for Obama, no matter what. BUT WE all need to keep his feet to the fire.

I remember hearing and reading, from others and from myself, that WE would do this after the 2006 election. That we would pound on Reid and Pelosi is they strayed down the corporate path.

Well.... guess what they have been doing?  

Yes, we have been able to get them to listen and react positively at times, but those times come when WE SCREAM and YELL! When WE Take action and make them HEAR Us! When WE hold their feet to the fire!

peace.

See Fiengold on Obama vid on front page.

The reason I am posting this, is to get people to think.

Uh, well, what I'm thinking is, "Wtf?" That's supposed to be deep analysis? It's not even fully coherent. Obama would be a tsar/theocrat/fascist because he couldn't stop the FISA bill? Huh?

Anyone who actually suggests that there's little difference between Obama/McCain/Bush/politicians in general is either utterly uninformed, or so ideologically irrational that they can no longer tolerate anyone whose beliefs differ from theirs at all. (Given what you wrote about your friend, I'm guessing he's in the latter category.)

To borrow from Jeff Lieber, sorry to disappoint you but Obama's just not going to buy you a new bicycle. Ugh. What a pantload.

Wasn't there a diary recently quoting Voltaire's comment that "the perfect is the enemy of the good"?  I understand the person's frustration, really I do, but it's absolutist positions such as this that get us nowhere.  When everything looks the same, one has lost perspective.

I am less than impressed by this rant. Intelligent doesn't equal smart. I say that as someone with an IQ that qualifies me for membership in Mensa. In spite of that high IQ I have done and said some incredibly stupid things throughout my life. I am sure I will do and say more before it's all over.

Your friend sounds like Gore Vidal--and I agree with his rant completely!  (I wondered why in a recent interview he didn't publicaly endorse Obama.)  This is precisely what we HRC supporters have been saying all along--Obama is not really for change.  And now his vote for the FISA bill proves the point.  Obama is bent on EXPANDING--not changing--what King George and the neo-cons have already set up in Washington. It is sad indeed that so many have been fooled by this charismatic figure.

We should also give HRC much praise for voting against the FISA Bill.

Sorry, but I had to rec'd anyway because there needs to be some balance and honesty on this site, IMO.

I wonder why your friend bothers participating in American politics. Short of being a one-man band for Feingold, he has no candidates to support, nor will he for the foreseeable future.

The great strength and tragedy of Democracy is that policy tends to regress to the mean, no matter how venial that mean may be. I work with people who think removing telecom immunity would actually be unpatriotic, and yet to read the blogs you'd be utterly baffled as to why the bill even passed.

It's not a fight between us and our politicians, its a fight between us and the opinions of our fellow Americans. You want FISA killed? Stop bloviating on blogs and go convince a few million average Americans it sucks. You want strict separation of C&S? Come make your case in downtown Pittsburgh, where 75% of the populace has smudged foreheads on Ash Wed.

Politicians implement the will of the people, for sufficiently large values of "people". They aren't steamships, defining the course of the country, they are sailboats tacking this way and that to take advantage of the wind of opinion. That's what they do, and that's what they are supposed to do.

Clearly your friend acknowledges he's on the Left. With that acknowledgment should come the realization that much of the rest of the country is on his Right, and by definition the momentum and direction of America will always tend to that mean.

If you want to effect change, start with your co-workers, your family, your friends...not your Senator.

meh...I guess that was my rant.

We can win this election without true leftists like your friend. It is a HUGE mistake to try and please everyone.  I would rather spend resources trying to convince the 100 voters who are undecided than spend the same amount of time and effort trying to convince people like your friend to vote for Obama.  Some people are going to get left behind and I am A OK with that.  Screw em.  I didn't suffer through eight years of Bush to lose the WH because people like your friend got in the way.  

It's an okay rant, I guess, but let's not forget that "true leftists" are a distinct minority in this country.  Doesn't mean they're wrong (although I question both "fascist" and "theocratic") just that there aren't that many of them.