Why Obama’s Second Term Will Be the Best

Yes, we will

The Republican strategy of painting President Obama as an ineffectual Jimmy Carter Democrat has been somewhat successful up until recently (Jimmy Carter was actually not that bad of a President but Republicans successfully portrayed him as such. But this is an argument for another article). The President finally accepted that Republicans were never going to agree with him on anything regardless of whether or not it hurt the country. For the first time in his presidency, after two years of reaching way more across the aisle than most of his supporters think he should have, the President finally uttered the word ‘veto’ this year. His rhetoric became more brazen after the House rejected his jobs bill and finally, he put his foot down on the payroll tax cut and unemployment extension issue just before Christmas. The Speaker of the House backed down and made this interesting statement:

“Sometimes it’s hard to do the right thing…why not do the right thing for the American people – even though it’s not exactly what we want?” – John Boehner

If that isn’t a tacit admission that the Republicans put their interests above those of the American people then it’s difficult to imagine what is.

Mitch McConnell’s party has made no secret that all it wants to do is get rid of the democratically elected President. Even at the expense of crashing the economy. That’s a slap in the face of democracy. It’s giving the middle finger to all of those Americans who voted for Obama in 2008.

But don’t stop there. Republicans have not offered any economy fixing solutions (at least not any that don’t involve riders designed to collapse the government). But the Republicans want you to believe that the President is ineffective. It’s his fault that your economy is bad. I suggest that it isn’t. Liberal anger is warranted; their blame is not. Obama is not the bad guy here.

I have little patience for those who fail to appreciate the difficulty, scope, and magnitude of the things already accomplished in light of the all-out war the Republicans have declared on a President that we, the people, elected. I’ve written about the accomplishment’s of this administration in another article. Those accomplishments are many and substantial.

But let’s consider what a second term of Obama will bring.

• Supreme Court Nominations. Scalia and Thomas have got to leave sometime. Bush had an undue influence on the Supreme Court (See Citizens United).
• No pressure of a re-election so the President can hold a firmer stance.
• It’s possible that we’ll have a Democratic House AND Senate. Then we can pass meaningful legislation that matters to the people and not corporations.
• Republicans won’t be able to pull this hostage thing anymore. They’ll be forced to do the job they were elected to do.
• The Bush tax cuts will expire and we’ll see economic recovery accelerate.

The Republican party needs to go into a long slumber and it’s more important than ever to re-elect the man we put into office in 2008. Republicans are winning the battle of perception. That’s all they really need to do. Because if you don’t have a solution for our economic problems then the only thing you can do is make sure the other side doesn’t have a solution either. If you can’t beat the President on policy then make sure he can’t be elected by making voter laws more difficult, gerrymandering, inhibit the economic recovery, and portray the President as weak.

Change is a process. And it requires time, persistence, vigilance, and tenacity. We simply can’t afford to give up now.

2012 needs to be a banner year.

Obama for President

Democratic House and Senate (without the filibuster rule)

Elizabeth Warren 2016!

Related articles

• Chris Weigant: Obama Poll Watch — November, 2011 (huffingtonpost.com)
• Zakaria: Beware of presidential nostalgia (globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com)
• Republicans Want Keystone XL Now; Obama Says No (indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com)
• Morris W. O’Kelly: Democrats on Verge of Repeating Ted Kennedy Mistake of 1979 (huffingtonpost.com)
• The Case for Re-Electing Obama (redstateprogressive.com)
• Obama: Can a Messiah Win Twice? (themoderatevoice.com)