Coffee Party Progressive: A Progressive case FOR Obama

THIS POST WILL BE UPDATED, SO BOOKMARK AND SHARE...

A note to all the progressive/leftists opposing Obama's re-election: Most of your criticisms of Obama's timid responses to the Great Recession, etc. are correct: Obama didn't do enough to regulate the banking and financial industry, he didn't push a single-payer national health insurance plan, he didn't prosecute the Bush/Cheney war criminals, he didn't turn water into wine, etc. He DID get the most progressive expansion of health insurance (including the largest expansion of Medicaid since it's inception), he DID pass the largest public investment ("stimulus") since the New Deal, he DID push and get some needed financial regulations and reforms, despite substantial opposition from the business community, and created the Consumer Financial Protection Agency, he DID end the Iraq War and is finally winding down the Afghanistan War. Obama hasn't done enough on the environment or climate change, but he has supported and passed some regulations that will help even if they are not enough. ROMNEY OPPOSES ALL OF THEM AND WILL REVERSE THEM!

Romney and a GOP controlled Congress will overturn what regulations Obama and the Dems passed, they have vowed to repeal "Obamacare" and the expansion of Medicaid to the poor. Obama may not have deserved that "Nobel Peace Prize," but he is willing to cut some military spending, Romney and the GOP want to INCREASE it $2 trillion. Even with Obama's shortcomings, the list of differences between him and Romney is long, and not insignificant.

So you are free to vote for a third party candidate who cannot win ONE of 270 electoral votes, but don't play "holier than thou" toward PROGRESSIVES who vote for the better of the the two candidates who CAN win 270 electoral votes. And we will not be voting for the "lesser of two evils," we will be voting to expand healthcare for those who will qualify for Medicaid etc. who do not now. We will be voting to keep moving forward on the other issues we care about (the environment, gay and women's rights, etc.) because we know for a FACT that Mitt Romney, and a GOP congress will take us BACK, not forward.

So as great as Green Party candidate Jill Stein may be on these issues, she will not, she CANNOT, win ONE electoral vote in this election. So voting for her will not do ANYTHING to address these issues since she will NOT be elected to do ANYTHING about them. The only REAL choice is between Mitt Romney and Barack Obama. One of them will be President from 2013-2016. You should think about that...

Progressives should support Obama's re-election, BUT be prepared to push him to the left, and organize to stop a "Grand Bargain" to cut Social Security and other social programs in a deal to get a budget deal with the House Republicans. As long as the Tea Party controls Congress, no progressive legislation will be possible, so we must focus on winning back Congress in the 2014 midterm elections.

The Bottom Line: Yes Obama has made a lot of mistakes, and his policies, at least what he was able to get through a hostile Tea party controlled House and a divided Senate, leave much to be desired. But he did a lot of good PROGRESSIVE things in the short time he had a Democratic House to work with. The stimulus was too small, but was still the largest public investment program since the New Deal, and created the foundations of a Green economic revolution. The Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) was not the single-payer national health program we wanted, but it is the largest expansion of publicly funded healthcare since the LGJ's Great Society, and the largest expansion of Medicaid since it was created. Those are the two big accomplishments. More needs to be done, more can be done if he is re-elected and the Democrats win back the House in 2014. The choice is do we go "forward" with Obama or backward with Mitt Romney? That is the only real choice in this election, and the answer should be clear to anyone who supports a progressive agenda for the future.

Why Progressives Should Vote for Obama (The Nation)

A Romney Presidency Would be a Threat to Peace We Cannot Allow (Tom Hayden)

The Price of Political Purity (Robert Perry-Consotrium News)

The Liberal's Enduring Dilemma: Whether to Vote for Disappointing Centrists

Thinking Makes it So (The Problem with the Green Party)

The Picking-a-President Dilemma

What To Do In November: Progressives for Obama

The 2012 Elections Have Little to do with OBAMA's Record, Which is Why We Are Voting for Him

Progressive Critics of President Obama Must Go All Out to Defeat Romney

The Progressive Case FOR Obama

Obama By Default

Beyond November (The Jacobin)

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