Against all that is normal and usual in our universe, my cousin Joe likes Hillary Clinton. He told me I would have buyer's remorse with Barack Obama long before Obama's term was anywhere near over. He suggested that if we wanted a real man in the office of president, we should elect Hillary. And dagnabit if he wasn't right.
As Obama "negotiated" with Republicans over tax cuts, DADT and unemployment benefits, he reminded me of nothing more than a horribly abused woman "negotiating" with her abuser to not hit her in the face. The important point to the abuser is that he still gets to hit her.
Obama compromises by giving the Republicans everything they ask for, in return for which they graciously allow unemployed Americans to get benefits extended -- benefits, it should be noted, that the unemployed paid for with every paycheck they ever earned, money that was theirs to begin with. Now, in a stunning act of noblesse oblige, the Republicans are willing to give that money back to the people who earned it, so long as their rich friends can have some too.
I can't see Hillary Clinton being pushed around by Republicans the way Barack Obama is.
She's already been through so much I can't imagine they would scare her one bit. After all, she's married to Bill Clinton, lived through the slings, slams and abuses of his presidency and peculiar idea of marital fidelity, and emerged not only intact but as a career woman who could stand on her own two feet and meet any man as an equal.
I have to wonder if she doesn't go home at night and just shake her head in weary bemusement at the facade we bought as reality when we chose Obama over her.
He said we could believe in change and he would lead us in that change. Two years later, a period during which his party held power in all three branches of government, we still have Guantanamo, still have DADT as a misbegotten national policy, still kowtow to the rich as if we're afraid they'll turn on us and still have the same economic policies of the last administration that led us into this disaster in the first place.
The current financial policy has been in place for more than 10 years and, shocking as this is to most Republicans, it's not working. Turns out that giving the rich more money does not cause them to invest in America as much as they invest in increasing their own wealth. I view our current fiscal policy requiring tax breaks for the very rich as the Republicans' financial version of the War on Drugs. No matter how long it continues, no matter how inefficient and costly, no matter how many studies show it is an abject failure, they will cling to it as absolutely necessary for America's survival.
Obama claims he "negotiated" a tax compromise with the Republicans because it was their top priority. Yet somehow the negotiations did not end up with Democrats -- his party, in case he's forgotten -- getting any of their top priorities. That is one weird idea of compromise.
At least Nancy Pelosi led the House to stand up to both the Republicans and her president and said not only no, but hell no. Once again, the Democrats seem to not have many men with enough testosterone to go around. So thank god for women and their estrogen. It gets them through childbirth, child-rearing and the childish behavior of men who are frightened by Republicans who go bump in the night.
Joe was so right. I am definitely suffering from buyer's remorse. I completely missed the fact that Obama would become the most effective Republican in office today.
Elise Patkotak is an Alaska writer and author of "Parallel Logic," her memoir of 28 years in Barrow. Website, www.elisepatkotak.com.
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