As most who know me know, I’m no fan of President Obama. I think his “reach across the aisle and work toward bipartisanship” approach has been extremely counterproductive and done severe damage to both his reputation and his resume as a leader. Progressives have been increasingly disenchanted with him (see: Uygur, Cenk) and - surprise - conservatives still treat him as badly as they ever have (see: Limbaugh, Rush).
This is not new. I’ve never been a fan of the idea - nor the reality - of President Obama. He was fourth on ‘list’ of presidential candidates behind John Edwards, Hillary Clinton, and Dennis Kucinich (who I honestly felt had the best ideas, but knew had little shot of getting the nomination). I went through countless arguments in 2008 with almost everyone I knew because, to be frank, I saw this coming. Nothing I said back then has failed to come to pass, especially not my main two concerns with him. He’s shown his inexperience and he’s tried too hard to compromise.
He’s great at getting elected - or at least he was: we’ll see how things turn out next fall - but he leaves much to be desired as a governing official. Said it before he got elected…future tense then, of course…and it’s held up. He’s somehow allowed positives (stimulus, health care) to be turned into negatives and the negatives (most recently the debt deal) speak for themselves. His best hope for re-election sits with one group of people. I’ll get to them now.
As everyone who knows me knows, I am even less a fan of the GOP. Shoot, demographics could have easily told people that. I’m a black American from an urban environment who has a master’s degree in social work. The only GOP characteristic I fit is ‘male’. My lack of love for the GOP, as is the case for most black people, has both contemporary and historical rationale. I think everyone knows enough about the GOP to understand this, so I’ll skip straight to the dilemma.
I can’t decide whether to get a 2O12 shirt. I don’t want to vote for the president, but any other electoral activity helps the GOP. Plain and simple, I want the GOP to lose a lot more - and I mean a whole lot more - than I want President Obama to win. This is mainly true because they’re a collection of orifices. It’s also true because even if I wanted them to win and ruin the country so people would wake up, I have insufficient confidence in Americans to believe they would realize this (and given the upward trend in Rick Scott’s approval ratings, the state of Florida has given me further reason to believe this). Is that enough reason to spend $30 minimum on a 2O12 shirt?
Maybe I should divvy up the cost mentally. Say, pretend that I’m donating $10 to help him win but $20 to help the GOP lose. With thirty dollars, there are enough to go around. Actually, it may be at least 60. My cousin’s dad, who’s equally disappointed in the president, said he’d most likely give if I gave. This isn’t that much of an added burden - especially since he makes a lot more than I do - but it’s a small consideration. Hate to lead someone else down the wrong path.
You know what? After seeing my supervisor (who I like as a person, despite his political leanings) run a Google search for “Obama impressionist”…the check’s in the mail.
(Ed. note: I bought the shirt last Sunday and it came in the mail yesterday).
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