Obama's Catastrophe

The left has not even begun to accept the colossal failure that the Obama administration has foisted off on the nation with the miserable roll out of Obamacare.  I've heard so many progressives saying, "hey, it's not so bad, it'll all be over soon."  I've listened to Randi Rhodes and Stephanie Miller utterly rejecting the notion that this is a disaster, with Randi even resorting to that stupid cliche about Obama playing eleven-dimensional chess with the Republicans.  Well, they are dead wrong.  Obama has truly hurt not just the Democrats, but the country with his failure- with a three year lead time- to see to it that Obamacare worked adequately on rollout.  And since no one else is willing to do it, I will now explain why.

First, let me do away with one trivial Democratic talking point that I keep hearing:  that the rollout of the Bush prescription drug benefit didn't go any better.  Well, that was ten years ago, and ten years amounts to centuries in internet time.  It's like a car company introducing a new model that can't go over 40 miles an hour, and then saying that it's okay, because cars a hundred years ago couldn't go over 40 miles an hour either.

So, the first disaster that Obama's negligence caused was that it plays into a dominant view of the Federal government, which the press is always ready to push:  that we have two parties, one that won't govern and one that is incapable of governing.  Why should we trust people to run the government when they can't even get a website working in three years?  Maybe the Republicans are right- maybe Obama is a mirage who can give a good speech, but who can't really deliver the goods.  And honestly, right now, why should we think anything different?

Obama caused something far worse with this disaster, unfortunately, which has been almost ignored.  A month ago, large segments of the Republican party engaged in what was essentially a coup attempt, with the more or less open goal of replacing our government with a theocratic dictatorship.  As a result of that atrocity, for the first time, Democrats could see a path to winning back the House of Representatives, and restoring some semblance of a working government, as has happened in California with Democrats in control.

Today, a few weeks later, every shred of that progress among the voters has been lost, and we are right back where we started, with the likelihood of endless Republican sabotage for the remainder of Obama's term.  Obama managed to make everyone forget about one of the ugliest episodes in this country's legislative history, simply by demonstrating breathtaking incompetence and obliviousness.

And all of this comes from the same source, and it makes me wonder if Obama really is the brilliant guy we thought he was, or just a pedestrian thinker with a talent for public speaking whose pleasing image blinded us to his real inadequacy.  What is that?  It is his refusal, or inability, after all of the backstabbing he has received at the hands of the Republican party, all of the betrayal, all of the abuse, to accept the fact that they are not a loyal opposition, but a band of insurrectionists working night and day to destroy the government.  He is still trying to make deals with them, still putting Social Security and Medicare cuts on the table, in return for nothing, still accepting endless promises from Republicans which we all know they will not keep. And thus, he lets the country slip step by step into the dystopia that Republicans are working to create.

Obama cannot accept reality, and by stubbornly refusing to abandon his fantasy world, he is collaborating in destroying us all.