Deja Vu All Over Again?

As the Senate draws closer to passing the Obama Compromise, I have the same sick feeling of helplessness I felt when our Congress Cowards gave George W. Bush a blank check to take our troops to war in Iraq. Us hard core, professional lefty, tree hugging, Birkenstock wearing, Latte drinking, hybrid car driving, liberals tried tell everyone Bush was using 911 as an excuse to go to war in Iraq. We tried to tell everyone there was no WMD in Iraq. We tried to tell everyone Saddam had nothing to do with 911. We tried to tell everyone there was no exit and our troop would be plan sound the alarm. But did they listen? Noooo. We were called anti Bush, anti Troops, anti American and told to STFU and stop whining for the good of the country. Never mind that we were right (pun intended), there was no WMD in Iraq and our troops are still there.

Well here we go again. Us hardcore liberals are trying to sound the alarm about the Obama Compromise and again we're being told to STFU.

the package that has outraged many progressives -- and not a few conservatives -- is a baited trap, a Trojan Horse for the "entitlement" cutting crowd that could lead to disaster for working families over the long haul.

It's true at face value that the Republicans supporting the deal are guilty of rank hypocrisy. After years screaming that we face a looming fiscal crisis that will doom the nation in short order, Republicans won the House on a pledge to repeal the Democrats’ health care reforms, a move that would add $455 billion more to the federal deficit over the next decade (PDF) and before even taking the Speaker’s gavel, they held benefits for the long-term unemployed hostage in exchange for a tax deal that would add another $854 billion in red ink over that same period.

The Rude Pundit breaks it down (warning link contains graphic language)

So after backing President Obama on compromise after compromise on various bills, on the stimulus, on health care reform, after supporting and advocating for deals that were not only far from perfect, but were in some ways detrimental to the cause for which the bills themselves were created, after watching the President reach out again and again to Republicans, only to be told he wasn't reaching out enough and only to watch Obama say that he needs to do more to compromise, after seeing Republicans drub Democrats in an election because many Democrats were too afraid to stand for anything Democratic for fear of seeming too "partisan," after listening to Obama justify doing almost everything that George W. Bush did in the name of national security and, in some cases, going further, after years and years of watching Democrats allowing Republicans to set the terms of all arguments, whether in the majority or minority, after investing in Barack Obama the modicum of hope he asked for in changing the terms of that long, ongoing American political fistfight, only to see the whole thing twisted again by the right as they put forth the most obnoxiously anti-American candidates they could find and obstructed progress in an unprecedented way, finally, on this one thing, on absolutely opposing allowing the tax rate for the wealthiest 2% of Americans to rise by a small margin, we on the left are told by people across the political spectrum that we want too much and that we need to back down and that we need to be happy because this is the best we're gonna get.

Isn't it ironic the main ones who fell for the get government out of out lives spin are the main ones pushing for the tax cut for the rich? That's right (pun intended) the main ones without access to health care are the main ones pushing the repeal of Health care reform, by those who have access to government health care I might add. I wonder if the Tea Baggers realize they've been punk'd? Naaah.

I'm sure in 2012 you'll fall for the same old shit sales pitch about how the Democrats and black people and Hispanic people and Gay people and Muslims and Big Government are to blame for everything wrong in your life. You'll fall for the tried and true attack ads that worked this year; the ones that claimed Obama and his Black Panther Socialist Nazi Army is out to kill you, burn your house down and take away your guns, your right to practice the only true religion (Oh Jesus!) and your freedom to hate anyone Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck tell you to hate.

Don't get me wrong, just because I oppose the Obama compromise doesn't mean I don't support President Obama, however as Katrina van Heuvel notes h/t Legal Schnauzer;

Forget about electoral mandates or campaign promises. This president has a historic mandate. Just as Abraham Lincoln had to lead the nation from slavery and Franklin Roosevelt from the Depression, this president must lead the nation from the calamitous failures of three decades of conservative dominance. This requires beginning to reverse the perverse tax policies that have contributed to gilded-age inequality and starved the government of resources needed for vital investments. This demands correcting destabilizing global imbalances, laying a new foundation for reviving American manufacturing and shackling financial speculation. It means ensuring the United States leads rather than lags in the green industrial revolution. And it requires unwinding the self-destructive military adventures abroad. The president must strengthen America's basic social contract in a global economy, not weaken it.

I can't shake this feeling of Deja Vu....that we the people are heading for another Q"W"agmire. I wish our elected officials would listen to the people this time and not the polling pollsters. I fear this is a trap.

Every Act of Rebellion Helps Tear Down Our Corrupt System Chris Hedges