Post Election Reflections

Well, the mid tern elections are over, and the pundits are weighing in on what it means.  Well, here is what angers me, a progressive that has decided to sound off a bit, some pundits are saying the message of the midterms is that Democrats are going to have to start working with Republicans.  Excuse me?  The last two years have seen the Democrats trying to reach across the aisle, to no avail because the Republicans from day one have been obstructionist, refusing to work with the Democrats or the President.  They have NOW announced they will obstruct to the point of gridlock in order to kill the legacy of our President.  Where is the criticism of the Republican leadership that had obstinately refused to work across the aisle?

Am I enthralled with our President?  No, I'm a bit disappointed, to be quite honest.  Why?  Because there was a candidate that promised to make things different in Washington, to represent the progressive agenda, to repeal "Don't ask, don't tell," and he has fallen away from most of what he promised to work for - probably because of political expediency, but it still is disappointing that so much of what Dub-yuh put in place is still the direction of the country.

Why are we still so strong in Iraq, why are we still such a presence in Afghanistan - when the promise was a withdrawal beginning after the election that put the US in line with so many other countries by electing a Black person to the chief executive office?  Why have we not moved stronger to stop hate crimes, even to the place of bringing the law down on those members of Congress who want to use the speech of "uprising" and hatred in order to express their point of view?    I live in Minnesota, and quite frankly, I'm embarrassed that we have to be represented by a nut-case like M. Bachmann!

I have been told for years that conservatives are more willing to get in people's faces to get their view across, while progressives are reluctant to do so, because we want people to think for themselves - maybe we need to wake up to the reality that by letting people "think for themselves" we've abandoned the very ground we claim to hold for our world.  We need to be willing to match the Tea Party with the Progressive voice.  We need to get our voice in front of the nation, so there really is a grand debate and people can hear two or three or six sides to a discussion.

I'm tired of listening to right hammer away at the progressives, and I plan to speak up regularly. 

And a point that needs to be made today is that even progressives honor the sacrifice of our nations warriors!  Thank you to our veterans, our active duty service members - Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines.  There is a real need for this nation to honor our service people by providing ALL the support that is needed for our returning service people - emotionally, physically, with regard to employment, housing, and the decompression that is needed for warriors to return to civilian status.  Morning Joe is addressing this issue even now - but the government is NOT doing enough for our veterans!

Enough for today!  I'll be back!