Although I am left of President Obama on most things, I still voted for him and will again. I will continue to support Democrats with the following exception. I will work to have liberals and progressives replace any centrist or conservative "Democrats" in this year's and following Primaries. It really cracks me up how the current media infatuation with the clearly maniacle Tea Baggers makes less informed folks on the extreme right think that they will be overthrowing the wave of change still coming to our great Country. There is still much more change to come folks! If we lose a lot of seats this year in Congress, it will be because the President is NOT LIBERAL ENOUGH! Not the other way around. There is not really a socialist bone in his body. He is barely even Centrist let alone Liberal. So, many liberals and progressives, disenchanted with the wins by righties and the health insurance companies in reforming health care and the loss of the already compromise of the Public Option, may stay home in droves. So, the possible low turnout from liberals and progressives this year may cause us to lose some seats. The point being, the extreme right, like those represented by the Tea Baggers, Palin, Limbaugh, Beck, etc. simply do not have the numbers any more
to ever win elections provided turnout is like it was in 2008. We all know that the right came out in record numbers last year due to their fears about having a Black Man in the White House. But, I digress...
There are a couple of things I never agreed on with President Obama and many progressives. One is closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay. Although some fine tuning may be required, this prison serves its very useful purpose. It is heavily monitored by the Red Cross, Geneva, Amnesty Now, etc. Many people forget that the detainees there are NOT American citizens and therefore have no intrinsic rights awarded by our Constituion. Of course, they do have basic human rights and should be treated with basic human decency and not tortured, etc. But, they are prisoners of war. They are warriors! They all profess to wanting to do harm to us!They were caught instead of killed in the wars against terrorism. Mercy has already been shown them. Even detainees released by Dick Cheney have now been connected to a recent terror attempt. There is no need to be in a hurry to close Guantanamo or even move the prisoners stateside. That facility is excellent, clean, and secure. Prisoners are well-fed, provided way better medical care than many American citizens receive, have outstanding legal counsel and have their religion respected (provided with The Koran, etc.). Military Tribunals are already more access to justice than they would ever get back at their own homes.
Of course, lack of Freedom is never fun. But, they, not us, made the choice to threaten Peace. To threaten Freedom. And they were caught.
Now, let us talk of important things like getting back the Public Option (better yet, Single Payer), addressing climate change, continuing to fix the Bush economy, and winning the 2010 elections for liberal Democrats!
