What's Really Important to President Obama?

Micheal Sean Winter, writing in the National Catholic Reporter captures exactly the frustration of classic liberals with President Obama. As I have written in earlier posts the liberals shunned in the move of the Democratic party far to the right in the 80s and 90s are now spread over Democratic, Republican and Independent categories but they do vote with a conscience. 

"I confess I no longer understand Obama. He did not go to the mat to end the Bush tax cuts for the super-rich. He did not go to the mat for comprehensive immigration reform. He did not go to the mat to close Guantanamo Bay. He did not go to the mat for Card Check. He did not go to the mat for a public option in the health care reform. But, he went to the mat over the principle that a Catholic college or charity or hospital is not really religious.

The president not only is the chief magistrate of the land, he is the leader of the Democratic Party. I know I am something of an odd duck by being what I call an “Ella Grasso Democrat.” Grasso was the first woman to be elected a governor of her state in her own right, not succeeding her husband. She was pro-labor. She was pro-Israel. She was pro-higher taxes on rich folk. She stood up for the little guy. Unlike other male Democrats – Kennedy and Gore and Gephardt and Muskie – she remained pro-life. I believe that it is the historic calling of the Democratic Party to stand up to the moneyed interest and say that the common good, not just the individual pursuit of profit, is a moral obligation and a necessity in a free and just society. I am simply not interested in a Democratic Party that is so beholden to the fundraisers at Emily’s List, so consumed with lifestyle politics, that it is willing to thumb its nose at those working class voters who really do care about social justice and for whom that care is a part of their religious beliefs. And, if liberals no longer care about a robust defense of the First Amendment, well, then, we do not deserve the presidency. "  (Michael Sean Winters in National Catholic Reporter)

Read the rest of his article here. He is a Catholic, a liberal and a blogger who understands how the conservative Democrats forced liberal Catholics, Labor Unionists and human rights activists out of the party or essentially silenced them starting in the 80s.

Yes I know that Deacon Greg posted this same quote but my minuscule audience most likely has little overlap with his huge audience and mine needs to read this also.