Myles Spicer: I can believe in Obama no more

Commentary

Like the proverbial straw that finally breaks the camel's back, the time has come to end my admiration for Barack Obama.

I guess the end came with his recent broken promise -- he has now retreated and agreed to keep Guantanamo open, and commence with the military trials.

But the disillusionment had been building for at least a year.

I quickly add: Sure, I will vote for him in 2012. What other choices do we have?

But my support, adoration and involvement will be more tepid than the enthusiasm he generated for me -- and millions others -- in his exciting win in 2008.

And though the Guantanamo decisions were the end of the road for my belief -- and hope -- that "change" actually was going to come to America, it was not single position or action that caused me to end my support.

There is also the element of duplicity in his actions vs. the promises made in 2008. That would not be unusual for politicians; but this time the fall for me was further, because I actually thought we had something different this time.

We didn't. Same old, same old, I guess.

It really started with the health care bill. In many respects the conservatives are right; it is not a particularly good law, and it was cobbled together in an atmosphere of compromise.

What was needed was at least the public option, or, even better, a single payer plan. And to even get close to those two elements, we relied on Obama to lead.

He sat on the sidelines, coached and commented -- but his actions to excite the public (and support his hard-fighting legislators) were nonexistent.

It has virtually no redeeming national value, and now even the majority of Americans want us out. That appears to matter not to Obama, who is just another president under the influence of his generals.

We did not need that; McCain would have filled that role even better. We needed someone with guts and independence. No luck.

He promised he would "walk the picket line" to support unions. This is his time, his moment.

There is a lot at stake in the Wisconsin union revolt; it goes to the very heart of helping the "have-nots" against the powerful "haves." OK, so he is occupied with other issues and is unable to come to Madison, but he is not even there in spirit.

He would have a huge inspirational effect on the brave and hardy protesters protecting a valued American liberty -- the right for all workers to bargain for better wages and working conditions. No one home there, either.

This was not really a tax issue at all. It was about the terribly skewed distribution of wealth in our country. It could have mitigated the huge advantages the rich enjoy in our economic system. But it was even more than that.

It was getting the resources to improve our crumbling infrastructure that is turning us into a Third World country in terms of roads, bridges, dams, water systems and 21st-century transportation.

And, yes, even education. We are falling behind in all these areas.

Cutting them further on the alter of deficit reduction is not going to make for a better country. The revenue side of the equation has to be addressed. Obama opted out.

Internationally, we remain on the wrong side of history. Our support of the Egyptian revolution was weak.

Seemingly, it is a policy trading the liberty (of others) for the temporary illusion of security, recalling the well-known Benjamin Franklin quote: "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

No doubt Obama knows this quote; he just forgot about it.

Certainly, the president has made some strides in redressing issues liberals care about. Wall Street and credit card reform; getting some health care reform, inadequate as it is; and he apparently is making progress on repairing the economy damaged by 8 years of the GOP and Bush.

But that is not what liberals really bought into in 2008. We thought we were getting change we could believe in. We believed we had a president with a progressive agenda. He did not deliver that to us, and we are disappointed.

What we have here, folks, is just another politician rushing to the center, compromising his platform and preparing for his next election rather than taking the country in a significant new direction it demands and deserves.

It is time to say goodbye.

Myles Spicer is a retired ad agency owner in Minnetonka.

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