No buyer’s remorse

There was an interesting — if misguided — comment on this week’s Dispatches that I want to comment on. Here is the comment:

Those of us who were skeptical of Obama before he became president knew that he was an empty suit just wanting to get elected first and then promote socialist policies once he got there. His supporters of course were blinded by the Hope and Change mantra.

The only things that were somewhat documented about Obama before the election were his socialist beginnings through his parents, friends, and mentors like Saul Alynski etc. This part of him is coming out clearly in his policies trying to ram down all these social programs, bigger government, nationalization of this and that. Many of us suspected this but what we got was actually worse. The stock market and business is dropping like a rock and he couldn’t care less as long as he gets his agenda rammed down out throats. Wealth transfer and bash the rich.

Personally I don’t think he could care less about the war. To win the election he jumped on the left wing moveon.org bandwagon to bash the war and gain support. So now you are upset not getting what you wanted. But ask yourself, what did you expect? You had no history, just one vote in the Illinois senate against the war that had meaningless consequences. Most other votes were “Present”. What was the basis for your believing what he stood for, he had no record, except for rhetoric. People do not become chief executives of major companies without an extensive resume with years of prior work experience. What did Obama present to you for review? College records are not available, professor of little consequence, community organizer, Illinois Senator who voted “Present”!

Obama wants to be remembered for his Change to Socialism in the country and not the potential bloodshed in Iraq if he pulled all the troops out. This is a price you are paying for history, his history to be sure.

Of course I am upset at what this joker is doing to the economy and the country. At times I would just love to raise a middle finger or honk my horn in disgust to a driver sporting an Obama sticker. But, Frankly My Dear, people seem to be removing these stickers faster than they were put on before the election.

That is called Buyers Remorse!

Reading this, it is difficult to know where to start. But the key to understanding what we have here is that this commenter was never just skeptical of Barack Obama. He was downride hostile to him, which is fine, but he should say that.

More importantly — and this is something that exists in the mindset of too many on the right (and the fringes of the left) — is the idea that to criticize is to oppose, that for me or anyone else to question an Obama policy is to have buyer’s remorse. (There also is the great self-deception at base here that assumes that the echo chamber in which this person lives — the anti-Obama fringe, that 30 percent who think he’s doing a poor job, is actually the majority.)

It is the same way of thinking that underpinned the Bush/Cheney manner of framing of dissent as unpatriotic.

I think the president has done a pretty good job so far; at the same time, I think he could have been more aggressive at the beginning of the stimulus debate and should be more aggressive in getting us out of Iraq and winding down the brewing disaster that Afghanistan has become.

Buyer’s remorse? No. Critical thinking? Yes.

Author: hankkalet

Hank Kalet is a poet and freelance journalist. He is the economic needs reporter for NJ Spotlight, teaches journalism at Rutgers University and writing at Middlesex County College and Brookdale Community College. He writes a semi-monthly column for the Progressive Populist. He is a lifelong fan of the New York Mets and New York Knicks, drinks too much coffee and attends as many Bruce Springsteen concerts as his meager finances will allow. He lives in South Brunswick with his wife Annie. View all posts by hankkalet