Friday, September 17, 2010

Here are a few more

Updated Homeowners are unhappy: The administration's various flailing attempts to impact the foreclosure crisis have only made a small dent. Nearly half of the 1.3 million homeowners who enrolled in the Making Home Affordable mortgage-relief program have fallen out.

Progressives and social justice activists are unhappy: After some initial excitement about the federal stimulus program, it quickly became clear that it was too small and that any follow-up was not going to happen. Instead, the administration has become a deficit hawk, including creating a stacked commission designed to justify cutting Social Security.

Peace activists are unhappy: The Iraq War is not over. Even the NY Times called the switch from "combat" to "training and support" an "exercise in semantics." Meanwhile, the war in Afghanistan is being expanded even as a majority of the public opposes that war and only about one in five expect the situation there to improve over the next year.

The GLBT community is unhappy: In the words of John Aravosis at AmericaBlogGay, "President Obama is about to have accomplished a record zero of his top promises to the gay community." DADT repeal continues to get pushed back until sometime later, whenever that is, and even when a federal court provides the White House with an opportunity to advance the issue (by simply declining to appeal that court's decision that DADT is unconstitutional), it appears the DOJ will reject that opening and try to get the decision overturned.

Unions are unhappy: Their one big legislative goal, the Employee Free Choice Act, was buried under a mound of corporate lies and lobbying while the White House and party leaders stood by, said nothing, and did even less.

Latinos are unhappy: Immigration reform keeps getting what I might start calling the "DADT shove," that is, it keeps getting pushed back with the excuse that "Now is not the time" and the assurance "Don't worry, we'll get to it eventually. Trust us!"

Open-government advocates are unhappy: Candidate Obama declared that “I am in this race to tell the corporate lobbyists that their days of setting the agenda in Washington are over." President Obama has surrounded himself with Wall Street insiders and began the health care fiasco by cutting secret deals with lobbyists for the hospital and pharmaceutical industries.

Yet somehow, in the face of all that (and I'm sure I missed some), enthusiasm among Democrats and liberals is actually down. Wow. A real head-scratcher, yes?

Updated with a Footnote: Sean Paul Kelley at The Agonist has his own list which overlaps mine (and includes several things I should have).

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