3. THE CLOWN SHOW
Does Obama really have to worry about being re-elected? The Republican candidates we see on TV over here look like little more than a bunch of uneducated, pandering clowns.
Obama is still popular in America, but his numbers are going down a bit as the economy remains stuck in the jobless doldrums and he's doing little or nothing to help create jobs. I don't think Obama ordinarily would have much to fear from any of those "clowns," as you call them. After all, only about one third of the U.S. population -- many from the fundamentalist, anti-science, anti-reality world -- share their extremist views. But Obama has thoroughly pissed off a good share of his own Democratic base by behaving more like a Republican than the centrist pragmatist he pretends to be.
Like Clinton before him, Obama, unwilling to fight for traditional Democratic principles, seems so hungry for any little reform he can call a "victory" that he compromises before any battle has been joined, or else offers some GOP-friendly compromise for free without using it for political leverage in negotiations. Necessarily, then, he constantly gets rolled by the Republicans, and then is hammered by liberals and progressives for his timidity and naivete. That base worked so hard and gave so much money to get Obama elected in 2008 only to see the policies of Cheney and Bush show up again in the White House (unwinnable imperialist wars abroad, civil liberties ignored, corporations favored over the middle class, jobs-creation forgotten, etc. etc.). He seems to suggest that he only backs down because of political pressures, but he's the one who initiates and pushes for the so-called "compromises."
It would seem that Obama's 2012 election stragegy rests on winning over moderate Republicans (those appalled by what their party has turned into) and independents in the middle. He knows he'll never win that third of the population dedicated to Republican Know-Nothingism, and he's willing to continue antagonizing his liberal base because he figures: 1) doing so gives him more only-adult-in-the-room street cred; and 2) because enough of his disgruntled base eventually will hold their nose and vote for him because the Republican candidate will be so off-puttingly awful that they'll have little choice. Of course, this strategy could be thrown off if the economy gets worse (which, as the GOP certainly realizes, it certainly would do if the debt-ceiling is not lifted), or if, say, Senator Bernie Sanders or someone else decides to challenge Obama for the Democratic nomination from the left.
4. "AUSTERITY" & THE MISSING LEFT
The Right-created Great Recession has led to huge budget problems not only for you Americans, but also for those of us across the globe and for the policies of "austerity" being forced upon us because of those shrunken budgets. Those "austerity" policies come down hardest on the middle-class and poor and so there have been massive demonstrations against those policies -- and the wealthy and corporations who benefit -- all over Europe, most graphically in Greece, Spain, France and so on. Those same shock-doctrine "austerity" policies are being implemented in the various states in America, but we don't see massive protests against them. What's happening? Is there no real Left anymore in America? Do those being hurt by these policies just not care?
I share your sense of puzzlement. But I can offer a few speculations.
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