On Losing a Friend

Here's an e-mail my friend Dan Pattern sent me and some of his other friends. I"m posting it here because I think it captures the disappointment that so many of us are feeling about President Obama these days.

Dear Friends with a similar political bent.

I feel like I've lost a friend. Two out of the last three nights I've lost a lot of sleep agonizing over what has happened to Barack Obama. Here's this man I saw in 2008 with 75,000 people convinced he was going to usher in a new era. The man who made me weep as I heard his inauguration speech and Aretha singing. I envisioned us moving away from war, away from torture and abuse of power, away from corporate control of medicine, and away from the reckless finances of George W. Bush and the upward redistribution of wealth, and towards determined action on global warming.

I've lost faith slowly. I know Barb, you've been terribly disappointed for a long time.

Here was a man who opposed the war in Iraq from the start, who said as a senator that single payer was the best deal for taxpayers, who vowed as a presidential candidate that he would close Guantanamo Bay prison within a year.

I had been so impressed with his intellect and integrity that I gave him slack for a long time. I thought he was being naive with the Republicans; it seemed pretty clear within a fear weeks of taking office that all they would do was oppose whatever he wanted. Still I admired his determination to think well of people and give kindness a chance.

I was really disappointed he didn't stand up to BP after the oil disaster. And it did hurt how his White House has referred to progressives as the "professional left" and shut us out.

I knew the Democrats would get crushed on election day. That's almost inevitable with unemployment so high. I wasn't that upset the day after the election. Sure, we got crushed. But a lot of good officeholders stuck around, especially out here in the west. And I saw the scale of the carnage as an indicator that it hadn't worked for Obama to shut out his base and run the White House like a blue dog Democrat reelection headquarters. I thought it was time to roll up our sleeves with a nutty bunch taking over the House of Reps.

But days later I found Obama was blaming himself for Repubs intransigence. And when I found out he was negotiating to renew the Bush tax cuts even for the superwealthy, I was livid. Let's make up our minds: is the deficit a problem or isn't it? And not standing up to the GOP preventing extension of jobless benefits? I guess the problem is that the poor aren't poor enough and the rich aren't rich enough. If a Democrat isn't going to stand up for this, he's not really a Democrat.

I spent years fuming over the pliability of Bill Clinton. Moral flexibility on the issues. And a loosening of the markets with Robert Rubin and the GOP Congress that helped bring us the financial bubble. Obama makes Clinton look like a steely jawed Churchill or MacArthur. Remember how he stood up to Newt Gingrich trying to shut down the government?

Of course, I'm reading the newspaper and finding people who think like me. Like Paul Krugman, with the headline that Obama is punting on the first down. "Whatever is going on inside the White House, from the outside it looks like a moral collapse-a complete failure of purpose and loss of direction." And Frank Rich on Sunday on "All the President's Captors".

I need to get away from the media and distract myself with some good literature. Let see, here's Dante's Inferno. Hmm, what circle does Obama fit into? Does he belong in limbo with the indecisive and uncommitted, or does he goes with the traitors who abandoned their folks?

Rats, I don't think that's getting me into a better frame of mind.

I'll pull out my Thich Nhat Hanh Touching Peace. Ok, so we have mind consciousness in the living room of our brains. And store consciousness, which is all of our memories and life experiences in storage. "Upstairs in the living room, we sit in a chair and watch these films as they are brought up from the basement. Certain movies, such as Anger, Fear, or Despair, seem to have the ability to come up from the basement all by themselves. They open the door to the living room and pop themselves into our video cassette recorder whether we choose them or not. When that happens, we feel stuck and we have no choice but to watch them. Fortunately each film has a limited length..But each time it is viewed by us it establishes a better position on the archive shelf." Yes, that's it! I keep watching the Obama movie and it doesn't get any better so far. I need to redirect my mind.

It's weird how personally I'm taking it. Obama really was a hero for me. And that Jeremiah Wright speech was one of the best I've ever heard. Seemed he had so much guts and courage. And now he's a waterboy for the Right. A waterboy who makes better policy suggestions before the Republican minority (at least till January, and then still a minority in the Senate) shuts him down.

You know the sneering White House comments about the professional left? I think someone should start a grassroots organization in Obama's face called the Professional Left.

Peace in every step, brothers and sisters. Let's be sure to transcend the present moment. Confused smile

Dan