The Displaced Plainsman has been placing small burrs under my saddle with his reminders of why he won't be a Democrat. His commentary on the foibles of my chosen party chafe all the more because the strongest response I can give is to note that the alternative is worse.
However, the following articles do make me wonder whether that difference is big enough to be a voting issue:
Cronyism on Keystone XL: Bill McKibben equates the cronyism and bias at State in support of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline to Dick Cheney's formulation of Bush energy policy in secret meetings with Big Oil and other industry execs.
Obama a Disaster for Civil Liberties: While TransCanada uses eminent domain to seize private American property, Jonathan Turley argues that President Obama has not only failed to reverse Bush Administration violations of civil liberties but has made them worse. Turley goes so far as to say defenders of civil liberties would be fighting harder and more effectively to roll back warrantless searches and torture if Obama had lost in 2008.
Obama Continues the Endless War: President Obama has reduced our spending on Iraq, but he's pouring much more money into Afghanistan. Eventually, some Democrat has to talk guns and butter. A former CIA official says President Obama has changed nothing in our approach to an endless war that is costing us our fortune and our souls.
Enthusiasm gap? You betcha. There's no mystery here. Barack Obama won election because he promised needed change from the destructive and undemocratic policies of the Bush Administration. If he doesn't deliver more of that change, there are just enough hardcore Republicans and other voters easily fooled by the corporate energy/security complex to outnumber the bummed-out but alternativeless Dems like me who will still show up to pull the D-lever in November 2012.
My dear friend: I feel your pain. Comedian Lewis Black once observed that the Democrats are the party of no ideas while the Republicans are the party of bad ideas. You might need to think that one through. Bad ideas, if that is what they are, win every time.
Case in point. You have no energy policy. Wind and solar are never likely to provide more than marginal amounts of energy to the grid and right now they are energy sinks. You don't like nuclear power and you loath oil. I don't know what you think about biofuels, as you seem to resolutely ignore that issue, but isn't it clear that they have come a cropper?
The President has no plan for fiscal responsibility or entitlement reform, and I haven't seen one here. No ideas.
Maybe it's time to go back to the drawing board?
I have been trying to get you to understand that the establishments of both parties have a common agenda.
Kailash, when it rises....
Alleged war criminal Dick Cheney cancels Canada visit as "too dangerous."