On Thursday, April 26, while speaking at New York University
about President Obama’s foreign policy, he managed to once again “pull a
Biden.” He told the crowd that Obama has a big stick.
In honor of Vice President Biden, here’s something I wrote a
little over a year ago about Obama’s big stick.
Enjoy…
I keep seeing this poll show up on Facebook: Does Barack
Obama deserve a second term as President? The results show an overwhelming lean
toward ‘No.’ I’m sure it’s mostly just a combination of Republicans voting
their bias and Democrats not happy with what he’s accomplished – or not
accomplished as the case may be. And the center, well, who knows what those
flip-floppers ever want.
In any case, the lack of facts, basic information and the
intentional spreading of misinformation plays a big roll in the ‘No’ decision.
Let me ‘splain…
Here are just some of the things that Obama has accomplished
that you may or may not know about:
Reversed 'global gag rule', allowing US aid to go to
organizations regardless of whether they provide abortions; Signed the Family
Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, giving the FDA the authority to
regulate the manufacturing, marketing, and sale of tobacco for the first time; Signed
New START Treaty – a nuclear arms reduction pact with Russia; Increased average
fuel economy standards from 27.5mpg to 35.5mpg, starting in 2016; Signed the
Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act which restores basic protections against pay
discrimination for women and other workers (which Republicans, in their war on
women, voted against); Provided travel expenses to families of fallen soldiers
to be on hand when the body arrives at Dover AFB; Reversed the policy of
barring media coverage during the return of fallen soldiers to Dover Air Force
Base; Launched recovery.gov to track spending from the Recovery Act, providing
transparency and allowing the public to report fraud, waste, or abuse; Provided
the Department of Veterans Affairs with more than $1.4 billion to improve
services to America's Veterans; Signed the Children's Health Insurance
Reauthorization Act, which provides health care to 11 million kids -- 4 million
of whom were previously uninsured; Issued executive order to repeal Bush era
restrictions on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research; Signed the
Christopher and Dana Reeve Paralysis Act, the first piece of comprehensive
legislation aimed at improving the lives of Americans living with paralysis; Developed
stimulus package, which includes approximately $18 billion for non-defense
scientific research and development; Signed the Weapons Systems Acquisition
Reform Act to stop fraud and wasteful spending in the defense procurement and
contracting system; Ended Bush administration's CIA program of 'enhanced
interrogation methods' by requiring that the Army field manual be used as the
guide for terrorism interrogations; Established Credit Card Bill of Rights,
preventing credit card companies from imposing arbitrary rate increases on
customers; Health Care Reform Bill, preventing insurance companies from denying
insurance because of a pre-existing condition; Health Care Reform Bill,
allowing children to remain covered by their parents' insurance until the age
of 26; Tax cuts for up to 3.5 million small businesses to help pay for employee
health care coverage; Expansion of Medicaid to all individuals under age 65
with incomes up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level; Significantly
increased funding for the Violence Against Women Act (which Republicans, in
their war on women, voted against); Lifted restrictions granting Cuban
Americans unrestricted rights to visit family and send remittances to the
island; Eliminated subsidies to private lender middlemen of student loans and
protect student borrowers; Significantly expanded Pell grants, which help
low-income students pay for college; Expanded hate crime law in the US to
include sexual orientation through the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate
Crimes Prevention Act; Appointed nation's first Chief Technology Officer; Signed
financial reform law establishing a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to
look out for the interests of everyday Americans; Cut prescription drug cost
for Medicare recipients by 50%; Provided $12.2 Billion in new funding for
Individuals With Disabilities Education Act; Extended Benefits to same-sex
partners of federal employees; Appointed more openly gay officials than any
other president in US history; Repealed ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’; Created more
private sector jobs in 2010 than during entire eight Bush years; Appointed first Latina to the US Supreme Court;
killed or captured more terrorists in 3 years than all 8 years of the Bush
administration; oversaw the execution of Osama bin Laden by the United States
Naval Special Warfare Development Group. There’s more, but I think I made my
point.
Some of these things you may think are not good. You would
be wrong. Some of these things Republicans fought hard to stop (Even things
that were their own ideas.). They would be dicks. Tiny, little, fascist
dicks. For the most part, it’s that some think he’s gone too far and others not
far enough. Well, you can’t please everyone.
Now, Obama may not play dress-up in flight suits, pretending to fight for this country while actually dodging
that responsibility (With a Vietnam War-length dentist appointment.) which I
see as an insult to real heroes. He may not make bold, yet infantile statements
about wars and terror and being with us or against us. He doesn’t put his name
on refund checks that are re-taxed but fool you into thinking you got a refund
while also doing nothing to boost the economy. He doesn’t boast and brag about
things that are really lies but when repeated enough are believed to be true.
What he does is act like an adult. An educated, intelligent,
thoughtful person. Not pretending to do things and yelling from the highest
mountaintop that he did something. No. He actually does things. And that’s the
problem. He doesn’t boast and brag, so no one knows what he’s doing. Instead of
a big check with his name on it that looks like he gave you money personally,
he reduced a little of the taxes that come out of your paycheck – only a few
dollars per paycheck, but it's something - only not tell you and it does
actually boost the economy. Most people need to be screamed at to hear
anything. And Obama’s measured, calm manner doesn’t get across to those people.
I estimate that’s about 85% of the country. So, almost everyone across the
board, left, center, right, is disappointed with what they think he has or
hasn’t accomplished so far.
Many things I think Obama has been spineless about. Por
ejemplo, I would like to have seen a public option in the health care reform
and Guantanamo closed and for him to not have given Boehner “98% of what [he] wanted,” but hey. What can ya do? Democrats by default have no balls. So, when their
opener is always to capitulate, you kind of roll with that gut-punch and wait
for the Republicans to take it to the ludicrous far right extreme and everyone
finally says, heywaitaminit. Then it ends up being what the Republicans wanted
originally. (Sort of mini tangent.)
Here’s what I think he’s doing. Being the first black
President, coupled with being a Democrat, puts him in a most precarious
position. If he tries anything too radical, he won’t get a second term. So, he
has to balance getting things done with not making too much of a scene – very
difficult when battling relentless, racist Republicans who want to control
every aspect of your life, grow the size of the government, and take all your
money and give it to rich people and the complacent, lazy Democrats who do
nothing because they think everything will sort itself out, like, eventually,
man (In a battle between fascist militants and docile hippies, who do you think
would most likely win? – micro tangent). I think when he gets re-elected (Face
it – Romney-Bot 3000 reprograms itself every time it speaks to a new crowd, so
it actually has no defendable stance on anything. Other than “Well, he’s not
Obama,” why would you vote for a self-preserving lie machine?), we’re going to see a man transformed by the removal of re-election fears. I
believe many good changes are ahead.
Once he’s re-elected, he can get the things done he wants to
get done. And no, it’s not a secret, socialist, Athiest, Muslim, Marxist, Nazi
plan. The only thing he has to worry about is fucking up the country so
motherfucking bad that he destroys any chance for his party to win the next
election and drives everyone to vote a black guy into office. Or in his case, the
next step may be a woman. Maybe even a black woman. Black, gay woman, even?
But for now, he’s speaking softly and carrying a big stick.
He will go far.
I still hope.
Good day.
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