I can’t say that I’m losing hope, but I can say that I’m getting VERY DISCOURAGED. This is coming from the perspective of a person who voted for, sent money to, and in a small way campaigned for Barack Obama. Every day it’s looking more and more to me that the person I voted for is very different than what I imagined prior to his taking office. At this point in time I feel as if I SHOULD BE blasting right wing Republicans who are in cahoots with the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and the one I heard recently Michael (I think) Savage – this guy might be the worst of the bunch – and a plethora of other right wing “talkers.” Today, while driving around, I listened to a guy (no idea who he was) proclaiming that he was keeping his kids home from school on Tuesday so that they wouldn’t be exposed to our “SOCIALIST” President. When asked why he was calling our President “socialist” his response demonstrated to me the dire straights this nation is in because of the propaganda machine from the right wing which has a large captive audience (or so it seems to me). The guy said President Obama is a socialist because when he took office he first took over the banks and then the auto industry! Whoever filled this guy’s head with this nonsense failed to point out to him that the bank “bailout” was caused by and initiated by George W Bush, as was the government “loans” to the auto industry, but that didn’t matter to him because the guy was simply another of the many (but dwindling) blindly loyal Republicans. I feel safe in saying that – because the guy was yearning for the return of the Republican party to power so “we can get our country back.”

The ignorance that shines through some of the statements coming from the right make me almost ashamed to admit that I’m a public school teacher. The only condolence I take in that is the Republican party wants to end public education, so I’m hoping most of these people aren’t the product of public education. I teach my students to check and double check their sources, and not to believe what they see and hear until they do so (and they are only sixth graders). Another example: I don’t know how many people who are on medicare (I’m close to that age) have complained to me about the possibility of a “government run health care system.” Not one of them, when I ask, says anything bad about medicare – none of them has said they are willing to give it up – in fact, when I ask, most say emphatically that they won’t give it up – they say something like “the government better not take away my medicare.” The only legitimate question I’ve heard from any of them would be “how will we pay for it?” That’s a question – or problem – that shouldn’t be too hard for our legislators to solve if they can get past the hurdle of doing something for the benefit of the people they serve as opposed to the people who are buying them off. This ridiculous Republican rhetoric seems to have no boundaries. We’ve had the “birthers,” the “tea baggers,” the “deathers,” those claiming Obama is a Nazi, a socialist, a communist, and I could go on – IT’S ALL BEYOND REASON!

The Republican political leadership has shown itself to be totally without conscience. THEY JUST KEEP FUELING WHATEVER FIRE seems to incite the fringe base. I can see them now, after one of the “crazies” they’re inciting does something really stupid, disavowing any responsibility for what happened. We’ve already seen that to a certain extent. Did Bill O’Reilly take responsibility for the killer of Dr. Tiller – who he had clearly incited to some undetermined degree? Of course not. And, you won’t see Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh or this Savage dude taking responsibility when one of their listeners does something tragic either. They’re just going to keep inciting the troops because evidently they’re making a lot of money doing so – and that’s the bottom line for the Republicans, isn’t it? That’s the only reason they could be making such a stink about the idea of the United States joining with the rest of the civilized world in providing health care to ALL its citizens. These guys make no sense AT ALL!

That is why it grieves me so to feel this impression of ALMOST hopelessness in analyzing President Obama by the decisions he’s been making since taking over in the White House. The health care debate isn’t the most important to me, but President Obama has succeeded in making it the MOST IMPORTANT FOR HIM. He’s the one who initiated this plan, seemingly without a good idea of how it would get done. I’m a person of faith, and maybe President Obama just had faith that our Congress would come through because it’s so obvious that our country needs health care reform desperately. Well, I’m sure by now he has figured out that “trusting” Congress was a huge mistake. Actually, the House of Representatives, where the members are more accountable to their constituents, will produce a bill that is palatable to the American people. As usual, it’s the high and mighty Senate, where members only face the wrath of their voters every six years and can usually buy their way into re-election with the help of corporate donors who have seemingly unlimited pocketbooks. So, it shouldn’t be a surprise when Max Baucus and Chuck Grassley, both of whom have received multi-millions in donations from the healthcare industry they have been commissioned to “reform,” come up with a health provider friendly “reform” of the system. I can see it now, the final bill will provide more customers for the health insurance companies and the taxpayers will be footing a fair share of the bill. Again, I HOPE I’M WRONG, but signals out of the White House would indicate that President Obama is determined to get a bill, NO MATTER WHAT!

When he speaks to the nation this coming Wednesday, President Obama is going to have to decide who his supporters are. I have this awful feeling that he’s going to continue his push to get a couple Republicans to vote for this bill, and just gamble that the people who voted him into office will be there when the smoke clears. I’ve got this nasty sensation that our President is getting some BAD ADVICE! I don’t, for a minute, think that I’m the only progressive minded American who is not going to blindly support our President. I worked to get President Bush out of office because I thought his policies and decisions were reprehensible. I can’t imagine getting to that same place with President Obama, but the discouragement could be as great, just because of my high initial expectations. I saw President Obama as a statesman – which is what we need -and not a cunning politician – which is what I’m beginning to feel is what we’re getting. A statesman has the will and the courage to fight for what is “right.” He would draw lines “in the sand” for legislation of this magnitude and not back down – PERIOD! Additionally, if President Obama was really as transparent as he said he would be, there wouldn’t be so much misunderstanding of what is happening. WE DON’T EVEN KNOW WHAT THE “PUBLIC OPTION” IS, and I believe Obama’s Presidency could rest in the balance on whether he fights for it or not.

I’ve said before, if he loses this battle – by caving into the Republicans before there’s even a vote – his own supporters very likely will “turn” on him. And with good reason. Here’s another “I hope I’m wrong” statement – and I would really like some national reporter to ask President Obama right up front about his – I believe he’s continuing the Bush wiretapping policy. I would really like to hear it from his own mouth that he has ended it, but I wrote him about this – pointing out my dissatisfaction with the FACT he was doing it – and never got a response. Last year, when I wrote about the FISA vote – remember Obama voted FOR the FISA bill which, among other things, gave retroactive immunity to the telecoms who had enabled Bush to illegally wiretap his own citizens, in the name of “the war on terror,” and whoever was then Senator Obama’s surrogate responded by saying that he would “fix” the bill once in office. So far, NOTHING HAS HAPPENED, and I’ve heard more than one of Obama’s present members of his administration say that “he doesn’t want to give up the power.” Ughhh!

And, believe me on this one, if Obama caves on the “public option,” it won’t take long for the focus to return to Iraq. So far, the Obama administration has succeeded in keeping Iraq out of the news. The reality of Iraq is that the Iraqi’s are no closer to reconciliation between the Shia and Sunni, not to mention the issues with the Kurds, AND WE STILL HAVE OVER 130,000 troops there. When this “war” is FINALLY over, we will be hearing the same terrible reflections we heard after Viet Nam! What did our troops sacrifice so much for? And, are we going to take the same kind of care of them as we did after Viet Nam – the ones who have survived? And, what about Afganistan? How long are we going to stay there? What the @#** are we fighting for? How much money do we have to throw at these two occupations until we see the light that we’re THROWING OUR MONEY AWAY? Do you think Democrats aren’t smart enough to figure out that we’ve spent over a TRILLION dollars on these two occupations, with another TRILLION to clean up the mess which includes the assistance that our TROOPS DESERVE post deployment(s), and won’t spend a trillion (which should be able to be financed with payroll deductions) dollars on health care?

I have no idea why President Obama has such a need to pander to Republicans. They will not support ANYTHING he proposes. They are blaming him for the economy that GW Bush virtually ruined, they are blaming Obama for the “bailouts” of the banks and the auto industry which was initiated by Republicans (Obama is a socialist because of Bush policies, how much sense does that make?), they will blame Obama for any health care bill that is passed NO MATTER WHAT’S IN IT, and the way he’s going they will soon start blaming him for Iraq and Afganistan. The truth is, there’s nothing President Obama can do that won’t be received by a chorus of negativity from Limbaugh and the rest of the Republican party. So, why is he even giving them ANY LEGITIMACY? Isn’t it time to tell the truth about what the Republicans are doing? And, unfortunately, the one who has to lead the charge AGAINST them is President Obama himself. I guess that’s what is so discouraging. These Republicans deserve NO LEGITIMACY WHATSOEVER! (in fact, many from the previous administration SHOULD BE IN JAIL) President Obama should be leading the charge against them. He has a chance to do that on September 9th, when he addresses both houses of Congress and the nation. I’m hoping that we hear a straightforward challenge for Congress to “DO WHAT’S RIGHT,” instead of more capitulating to “bipartisanship.”

I know that President Obama is far more intelligent than I, so I’m hoping he’s got some kind of “trick up his sleeve.” The consequences are immense. I hope that he is not taking his base for granted, as it appears. I believe most of them are “hanging” with him because the alternative is so unpalatable. Can you imagine a political party where the defacto leader is Rush Limbaugh gaining the White House? Maybe President Obama is calculating that the Republicans have become so “out there” that he has nothing to worry about, because his supporters just couldn’t stomach another Republican in office, and to a certain extent he’s probably right. But, I believe there’s a whole lot more voters out there who are like me and are tired of voting against the least favorable candidate. If Obama, on Wednesday, demonstrates that his desire for bipartisanship is greater than his desire for the so-called “public option” – no matter what that means – I believe you will see millions “jumping off the bandwagon,” and these other issues will begin to surface, further pushing President Obama’s “approval” ratings DOWN! The Republicans have set a trap for him, and he seems to have fallen into it, hook, line, and sinker. Here’s the part that makes me sick to my stomach as I’m writing this. If Obama’s “faithful” start to turn on him, it will re-invigorate Republicans and they will get “fired up” for 2012. I’ll make a prediction right here; If Obama blows it, the Republicans will start pushing Jeb Bush as their nominee for President in 2012!