Obamaniacs irk me considerably

[GPDP]

Obama is mishandling the economy? "Because he can fix everything in such a short amount of time, right?" they reply sarcastically. Obama gives away a trillion dollars to Wall Street and the banks? "Well, the rate of lay-offs is decreasing, so he's doing something right!" Obama pushes a severely watered down and insurance company-friendly health care proposal instead of single-payer? "He can't do anything more than that, and even that is too much for Americans." He waters down that bill by getting rid of the public option? "It wasn't even the centerpiece. What we really need is regulation of the insurance companies." He waffles on Guantanamo? "Give him time." He doesn't hold a principled stance on Iraq and refuses to pull out immediately? "He's being realistic and pragmatic." He escalates Afghanistan? No comment.

You almost can't talk to these people. They're like a cult of personality. Nothing you say will sway them from their belief that Obama is a progressive person who genuinely wants to do good, but is constrained by the Republicans/corporations, and who merely acts like he's right of center because if he enacted left of center policies, he wouldn't get any support whatsoever. They'll shout you down if you even dare suggest that Obama is actually totally bourgeois from head to toe in terms of his beliefs, values, and his acceptance and justification of capitalism and U.S. imperialism, not to mention his quite conservative stance on present-day racism.

They seem to be spellbound, in all honesty. I almost hesitate to engage with them because of this. It's like arguing with Miseans or Randroids. Nothing you say gets through.

I wonder, has anyone else had similar experiences dealing with Obama fans?

[Revy]

Yeah, it's polarized. People either love Obama or hate him, and it's usually for all the wrong reasons.
I haven't usually gotten "no comment" to the Afghanistan issue, it's often raving support. Afghanistan is supposedly "the good war" and if you oppose it, be prepared for them to mention 9/11 (as if 9/11 was somehow coordinated by the Afghan gov't) or the Taliban (as if opposing an imperialist quagmire makes you the same as an Islamist).

[RadioRaheem84]

Hell yes! Amen, man. You cannot get break ground with these people. They are totally enamored with him and will defend him like right wingers defended Bush during the Iraq War. What sickens me most is that he passses himself off as a progressive when in fact he is another Clinton-Democrat.

I wish there was more of an opposition against him on the left but people are mostly in defense of this sellout.

[Revy]

Hell yes! Amen, man. You cannot get break ground with these people. They are totally enamored with him and will defend him like right wingers defended Bush during the Iraq War. What sickens me most is that he passses himself off as a progressive when in fact he is another Clinton-Democrat.

I wish there was more of an opposition against him on the left but people are mostly in defense of this sellout.

The Green Party and Nader will be the first port of call for progressives angry with Obama. We have to develop some kind of strategy to attract those people to our socialist groups besides the simpleton view of "let's vote Green or for Nader" taken by some of our socialist groups (I prefer to be general like that, so that I don't launch into some rant attacking various groups by name).

[GPDP]

I've been reading Paul Street's critical book "Barack Obama and the Future of American Politics," and I get more and more surprised at how bourgeois Obama truly is and has been since he got into politics on all fronts, from race to foreign policy.

Obama has a gift for framing the most conservative, conciliatory, opportunistic, and unprincipled arguments for minimal, and sometimes no changes to the status quo as progressive and visionary yet "realistic" and "pragmatic." And they buy it hook, line, and sinker.

Remember how Obama kept going on about how Iraq was a "mistake" (rather than a heinous crime)? Somehow that makes him the "anti-war" president. And what of his support for "affordable" (rather than free and universal) health care? That makes him the "pro-health" president. See where I'm going with this?

Sad thing is, even many left-wing critics of Obama keep deluding themselves that even if he genuinely does hold such views, that his heart is still in the right place and he genuinely does want to help, but just doesn't know how due to being constrained by the limits of the system or is looking for a "progressive" movement to help him enact progressive policies. Well, I agree an organized left-wing movement probably would force him to pursue progressive policies, but the keyword there is "force." I doubt he has our interests at heart. I am genuinely skeptical of this. And that is what seems to make Obamaniacs completely shut themselves off to debate.

[Die Neue Zeit]

Nader's about to write that pathetic book about political philanthropy on the part of aged capitalists against "corporate interests." That they'll organize the masses instead of the workers doing so themselves. :rolleyes:

[RedSonRising]

This quote I posted in the G-20 thread sums his lack of real material potential in being progressive:

President Obama, in an interview with the Toledo Blade, cautions would-be protesters of the upcoming G20 Summit that while such protests are "are a sign of a healthy democracy," they're not likely to have much of a net impact:"I was always a big believer in - when I was doing organizing before I went to law school - that focusing on concrete, local ... Leer más, immediate issues that have an impact on people's lives is what really makes a difference and that having protests about abstractions [such] as global capitalism or something, generally, is not really going to make much of a difference."

He might be right about the mentioned tactics, but apparently the nature of a world economic system is an "abstraction" to be left un-analyzed, un-criticized, and un-publicized.

[proudcomrade]

I find that the most ironic thing about so many among that crowd is their perceived intellectual superiority. You go to say one word against their hero, and out come the snarky, sarcastic remarks and the namecalling of "idiot" and such. Meanwhile, they themselves are the ones who bought this guy's shoddy bill of goods on emotional impulse and zero critical thinking, but, oh, no, we radicals are the "idiots" for criticizing him.

As for the man's policies themselves, I saw this shit coming a mile away; but whenever I dared open my mouth, I was roundly denounced for it. It got so bad that, until I found this site, I was beginning to feel like it really was just me, and all my problem. It was bizarre and disorienting; but it wasn't really anything new.

The one thing from Obama that truly has managed to shock me, though, is the private health insurance mandates. I nearly died when I first heard about that. Not even Bush himself has been so heinous about poverty and medical indigency in this country. Not even Bush. I remain absolutely horrified beyond words.