Buyer's Remorse: Did I just Buy A Lemon
You know that feeling of buyer’s remorse that comes over you the day after you drive that shiny new car home? That’s they way I have been feeling about President Obama that last couple of weeks, much to the consternation of my more liberal and progressive friends. My uneasiness over the policies of the Obama administration are often met with stunned silence in those I confide in, especially after being such an ardent supporter of the president during the campaign.
But feeling the pangs of buyer’s remorse does not mean I am going to return my shiny new car to the dealer. I do not doubt my decision to vote for Barack Obama. I think he is a solid leader and the person who will help us get through the painful transition that our country and our economy is going through.
I still have doubts. I still have concerns. They are growing by the day and your concerns should be too. Just because I support gay rights and believe that banning gay marriage is unconstitutional; just because I am pro-choice believing that the government has no place in the uterus of a woman does not mean I am a hackneyed liberal. I am actually a conservative. I am that dying breed of conservative it seems - the socially liberal but fiscally conservative person who in more classic times would have been considered a liberal.
I want the government out of my life and your life too. I loathe the neo-conservative movement. I equally detest the extreme Christian right and their religion turned political agenda. They have all but destroyed what is good about American conservative ideology. And, yes, my liberal friends - you can be a conservative and a non-believer. It is no more absurd then a Black Republican, although many would like to believe so.
Am I a perfect conservative? Not by any means. You know my stance on religion, abortion and gay rights. But, I also am interested in Single Payer Health insurance and other more seemingly progressive plans to fix health care in this country. I am a believer in Medicare and Social Security as well. There should be a certain level of social insurance built into our economic system. However, I am uneasy about economic stimulus plans and bail outs - aren’t they all really just bail outs? Business fails and the government intervenes - a potential recipe for disaster.
I am having a hard time articulating my buyer’s remorse. Usually my friends invite me to consider the alternative. But, the alternative is moot since McCain didn’t get elected president. I find it difficult to be concerned about hypothetical what ifs regarding a man who is not now president and most likely will never be. Since I supported Obama and ultimately cast my vote for him it is his policies and efforts that I find I need to be concerned about. Obama is our current reality. Being asked to consider the alternative is just a defensive posture by those who are loathe to criticize our current president.
The closest I have come to finding that articulation is through the words of Rueben Navarrette Jr. While I believe that it is still too early to effectively criticize the Obama administration considering the epic proportions of the problems he inherited I do share Navarrette’s opinion that Obama is flunking economics.
This was one of my initial concerns about Obama. He doesn’t have a strong background in economics and too many of his policies seem to be throwing shit against the wall to see what will stick. The truth of the matter is none of our leaders really seem to know exactly what to do. This puts us in a precarious situation. There is no way that Obama can effectively keep those promises of tax cuts while ramping up federal spending.
The problems are sweeping. I believe Obama is being diligent and working hard for us. But, he is trying to accomplish too much, too soon. The situation has changed and he may need to reconsider some of his earlier campaign promises. He will need to sell Americans on these changes as well.
Progressives who are constantly haranguing him about their agendas need to pipe down and get in line with the problems at hand. Conservatives - well, I don’t we can shut the likes of Rush Limbaugh or Ann Coulter up. They’re still pissed they lost the battle for the White House. Criticizing Obama over his Special Olympics joke during his Tonight Show appearance is useless. We all say stupid things from time to time. Obama apologized to the right people without being asked. Let’s move past it. If this is the worst thing Obama says in the next four years he is going to be doing okay.
There has been too much focus on the historic nature of Obama’s election. It’s a great achievement and one to be noticed, but his being black, or of mixed race, has nothing to do with the economy, Iraq and the problems elsewhere in the Middle East and how to fix them. The historic nature of the last election does not eliminate the fact that we have a young president with very little experience in terms of economics and foreign policy. Most of us understood that going in.
Defensive posturing asking us to consider the alternative or defaulting to blaming George W. Bush are detrimental and supercilious. The Bush Administration was certainly disastrous but it is unintelligent to just assign blame 100% to him. A friend recently pointed out the spending on the Iraqi occupation that Bush initiated. I agree! It was disastrous. But, let’s remember we are still there. We are still spending the money, at least for a little while longer. There is also the potential escalation in places such as Afghanistan. The president has been very clear that he believes we need to continue pursuing Bin Laden and his Al-Quada network there.
Navarratte appears to take some issue with the heaping of blame on Wall Street. Here is where I depart from him. There is a lot of blame to be placed here. The fact that AIG gave out bonuses with our money pisses me off. That the stock market soared in response to the government’s plan to buy diseased bank assets just makes me want to go out and kick some well fed, over privileged suit in the nads. But that solves nothing.
The last couple of weeks have been filled with enough debacle and back pedaling that it does nothing to reinforce the optimism that so many people are still feeling. Some of this optimism is sorely misplaced. I think we know this. This may account for why the defensive posturing every someone points out a concern. If we learned nothing from the Bush Administration, let’s learn this - we like to be sold. Obama is a good salesman. He is articulate and intelligent and has a knack for telling us what we want to hear, when we want to hear it. This is great for him as it buys him time to experiment and find what works. But Bush was a great salesman too - at least at first. When he was unable to deliver the promised results things fell apart for him and for us.
Obama has repeatedly stated that patience and a willingness to sacrifice is going to be necessary in order to fix our problems. There next few years is going to be painful. How long are the people who are feeling the pain - the ones in the unemployment line going to remember those words when the president fails to deliver? How long before the rampant increase in spending sinks us? I am not sure we are heading in the right direction. The shiny new car may end up being a lemon that we get stuck with as it rots away into rust in our driveways.