By Dennis J. Freeman
President Barack Obama began his disconnect with the people as soon as he reached the Oval Office and started talking about working together with the Republican Party. The issue magnified when he and Vice President Joe Biden sat around in the White House Courtyard for a wacked out photo-op while drinking beer with a white cop who clearly breached black scholar Louis Gates’ civil rights.
The matter of President Obama losing touch with the poor and middle-class of this country intensified when the president extended the Bush era tax cuts, a couple of revised tax code laws created by the former administration to benefit the wealthiest of Americans.
And now with the debt-ceiling mess that has just recently taken place, President Obama appears to have lost his credibility with many voters who showed up at the polls in 2008, expecting radical change for the country.
Instead what the nation has gotten is a president who appears to have no backbone when it comes to standing up to his party’s principles and beliefs. The magic in President Obama’s words that seemed to move mountains with refreshed inspiration several years ago, now ring shallow.
They mean nothing. The campaign promises he made to America have become nothing more than a bunch of empty rhetoric that sounded good at the time.
We all fell for it. He was young. He was good looking. He was cool. He was a scholar. He had the ability to charm a snake. He was our nation’s first black president. Sadly, the love fest may have run its course. The country can no longer afford to fall in love with a president that talks out of one side of his mouth and then goes out and does contrary to what he promises to do.
Not anymore. The honeymoon is officially over between President Obama and middle-class Americans. Actually, the marriage between President Obama and the American people looks as though it is headed for a nasty divorce in 2012, if he doesn’t buckle down and give his partner something to feel good about.
Right about now, it’s been nothing but a lot of broken promises and a lot of lifeless pillow talk from President Obama to poor and middle-class Americans. What began as a historic presidency has now turned into a failed one. President Obama began losing folks as soon he started chattering about bi-partisanship with the Republican Party.
Now the same people he said he wanted to work with are openly ridiculing him and his unproductive administration. It seems like everybody in America knows that President Obama is being bullied by the Republican Party except for him and his gutless staff.
President Obama lost further credence with me when he backed down from criticizing the white police officer after the cop arrested his friend Gates over a dispute. The image of President Obama sitting down with a police officer making light of transpired with friend over beer and peanuts was insulting to every black and brown person in America who has experienced police brutality.
Hundreds, if not thousands of black and brown Americans have had their snuffed out or altered because of the egregious acts of police brutality. It was disheartening to see that.
But it was probably more disgusting for Americans to sit and watch President Obama roll over and continue former President George W. Bush’s tax cuts (2001 and 2003) for another two years. While the wealthiest of Americans partied under Bush’s protective tax umbrella, those same individuals contributed mightily to the country’s deficit.
According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts added $1.7 trillion to the nation’s deficit between 2001 and 2008. If those tax cuts were to be fully extended (2009-2018), the number could soar up to $4.4 trillion. Not a good deal, President Obama.
And now Americans are stuck in time, reeling from with the debt-ceiling issue, which has the FAA at a standstill and has left thousands of people out of work. Congress goes on vacation and laughs at President Obama for caving in yet again. This time Mr. Cool signed off on a deal from Congress that did not include any type of revenue stream, specifically raising taxes.
It’s been one concession after another with President Obama. He has failed labor workers. He has failed our educators. He has failed our military by allowing our soldiers to stay engaged in two endless wars. He has failed to stand up for the American people.
The debt-ceiling crisis did nothing for the president’s much-needed, public facelift. I guess this is what happens when you lie down with dogs. You come up with fleas.
Dennis has covered and written about politics, crime, race, sports, and entertainment. Dennis currently covers the NFL, MLB, NBA, NCAA, and Olympic sports. Dennis is the editor of News4usonline.com and serves as the publisher of the Compton Bulletin newspaper. He earned a journalism degree from Howard University. Email Dennis at dfreeman@news4usonline.com
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