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Dear President Obama, Republicans hate you and what you stand for

by Karoli on January 20, 2010

Dear Mr. President,

I have been one of your most vocal supporters and advocates over this past year, especially with regard to health care reform. I will not stop, but you need to get this loud and clear:

Republicans hate you. They don’t just politically oppose you. They. hate. you. They will not stop at anything to stop you. They know you and those of us who supported you threaten the fundamentals of their conservative “screw you we’ve got ours” attitudes.

Listen: They want to end government. That is their goal. History shows that they want to do it by stopping it cold in its tracks.

So now I’m going to criticize you, and criticize you hard. I hope you listen to me because it is wrenching to me to have to do this, especially on a day where I’d rather be celebrating the first year of your Presidency.

Expecting Republicans to help you get health care reform passed is about as realistic as expecting an army of Martians to win the day in Afghanistan. Do you hear me? It will not happen because they cannot afford for it to happen. Bill Clinton’s words should serve as a warning: obstruction makes great politics and bad policy.

We elected you to get things done. Yes, we knew Congress was a problem. Unlike some, I never believed a bare 60 was a filibuster-proof majority. Nor do I believe that Olympia Snowe gives one rotten damn about anyone other than Olympia Snowe.

You cannot afford to be bipartisan right now. If you do, we lose the Congress, and most likely the Presidency. Now is the time. You either sit down and twist some arms, make some deals, horsetrade this bill through to your desk or else you’re kissing your Presidency goodbye along with any prospect for re-election.

Why?

Because Republicans hate you, and the longer you kid yourself by believing any bipartisan action is possible, the stronger they become. Got that? You feed the beast when you call for a further stripping-down of health care reform to satisfy the vultures in Congress who call themselves Americans while sticking it to any of us who don’t agree with their ideology.

We watched George Bush ram all sorts of ugly down the throat of Democrats over those last 8 years. We watched Democrats reach across the aisle. Republicans will not do the same.

This is not the time for altruism. It’s the time to grow a pair, fly the middle finger in the faces of the Republicans who have intentionally stopped you from getting this health reform bill done and DO IT.

If you won’t believe me, believe my formerly-Republican-now-independent spouse, who put it plainly when I said we’d get this done: “I’ll believe it when I see it.”

Give him a reason to believe it. Quit playing the nice guy and get back on message. We can’t afford to wait.

Tagged as: health care reform, Republicans

  • Ivan
    I am a lifetime Republican and I like President Obama as do most Republicans. We simply do not agree on policy issues.
  • So Sad
    I love it. Karoli you have shown your true colors again. I began following your blog when you commented on the "Bite the Finger that Feeds You Incident". That one made me laugh as you thought you were portraying yourself as the Sweet Polly Purebread Democrat who just happened along a tussle between your innocent defenseless Brother Democrat who had no choice but to bite the finger off of the Big Bad Repub (over 65 senior citizen) only after your Brother Democrat crossed the street and began badgering the Big Bad Repub.

    Now you use inflammatory headlines that Rebuplicans 'Hate' Obama, and don't want any government, drop the F Bomb a few times, etc.

    I think it's time you take your own advice and talk to yourself with your "Mom Voice". You know the one you've threatened to use on those who don't agree with big government take over and control that you ascribe to.

    Or, maybe you should look at the facts, see that it was in fact the Dem's who did not get Obamacare passed and try to understand why. If you listen to the people of America, you will find valid reasaons that many of us do not want to be taxed to pay for health costs that will cause our economy to run in the red. There are other ways of controlling costs other than government killing our economy.

    See, I'm a of a different political persuassion than you and I didn't say anything about hating Obama, because I don't hate Obama. I didn't say anything about ending "all Government", because I don't propose that idea. I don't ascribe to the 'screw you we've got ours' mentality you listed in your blog, because I don't live like that.

    Seems like another Karoli tantrum to me....
  • Sinfonian
    Brava. The president has been accommodating Republicans by watering down an issue on which, in large part, he was elected. He continually has refused to push back when Republicans hammered him and the entire concept of health care reform. The fact that weak-ass Democrats joined those Republicans is irrelevant -- the salient point is that there are 51 votes for meaningful health care reform, and the more President Obama asserts himself and behaves in a way that the people who elected him expect, the more likely his reelection chances...
  • jazzguyal
    I agree, I hope this type of thinking makes its way to the Administration. Winning has consequences, one of which is delivering for the electorate. The citizens of America are more important than bi-partisanship, one is a footnote to the legacy of the PotUS, the other put the PotUS in office.
  • meatman80
    I think its very unfair and accusatory to generalize that all republicans hate president obama. Such sweeping, mean statements are damaging to our political dialog. We need to be more diplomatic, not divisive. Dont you agree?

    Also -- you say that republicans want to end government (another sweeping statement). Surely you cannot mean that in the sense that anarchists want no government? Might I remind you of the great expansion of government under multiple republican presidents (regan, bush, gw bush). The war on terror, the patriot act, the creation of the tsa and homeland security, the military commissions act, the bailout of 2008, etc. etc. --- this is hardly ending government, in fact it the biggest expansion of it we have ever seen.

    Clearly republican policy has been to expand government, not end it.
  • LJSearles
    The issue isn't so much that the Republicans "hate" Obama. The point being made is that no one in the GOP is going to reward any efforts the left make to compromise their legislation with any supportive vote. That much is abundantly clear.

    It is however becoming necessary to use such language as "hate" to try and get that message into the heads of those that matter.

    I think you are misunderstanding the "end Government" comment. They don't want to end it so much as bring it to a grinding halt.
  • Hmmm... I guess I'm a little confused as to how it was "Republican hate" that stopped the realization of the health care utopia that you've dreamed about. I look at the numbers, and it seems like Democrats were the ones who were having a hard time being won over.

    And what was the "ping-pong" strategy, which replaced the conference committee and completely shut out the Republicans? It seems to me like Obama is already heeding your advice. The last 6 to 9 months have been 100% about Democrats, and the lack of support from the left.

    Don't worry Karoli, Obama isn't trying for bipartisanship, nor has he for quite some time (if ever). The reason the Democrats caved to Bush was that they were not unified, and they caved to their constituencies. And that is the same reason that health care hasn't passed--the Democrats may have had a super majority, but they are not unified, and they know that their constituencies do not support this bill.
  • Kyle, you do not accommodate people who fly the finger in your face and say they will 'take you down' with health care reform. Brown was touted as the 41st vote against. the filibuster-maker. Fine. The time for negotiating is done. There is no question in my mind that Republicans will stick a knife in his back while flying the bird in the face of the public. Brown voters supported the public option. They supported health care reform. YES. they did. That election is no excuse to start playing fuck the democrats games with republicans.
  • But, there is no accommodation taking place. How is Obama accommodating Republicans? He's not throwing them a bone, nor do they expect him to. When is the last time that a Republican got offered a $100 billion earmark to gain a vote? Last I checked, it was Nelson and Landrieu getting the vote buyouts, not Republicans.

    Like I said, I think Obama's already taken your advice. But he did it months ago.
  • LJSearles
    All Obama and the left have done is tried to accommodate the right. That is why we now have such a watered down piece of shit health care bill.

    Having said that, i hardly think that the Republicans are to blame. The Democrats only have themselves to blame for the shit storm they are in with Health Care Reform. Corporate interests have won out. Democratic and blue dog Senators and Members who are more interested in lining their own pockets in an effort to get re-elected. I actually think that they would have been better off with a 5 seat majority and as Howard Fineman suggested tonight on TRMS, force up and down votes on issues. Like he said, GWB would have had this done already.
  • Lori
    "All Obama and the left have done is tried to accommodate the right."

    How silly. Obama didn't need the right to pass anything... until Tuesday, the Democrats had the majority and they didn't need the right to pass a single bit of legislation. The bottom line is that the Democrats cannot unite, the far left and the blue dogs cannot agree. Has nothing to do with Republicans -- your blame is misdirected.
  • LJSearles
    You need to re-read my comment. You've completely misunderstood it.
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