1000 but would make $1,000,000 in a plan that would fail it, he would fail the business.
You need to understand the difference between a selfless builder and a thief. And that is the terms “business man” and “successful” are not a part of the picture that counts, but instead a DISGUISE, a mask that is used to gain entry into the lives of others like a trojan file with a virus into “our operating system”.
then you be a FOOL. the NDAA was not put there for President Barack Obama, it was placed there for the thief himself, Wilbur m Romney.
think again.
Whose the selfless builder?
wow are you off course or what!? dont saill much do you. well the founders sailed a lot and you are in need of sailing lessons.
the framers of our constitution were quite aware of some things – namely that people right crazy laws to steal power and carry everyone off course. their solution was to craft a constitution as a RUDDER and the courts for COURSE CORRECTION.
“yeah. we should look to courts to remedy our issues”
say anything you want about the courts. until they are overwhelmingly occupied by a malicious gang, we’ll be mostly ok.
however, our savior in all of it is our right to initiatives and referendums which thieves seek to outlaw. see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Initiatives_and_referendums_in_the_United_States
let’s see. you comment here because
you want to influence?
no – you did not make an argument
you want to be entertaining?
no. you are not funny.
you want to slap someone?
yes. you are a sadist? or just a really bad movie critic.
He’s not a fool for expressing his opinion, much less a “FOOL”.
Since you are expressing your opinion on rapid-fire, you might want to ponder that.
I’ve thought that for a year or so now. Obama’s horrible first debate seemed like it was an attempt to throw the election.
Can you elaborate on “butt hurt?” Is Obama gay? Are you against marriage equality?
Speaking of the bank, are you filing, but not paying your federal income taxes?
You want to rip folks in swing states for considering a vote for Obama. How do I know you’re not on the Romney payroll?
When are you going to post some video of you involved in a protest against the “uniparty,” you claim to hate? Have you ever been arrested for civil disobedience against anything? Do you contribute to FDL? What about to Occupy?
What’s your plan on the day after the election? In what forms of civil disobedience will you partake?
David, thanks for the post.
I’m in Wisconsin, so unfortunately, my vote will probably count. I was planning on voting for Stein, but the GOP’s voter suppression campaign, in addition to the SC concerns you raise, really scares me. I also think civil disobedience will have a better chance of succeeding with Obama as POTUS. Hopefully Obama will pull ahead in Wisconsin and I’ll be able to vote a Dem ticket with Stein at the top.
Whomever wins we have to commit to more demonstrating, more donating, more civil disobedience. IMHO that includes people filing their federal income taxes, but not paying them, or only paying them partially.
Some advice:
Go stalk someone else.
Take your meds first. You are not well.
Silly Drone-Strike Democrats. Why would I want to vote for a president whose actions serve to legitimize the Bush/Cheney administration’s war crimes?
The bottom line for me is the ideological divide between me and the mainstream Democratic Party has become utterly untenable. It’s the usual and obvious stuff, the shameless corporatism, belligerant militarism, open sneering contempt for civil liberties etc. etc. etc.
They do not represent me or my views. They in fact are so far from doing so I cannot in good conscience support them. I’d rather live under four years of Romney than feel the shame of having voted for Obama again. I voted for Stein and voting for a ticket never felt so good. I’d have needed a four year long hot shower if I’d voted for Obama. He is a contemptible unprincipled empty suit.
Pathetic . . .
or an attempt to make the election appear closer.
There’s an awful lot of money that changes hands during an election cycle. I have little doubt the narrative of a close race is more lucrative for BOTH sides. It also advances the idea that we actually having a working democracy(even as our elected officials scorn popular opinion on things like a public option, bailouts, immunity for telecomms etc,etc)
Everyone has their line in the sand on what is or isn’t negotiable.
The reason I suspect that the mainstream Dems that control the party don’t want people to vote third party is that it gets easier and easier over time to reject party ideology and recognize that you own your vote, not a political party.
‘I don’t like him much either, but Romney over the last 2 months has proven himself much more callow and dangerous than I’d even imagined.’
Et tu, Des? My goodness, not to beat an overused theme, but you know what he says to win votes, but only know how he governed Massachusetts. He *may* be telling the truth of his intended governing. We just don’t know.
OTOh, we know only too well that the weasel OBomba schmoozes us with lies, promises, wee gifts to broad heretofore Dem voting blocs…and is still captive to Wall Street, the MICC, NATO and AFRICOM Empire…and doesn’t care a fig to help regular Americans, negotiate peace anywhere, is quickly closing the ring on Total Information security state; prosecuting every whistleblower that tries to issue warnings of the true state of things re: torture, surveillance communication acquisition and storage, and now: the mind-fucking disposition matrix.
My vote in my swing state for Stein/Honkala means that I refuse to vote for either of the puppeteers for corporate fascism, and if it helps Romney, who cares? If an exceedingly unlikely Romney ‘victory’ helps to wake up some opposition in Congress, great. But if it hastens the Great Awakening which might lead to a global revolution, that’s even better with me.
And it may be down to: who can hack the voting machines better, anyway, and who the Greater Vampire Squid really wants as puppet. IMO, of course.
But David, the problem is that a lot of these people want a right-wing takeover because they think that the right-wingers, once firmly and irrevocably seated, will cause so much more misery that they will finally goad the American people into achieving a higher form of lefty consciousness, and then the people will overthrow the right-wingers and allow lefties to lead them.
The last time America faced a crisis that seemed to strike to its very marrow was 9/11. The effect of 9/11 (enhanced by FOX News and the rest of the corporate media) was to cause the American people to circle the wagons around Bush and the GOP. He went from a 50% approval rating to a 90% one overnight, and used this to prepare for wars against both Iraq (which he and his PNAC buddies wanted anyway) and Afghanistan; the GOP then won big in 2002 and 2004. It wasn’t until 2005 that people were allowed by the press to openly question, in a sustained manner, the rationale for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — and by then Bush had his second term locked down.
Ironically, if 9/11 had happened on Gore’s watch (though I suggest that he, unlike Bush, wouldn’t have blown off the CIA’s warning about Bin Laden, and so would have likely prevented it from happening), the GOP/Media Complex would have called for (and likely gotten) his impeachment.
I’d rather not get droned, so I’m going with Jill Stein.
Most of us just don’t see the huge difference between the two you see, Phoenix Woman, refuse to vote for OBomba, and can see possible upsides in the unlikely eventuality of a Romney win. That’s all.
These people? Sounds a lot like Ann Romney’s ‘you people’. Condescension.
Yeah, we vote for Jill Stein not because we simply agree with her on policy but because we want Romney to win as part of some elaborate plan. Yeah. I’ll bet there are lots of arch-conservatives voting for Obama for similar reasons. Or not.
Ahhhh the eleventy dimensional chess theory……are you sure you aren’t confusing the people who are voting third party with your own views of politics and how you believe them to work?
I’m pretty sure that if the people were anxious to have the Republicans rule (and here’s where the thought gets all sorts of radical and complicated if you are used to making excuses and trying to figure out the eleventy dimensional chess board) that they’d vote for a Republican (who if you aren’t aware are actually on the ticket as a party.)
Believe it or not a vote for a third party is not a vote for the Republican Party(conversely a vote for the Republican party IS a vote for the Republican party.) By the way, the Democratic Party actually caucus with one or two third party candidates and are supporting one over their own party member. Perhaps you should contact the DNC and let them know they are “spoiling” the Democratic party with their actions(I’m pretty sure they know that though just as they knew it back when they were undermining Ned Lamont and supporting Independant Joe Lieberman.)
Sometimes strategy is a lot less complicated then people tend to make it and it certainly does no one any good where there is one set of parties for the party elite and another set for the people who vote.
Omigod the Republicans will get everything they want if Romney wins.
Will they?
Nobody really likes Mitt Romney. The Republicans chose him because he was the least offensive of the alternatives to Obama. Yeah, Romney is going to have some fantastic mandate.
Maybe the Obots will actually demand good government if their hero is out of office. Unfortunately that means Romney has to win.
Could you elaborate a bit more?
I didn’t quite get how the despicable things Bush did, or, your imaginary alternate reality of a President Gore, has anything to do with the last four years of lies, deceit, and betrayal under Barack Obama.
OK, OK, so Obama has done his darn best to outdo Bush in the Bush department, there is that connection with the Bush years.
But I still don’t get the imaginary President Gore thing.
The other thing so many of ‘you people’ can’t grasp is that ‘we people’ are refusing to be captive to ‘this is most important election EVAH: OMG Mittens Is the Devil’ short-term considerations.
‘We People’ (us’ns) are thinking toward the future.
And we wonder if ‘you people’ will lambaste Romney for the same policies, unitary executive memos and orders…as Obomba has supported (or blocked as in financial regulations and more) and has issued.
You mean, its really that simple!?! I could just vote for Romney and that would be it!?!
Hey Jill Stein, I want my contribution back!!!
Nicely said, cwaltz.
I realize that voting for Obama is not an attractive proposition; it’s a little like having your leg cut off to save you from dying of gangrene… but that is the only thing on the menu. The Republican party is now in the hands of rogue billionaires who are stimulating fascism in order to evade taxes and regulation… They want to even go back and repeal the reforms of Teddy Roosevelt. This is really that simple: avoiding a ultra-right coup d´etat.
If Obama wanted to preserve a progressive legacy he wouldn’t have put some of its greatest accomplishments, SS, Medicare, Medicaid, women’s reproductive rights, on the bargaining table. He will appoint judges who share his values and will uphold his policies. Vote for him if you think you must, but there’s nothing progressive about it. I’m voting for Jill Stein.
This is not a defense of Barack Obama. He is simply the lesser of two evils… If Romney gets to choose the next two “Supremes” that will be the end of over a hundred years of progress in the United States… Not a nice choice, but an important one, none the less.
A lossing stratgey must end sometime. Why don’t you line out for us what the probabilities of turning thisminto success in the future. Somehow, I don’t think younhave even considered the future in your plan.
The supremes theory holds no water.
Neither of Obama’s choices when he still had to worry about getting reelected are remotely progressive.
When he no longer has to worry about getting reelected, it will only get worse.
Obama is the more effective evil. If he had made even a halfhearted attempt at fulfilling his promises, Romney, a beatable candidate if there ever was one, would an electoral joke, crying in Obama’s dust.
Democrats really blew it by letting him go so far so fast. The facade has been stripped away, for all to see.
You could be right, but, believe me, no matter how bad Obama is, Romney’s much worse.
Mr. Seaton, one word suffices for your thesis: balderdash!
We can study the two SCOTUS appointments that Obama has already made, and realize that both women are firm believers in Monsanto’s Gm foods and seeds. So much for arriving at preserving what we eat. The famine foods will flourish, while the actual body count created by the monstrous changes to what we eat continue to be hidden from the public.
Meanwhile, on other fronts, there have been recent cases in which the Republican-linked SCOTUS members were friendlier than their Dem counterparts to states’ rights issues and medical marijuana. They were also more friendly to the notion that low income people NOT have their homes seized under eminent domain that benefits not the public but Big Corporations and their perks, like Country Clubs.
We could dissect who is worse until the cows come home.
The fact is, I’ve seen what Obama has done with my own two eyes. What Romney will do, or be able to do against opposition, is speculation.
If I had an inkling that supporting the Democrats would do anything to stem the right-ward direction the country is moving in, I’d be in their corner.
But I don’t, so I’ll do what I’ve always done and go with someone who mirrors my values and beliefs, this year, it is Jill Stein.
And remember: Kagan helped gut Miranda; that’s huge in my book, as is it that she and a couple members of O’s cabinet were Monsanto biggies.
Omigod and of course Obama won’t choose those Supreme Court members.
(Never mind of course that your idea here presupposes that the Senate is weak and supine before the almighty Romney, whom everyone worships as if he were Obama…)
So how many holes must people shoot into your logical edifice before you admit the thing leaks?
I agree that Obama sucks… I just want to keep the Tea Party and the Evangelicals as far away from the Supreme Court as possible… and in this case as far as we can get at this juncture is Obama… I’m sorry that things are that shitty, but that is just the way it is.
I wrote this in 2008:
Having said that I still say Obama is a better pick than Romney.
Here is what Roger Cohen writes today in the Washington Post: