Partisan Delusion

I usually make allowances for Obamabots, but this comment took me all aback and left me in irons. (That’s sailing talk. I watched the America’s Cup too long.) I commented that Obama had largely ignored his liberal base and this was one of the responses,

The liberal base got national health care, championing of homosexual rights, an end to the “war on terror” and likely another amnesty coming soon, that’s not being ignored in my opinion.

Oh my goodness, let’s start with the “national health care” that the liberal base supposedly got. Even calling that legislation “health care reform” is a stretch, because it’s basis has nothing to do with health care but with health insurance, which it requires everyone to purchase from private corporations. That is a very, very long way from “national health care.”

His “championing of homosexual rights” is almost as much of a stretch. For four full years he said simply that “don’t ask don’t tell” would be repealed “at the right time” without saying what that time might be. It was repealed because Congress responded to gay activism and Obama responded to Joe Biden shaming him into action by acting first. As to gay marriage, his view on the subject is to this day still “evolving,” and his administration has declined to participate in two cases on the subject at the Supreme Court.

As to the claim that he has brought “an end to the war on terror,” one has to simply laugh and hope that the writer will seek mental help. We’re still at war in Afghanistan and seeking to maintain a troop presence there after the war nominally ends. We are still employing Hellfire missiles fired from drones to kill people whose names we do not even know in at least four Islamic countries because they look like they might be “extremists.” We’re still foaming at the mouth over Syria and Iran. The “national security” apparatus is at an all time high and still growing, there is still incessant fear mongering about Al Queda and the war on whistleblowers rages unabated.

Finally, anyone who thinks there is “likely another amnesty coming” is, at best, using a seriously bad choice of words. Obama championed immigration reform during the 2012 campaign season long enough to secure the Hispanic vote and has not spoken of it since, and even then he avoided the term “amnesty” like it contained four letters; was careful to promise that whatever he offered it would not be amnesty.

At least there was no claim of him ending the war in Iraq.