Progressives need to work together

"President Obama caved to the republicans once again." "He hasn't kept any of his promises." "He's to weak to stand up to the tea party and fight for our progressive future." You hear this a lot today in our main stream media. It's the big meme of the day for "hard core" progressives, or the "pro left pundits" It's like a mantra and the thing about it is that it's total hogwash.

President Obama has gotten more accomplished against greater odds than any other progressive president in my life time. Lets take a look at some of the things he has done.

He has passed a health care bill, something that even Clinton couldn't do. It may not be perfect, In fact there are a lot of things that need to be improved upon, but it does help the average citizen tremendously. Included are fixing the pre-existing condition clause, expanded access to health care and subsidies to help those who can't afford it, free wellness check ups for seniors, and cut over payments to insurance companies by Medicare among other things.

He got "don't ask don't tell repealed in our military so that any American with a desire to serve our country is now (as of this Tuesday) able to do so without compromising themselves.

He has overhauled the credit card industry and put limits on the fees that can be charged to consumers.

Obama got the Dodd-Frank bill passed. Even though it doesn't go far enough in many peoples view, it is a definite start to re-regulating the financial system that caused the 2007 meltdown.

He fought for and got help for our 9 11 first responders who risked their lives for our fellow country men. This is something that should never have been a fight, but our dear friends the conservatives felt that the first responders apparently didn't need any help.

He also passed the stimuli's bill which kept us from dropping into a much more serious depression than we were already in. I know many say it wasn't enough, but with the full force of the republican party pushing against it, I think he did an amazing job getting anything at all.

Though he didn't initiate it, he did complete the tarp bank bail outs and managed to recover almost the entirety of the cost put into it.

He has increased infrastructure spending which had been almost nonexistent before. And when this jobs bill passes, it will add more money to improving our crumbling infrastructure. This is one that I personally think we need much more of.

The list goes on and on. It is just incredible the things Obama has gotten through  extreme opposition from the right and whining from his supposed supporters on the left. To say that President Obama has done nothing since taking office is an outright lie.

If you are a democrat, progressive, liberal, or even a poor old dirty hippie like myself, you should be shouting it from the rooftops that Obama is our man for the White House. For anyone to say the president is weak or afraid to stand up to the tea party, especially if they claim to be progressives, is just undermining our chances of getting Mr Obama a real progressive congress and Senate so he can really make some changes for the better.

Sometimes it seems to me that we progressives are our own worst enemy when it comes to politics. The Pro left as they have come to be known seem to think Obama has let them down. He's not progressive enough for them, he doesn't keep his promises, he is in cahoots with the bankers, he didn't raise millionares taxes, they have a long litany of complaints that are in fact bogus. These people wouldn't be happy even if Obama turned the US into the socialist country that they so dearly want us to be.

These people muddy the truth and cause the general population to take the wrong message home. They think that if they beat up on Obama enough, he will suddenly magically change everything and single handedly topple the conservative destruction of our country. The exact opposite is true. The constant harping on Obama discourages voting by making the average person think "what difference who is in office, they are all bad"

Well think about this. If we don't re-elect Obama we will be faced with a republican government that has done nothing but protect the ultra rich at the expense of the middle class and poor. They will put an end to medicare, social security, the EPA, food stamps, women's reproduction right, and put an end to separation of church and state. Who knows what else these wing nuts will try to do to us.

If we let the tea party and their republican flunkies continue to push their lies as truth, if we let them defeat Obama because we just don't have the political will to fight them, if we just lay down and let them walk all over us, then we deserve what we get.

So if you want to see our country continue to move forward instead of backwards, you must do your part. Raise your voice and be heard. Tell everyone you know what is happening. Organize a progressive club to disseminate the truth. Post blogs, tweet, stand on the corner and tell everyone that goes by, I don't care how you get the message out, just do it. If we don't then our country will be consumed by the right wing and you wont recognize your own country in another 10 or 20 years.