Unsubsribe OBAMA

Soooo many of us are disappointed.  We've been making excuses for why this administration could not do better on this issue and that one.  But we have had it.  The hip might say, "It's over, boyfriend."

The failure of meaningful healthcare reform has brought us to the brink.  After personally working for significant changes, watching HR 676 pushed aside, been open to new ideas like the public option, I can only relate to Howard Dean's NO, NOT THIS ONE approach.

Why encourage our congressional representatives, the somewhat willing, to vote for meaningless healthcare reform...then wait to see what that actually means once it's delivered? 

Do you feel your voice has been heard?  Only by all the progressive groups that have been doing the work and offering me a way to send many messages to Congress, like Representative Grayson (D.Fla) whose petition I signed as one of the 100,000 against the escalation of the war in Afghanistan.

This morning I took the only route that made sense, the one that Obama and his people might actually "hear."   I unsubscribed from "Organizing for America" a/k/a/ Barackobama.com.  The request to "ring in reform" and call my senators seemed especially hollow on a rainy day in Portland, Oregon, where we read one terrible story after another about the suffering of the uninsured, the underinsured. 

When we have watched Joe Lieberman (you don't need a link, do you?) free to bully the Democratic Party into submission.

The only positive thing about unsubscribing OFA is that finally I can leave a comment.  Mine starts wih "Devastated" and points to Obama's waiting too long to come out for meaningful healthcare reform, sending more  troops to Afghanistan.  If you join me in this, please let me know.

 I'm also taking the button off my purse.

 You do what you can do.

Comments

[Hattie]

Just don't beat yourself up about this. Our society is corrupt from top to bottom.
Which is why my friends, family, and I are partying and enjoying life as much as we can, because, by god, we are still capable of THAT.

[Kay Dennison]

He isn't the first elected official to disappoint me and I it's a pretty safe guess that he won't be the last unless I die soon.

I wish I were partying like Hattie -- it would ease the pain.

[Hattie]

Kay: I'd invite you if you lived closer! I hope things turn around for you.
I am concerned at the numbers of people I know in poor health right now. It sucks all the fun out of life. And if you add money concerns to that...
I'm really sorry.

[M.E.]

Naomi, I feel your exasperation! There was an article last week or the week before on cutting Obama a little slack. GW Bush led us headlong into this whole mess. He had eight years to screw things up, and he did--with effectively no opposition. I'm saving my ire for the Dog Democrats (I forget whether they're blue or yellow) and Republicans, and that includes that oleaginous nitwit, Lieberman, even if he calls himself an independent.

In the meantime, I'm getting tired of all the calls to contribute $$ to this Democrat and the next so they can be victorious in the coming election(s). I remember all to well sending my precious few, hard-earned dollars to the likes of (and I blush) Mary Landreau and *gag* Max Baucus lest the Republicans do them in. Waving the Democratic Party banner ain't gonna do it for me any more. They've got to prove they are progressive or at least not REgressive.

I'm just fed up and bled out in general. I'm not wearing my Obama hats any more, but I'll still wear my Michelle Obama t-shirt when the weather warms up.

Hope you had a happy Hanukkah....

[M.E.]

That is, "all TOO well...."

[goodgirlroxie]

Hey, Naomi! Just now getting caught up with my email. I'm with you, girl! Finally took the Obama bumpersticker off my car, and I tried to unsubscribe from OFA but can't figure out how.

I'm not giving up on change, just on OFA being a change tool. OFAs nothing more than a status quo organizer to implement policies that go up to but refuse to exceed those political limitations deemed dangerous to the continuation of, yes, the status quo, by power-mongers like Rahm Emanuel, who think "the left" is irrelevant. Boy, is he ever out of touch, non? Wait till he wakes up to the reality that "the left" is the majority center now.

My final straw w/OFA came last fall when OFAs volunteer coordinator for everyone in CA instructed us during the phone banks to support health care reform to NOT mention that Stupak amendment at all when speaking w/legislators or critical-state constituents. They wanted to make sure the bill got through the House regardless of whether it rolls back reproductive rights.

When I objected strongly and publicly to this particular set of instructions, the coordinator accused me publicly of "slandering" the work of OFA. It was an incredibly unprofessional (not to mention wacky and wrong) outburst that showed me the level of political immaturity that is now working as the Administration's Cheerleading Team. This stupid little altercation ended up on the desks of a TPM reporter, who contacted me about it. I was in the middle of midterms and major project due dates in the program I'm studying right now, so couldn't take the time to get this idiocy out into the open where it could be aired reasonably, and regret it immensely, as now it's just old news.

Don't give up on change, Naomi. Just don't expect OFA to ever come out and help us organize for issues such as making sure that the single-payer, universal coverage for all position is included in the planning discussions leading up to bill drafting. Ain't gonna happen, because people like Rahm Emanuel are not willing to allow any activism that might disrupt the corporate gravy train between our legislators and the insurance industry and Big Pharma.

Instead, put your money on organizers like Jane Hamsher and Lawrence Lessig. These are the fronts out of which change will come.

Happy New Year! I'm so grateful to be starting a fresh, new decade, with more of us being better aware of just how powerful the corporate interests that contributed to all the problems of the last decade are, and of just how hard a fight this will really be in the coming years.