Friends, progressives, fellow Democrats

 

For months now we have seen the media (press, TV, cable) asserting that progressives are unhappy with the President, disappointed with pieces of legislation (e.g. lack of publi option in the HCR bill), dissatisfied with the pace of change and so on.

 

Since I consider myself a progressive Democrat I sat down to research this issue in some depth. I hope this Essay will help the doubters to reconsider and consolidate the support of the progressive Democratic community for our President.

 

Two sources played a key role in putting this together: info provided by OFA and the Administration website as well as the independent site politifact.com which provides the true facts about campaign claims, statements, issues, legislation etc.  My friends if you enter politifact.com and check the section about the President's Campaign Promises (the ``ObamaMeter") you will be pleasently reassured or surprised about the committment that our President has shown to the promises he made during the 2008 campaign.

 

No recent president has accomplished so much in his first 18-months.  As you see from politifact.com, Pres Obama has fulfilled 120 of his campaign promises, has kept another 37 of them with some compromises, 83 are stalled (mostly because of Republican Fillibusters in the Senate) , 243 are in the works,  3 are not yet rated, and 19 are broken.  There were 505 total promises made by the President during the campaign as counted by the Website which researched every Speech or interview in the 2007-2008 period (after Senator Obama announced his intention for a Presidential Run).  Is this a great record or not ?

 

The aformentioned Website provides a detailed discussion of the current status of the President's campaign promises one by one.  It is a great tool for us to monitor the efforts of one of the most thoughtful, articulate and intelligent presidents in our nation's history.   This website also has a Truth-O-Meter about the statements of politicians and elected officials to the press the TV etc in which they grade the truthfulness of the statement: they allow for truths, half truths and falsehoods; they literally grade the comments.  This will be of help to the campaigns of the Democratic candidates as it will assist as in exposing their false claims and unsupported facts.

 

Before I provide the List of the  Achievements of the Administration so far, I would like to remind us all that the President is progressive but also a realist.  He does not think of himself as an Ideologue and he tries to be practical and results-oriented. 

 

Which brings up a key question to our very progressive (and sometimes very ideological) friends: would you like to see SOMETHING  accomplished by the Administration and the Democratic Congress rather than NOTHING ?  I definitely would take the something any day of the week particularly since major achevements such as the Recovery Act (Stimulus), Health Care (or Insurance)  Reform and Wall St Reform  (all imperfect for a progressive like me) are much more than something.!!!   Put in different words: ``We must not let the perfect be the enemy of the good".  Think of all of these as first steps in a long process of reform that advances the progressive cause for the country that we all love.

 

Next, I am providing a list of the Major Accomplishments of the Administration and the Democratic Congress. 

 

-- Historic Health Insurance Reform

-- Recovery Act 

-- Wall St reform

-- Children Health Insurance (SCHIP: State Children's Health Insurance Program)

-- Small Business Tax Cuts for Hiring Workers

--Credit Cad Reform (Accontabilty, Responsibility and Disclosure Act, CARD)

-- Tobacco Legislation

-- New Opportunities for Community Service

-- Stem Cell Research

-- Fair Pay for  Women (Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act)

 -Hate Crimes Prevention Act

--Sonia Sotomayor's appointment to the Supreme Court

-- Helena Kagan's appointment to the Court almost done as well

--Restoring our Reputation Around the World

--Reforming Education

--Building a Clean Energy Economy

--Repealing Don't Ask Don't Tell

 

The attached file in this e-mail provides a description of these accomplishments to some detail.  The Wall St Reform one is not there cause it is very recent. 

 

The purpose of this Essay is not to discuss in length the Accomplishemnts

and the issues with them.   It is actually to initiate a dialogue about the accomplishemnts.  We plan to revisit tem in the immediate future, if not one by one, at least the most important one.  In each case, I wil try to have a file attached with my Essay so that more detail is provided directly from OFA or the Administration and I will in essence provide comments on it.  Again with the goal to starte a dialogue via the internet and motivate Letters to the Editors of Local Paper(s) as described in the Goals of the Forum.

 

Finally, I would like to remind our members that the Democratic Party is a big tent party.  It includes not just progressives but also moderates and few conservatives.   This broad spectrum enabled us to win the Elections of 2006 and 2008 that led to Democratic majorities in the House and the Senate.   Several pieces of legislation had to be watered down (to a degree) so as to get the necessary votes (in the Senate usually) for passing.   With the consisent Republican Fillibusters in the Senate (more than any time in our history in a 18-month period) there are now about 120 bills or parts of bills that have passed the House and are stalled at the Senate.   We simply do not have the 60 votes needed to bring cloture: that is to stop the preliminary discussions and bring officialy a bill to the Senate for voting. 

 

Many times progressives like myslef get

angry with conservative democrats (particularly in the Senate) who have been watering down some of the bills.  But please remember all politics are local.  These Dems represent conservative or swing districts.   If they go too much against the desires of their constituencies they will lose in the next election cycle and with their loss our Majorities in House or Senate may be diminshed or even lost.   Also, though I hate to admit or believe it polls have shown that only 20 - 25 % of the American electorate identify themselves as progressive or liberal.   Though these polls can be deceptive since the results will be different if you go issue by issue, it gives a snapshot of the big picture.   Remember, let us not allow the perfect to be the enemy of the good !!!

 

Please participate, provide your opinions, comments, additions etc. 

 

Let us FIGHT together to bring to reality the Message of Hope and Change that our President brought in 2008 and  the Dem Congress has been working hard to implement !!!.

 

Let us Debunk the Republican message, misinformation and propaganda!!!

 

Let us work hard to support the Democratic Candidates and Allies of the President !!!

 

Evan Geraniotis

Democrat, Organizing for America