The Loss of Hope

My hiatus from SpoonsRant was something that I didn’t anticipate. I thought I would continue to blog about all things political. After all politics continues to happen regardless of what’s happening in our daily lives. But I found my frustrations growing with this administration. It had nothing to do with the weak tea party or the subsequent Republican floggings about why Obama is bad this week. My focus for the last three years has been squarely on our President and the Democratic party.

I was disappointed that there was an overemphasis placed on cooperative government. Obama reached far too often across the aisle … and ended up selling the store, the dog, the cat, the parakeet, grandma … and getting nothing in return. The Republicans managed to marginalize Obama’s political capital and they weren’t going to turn loose. Democrats remained too unfocused and scattered across the political spectrum (Landreu, Nelson and other conservative Democrats) that ultimately lacked cohesion.

It was thanks to these centralist Dems that awarded power back to the Republicans. It was thanks to Obama benching his platform because the job was too tough to pass it. The country ran with no steward. The helm just kept going with the ebb and flow of the sea current. The captain wasn’t on the bridge – leading – as much as he was trying to quiet the crew … with over half of them fighting him on every single solitary thing.

What got lost in the last two years – is the fact that Republicans refused, every morsel of their being, to work with Democrats or this President on the overwhelming majority of legislation coming out. That forced Obama and the Democrats to continually give up ground – and their fights were watered down and lost. Reid lost respectability. Pelosi fought inconsistently. Americans lost out.

Hope … was lost.

Now that we’re entering the last leg to determine who Obama’s opponent is going to be, I’m back to wondering what Obama is going to say next. I’m wondering how he’s going to be able to justify the stuff he has done over the last three years. Yes – he’s done plenty. He’s done big things … he’s done a lot of medium and little things. He had such high hopes. He had such a vision. He energized those that helped get him elected to fulfill those ambitions.

While the finger pointing can be squarely on the Republicans, the Democrats did their fair share of eating their young. Obama himself became a microcosm of being too idealistic and not being able to reach as far as he wanted. It hasn’t been until the last 3-4 months that we’re finally seeing a commander that’s commanding. Someone who has finally said “enough” and did something big, bold and bad … he called out the Republicans and put it on the line. He finally started calling the Republican’s bluff. Lines are drawn in the sand now … and that’s what Obama should’ve been doing when the R’s decided they were going to behave like insolent disrespectful children.

For as long as we have the likes of Fox and Rush continuing their epic distortions and incredibly self-serving biases … Obama doesn’t stand a chance. He was patient. He tried, kept trying, regardless of what it meant to him politically, this President kept his arm extended while the Republican party spat on him. There is no shame for Republicans and that’s why I can find no respect for them.