Hey, Did You Hear That Democrats Won The Election?

That George Bush, man - what a monster, eh? I mean, could you even have imagined a
president so destructive?

It's actually worse
than you thought, though. Lately, there's been a spate of fresh
revelations about some of the incredibly disastrous policies that were
executed by the Bush administration.

Did you know, for instance,
that they...

That George Bush, man - what a monster, eh? I mean, could you even have imagined a
president so destructive?

It's actually worse
than you thought, though. Lately, there's been a spate of fresh
revelations about some of the incredibly disastrous policies that were
executed by the Bush administration.

Did you know, for instance,
that they...

...steered hundreds of
billions of bail-out dollars to the very people who drove the country
into the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, required
nothing of these sharks in return, and did almost nothing for ordinary
Americans struggling to survive this disaster?

...opposed congressional
legislation limiting financial institution incentive pay packages that
put the whole global economy at risk?

...opposed legislation
allowing shareholders the right to have even a non-binding say on salaries,
even though executives took home billions in bonuses last year while
their companies were hemorrhaging money so badly they required a trillion
bucks in taxpayer bail-out?

...actually threatened
Britain, America's closest ally in the world, with withdrawal of intelligence
data that could prevent terrorist attacks unless the British government
blocked one of its courts from accepting documented evidence of torture
at Guantanamo?

...sent droves of Predator-launched
missiles into Pakistan - supposedly one of America's allies -
killing groups of civilians, even at weddings, thus intensifying hatred
toward the United States?

...tried to shut down
a charity's illegal-surveillance suit against the government on the
basis of a supposed constitutionally-grounded state secrets privilege
which would allow the president to kill any legal case before it is
even heard?

...undertook a blitz
of immigration enforcement without reform of civil rights violations
so nasty that one professor of immigration law described the policies
as "literally the worst of all worlds"?

...refused to set legally
enforceable immigration detention rules covering such basics as health
care and legal representation, instead relying on a flawed contractor-based
monitoring system?

...pressured a member
of Congress to withdraw an amendment that would have ended the military's
disastrous "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" regime, simply by defunding
it?

...asked a federal court
to dismiss a case in which the plaintiffs challenged the discriminatory
Defense of Marriage Act, arguing to the court that heterosexual marriage
is "the traditional, and universally recognized, version of marriage"?

...dramatically increased
the influence of religion in government, directly violating the First
Amendment, by lavishly spending federal dollars on "faith-based"
programs, and giving religious groups massively increased power and
access within the White House to shape policy questions?

...stood by silently,
allowing climate legislation to be watered down to nothing, to include
generous pollution allowances to coal utilities, and to undermine the
EPA's authority to control carbon emissions?

...backed healthcare
legislation that did little for the public and actually increased wasteful
federal expenditures, while continuing to enrich insurance, medical,
hospital and pharmaceutical corporation vampires?

...and lots and lots
more.

Can you believe it?
Can you imagine anything as absolutely evil as the Bush administration?
Can you believe the stunts they pulled?

Well, try this on for
size: Every item above actually reflects the actions of the Obama
administration in just its first six months - not George Bush!
(Although, of course, Bush did a lot of these things too, and would
have likely done them all, given the chance.)

That's right, that's
right. Yep. This is the record of the guy liberals scrambled
to put into office, the guy who promised big-time change, and the guy
whom foaming-at-the-mouth regressives run around screaming is a socialist
ruining America.

I don't know about
you, but I think maybe all those government officials and media reporters
who say Democrats won the last election (actually, the last two of them)
have just been having a great big ol' laugh at our expense!
Whataya think? This is change from the last eight years??
This is the party that opposed the horrors of the Bush administration
and the Republican Congress?? This is out-of-control liberalism?

And let's not even
talk about the things they aren't doing...

...Real change in Middle
East policy? Haven't seen it.

...Remotely serious response
to the existential threat of global warming? Nope - might offend
somebody.

...Single-payer healthcare
system, to provide the only cost-effective and fair solution for universal
coverage? Wasn't mentioned by Harry in the commercial.
Or Louise.

...Serious cuts to annual
defense spending now equal to twice what every other country in the
world spends, combined? Nein, dummkopf. The Pentagon's
budget is rising - you know, in order to protect America from its
big bad enemy, the, uh..., the, um, what's-their-names again...?

...Full-court press to
curb hugely expanding wealth disparities and protect the economy from
Wall Street predators? Hell, nowadays those clowns have their
offices right in the West Wing. In fact, now it's called the
Goldman Sachs Wing.

Look, I'll be honest.
I supported (sorta) Obama and I voted for him. But I did so with
open eyes. I knew he could be a progressive once installed in
the Oval Office, but that he might well also be a Clinton-like hack
for the money boys and a complete coward in standing up to the insane
right that is gobbling up America on a steady diet of hate and paranoia.

In other words, I'm
not shocked that he's not FDR. But why is this guy carrying
water for George Bush, covering up his worst crimes? Why are his
civil liberties positions so bad that one attorney described them as
"the good old Bush-Cheney inherent presidential power theory" all
over again? Why is he working so hard to make sure Wall Street
sucks every drop of blood it possibly can out of the pale-white corpse
of the American middle class, even while it ruins the global economy
in yet another get-rich scam, then turns to the government for a bail-out
when it all comes a cropper, all the while - and without a hint of
irony - still loudly singing its effusive praises of Ayn Rand?
Why is it this guy can't simply stand aside and let Congress defund
Don't Ask, Don't Tell, a program even the military now wants to
jettison? Why does he go to court arguing on behalf of homophobic
repression? What in the world is this dude going to tell his children
when their country is broke and broken, and their planet parched and
dying? "I was just one person. What could I do?"

I guess Democrat is the
new Republican nowadays.

Sure, the pathetically
feeble Dems are less likely to launch big wars based on lies (at least
since LBJ left the White House), and that's nothing to sneeze at.
(Maybe Obama will even end Bush's debacle in Iraq, like he said he
would. Maybe. I take nothing on faith with this guy, that's
for sure.)

And, yeah, Democrats
will move slightly faster in the quest to do nothing and to get nowhere
when it comes to protecting the environment, civil rights or civil liberties.
Woo-hoo.

Otherwise, I'm having
a hard time seeing the difference. Bill Clinton (he of WTO, NAFTA,
welfare reform and Telecommunications Bill fame) was the best friend
Wall Street could ever have imagined, and they still tried to ride him
out on a rail. Now Obama's got the same Goldman Sachs retreads
in there ripping us off again, even as the ship is still going down
from the last round.

So Democrats won the
last election, huh?

Coulda fooled me.
But here's the bigger question:

What for?

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.