Letter from America

An American Perspective

By Will McLeod, New York

Fight or Fall

FIVE YEARS ago, I wrote these words over at the progressive American blogging platform, DailyKos:

Barack Obama wants to be Community Organizer in Chief. He will never fight the republicans the way we want him to. Mark my words. I hope I’m eating those words six years from now at the end of one of the most successful presidencies in American history.

But I won’t be…And I’m not.

I have been shouting at my party, at the top of my lungs, for six years. They haven’t listened to me any more than they’ve listened to voters.

When Barack Obama was elected in 2008, he instituted a series of wide-ranging reforms that rebuilt our economy, saved our heavy industry, made progress on climate change, and instituted the first steps towards universal health care in the United States. These were met by howls of protest from the ideologues in the Republican Party. Moderate and conservative democrats, like Rick Boucher who was my congressman at the time, toed the party line, and voted for these measures.

I have been shouting at my party, at the top of my lungs, for six years. They haven’t listened to me any more than they’ve listened to voters.

Rick Boucher campaigning for heavy industry

When Rick came into office in the 1980s, southwestern Virginia was indistinguishable from the third world. In the coal fields, there were entire towns without running water, who relied on wells. Areas of this district were so remote that the Rural Electrification projects of the 1940s had never actually reached them. Illiteracy was still a major problem. Rick worked hard to build infrastructure, schools, and hope for the communities of the Virginia Highlands.