Political Center: Where Hast Thou Gone?

Barack Obama was elected on a wave of optimism. Starting from his speech at the Democratic National Convention in 2004, to his response to President Bush's State of the Union Address in 2006, it looked as if the Democratic Party had found a superstar.

And, they did.

He ran an extremely successful grassroots campaign, raised hundreds of millions of dollars (pre-Citizen's United) and energized young voters. I was one of those voters.

But, the hazy days of malaise are starting to creep in, and I have become disillusioned. Let's take a look at how things have changed:

Obama's post-partisanship rhetoric was something I latched onto when he was elected. To me, this meant that he was going to work across the aisle to create bipartisan legislation that would grow the economy, protect the environment, ensure our national security and get us out of the recession that he had inherited.

He started with the stimulus package, which enjoyed bipartisan support.

Then, he went to universal healthcare, which was a campaign pledge. The debate over the healthcare law was so caustic, that it rendered any Bush era rhetoric almost benign. It passed, barely.

Then he took on energy, stumping for a bill with a cap and trade scheme for pollution reduction. He used stimulus money to encourage the growth of the Renewable Energy and to make Carbon Capture and Sequestration economically viable for coal-fired power plants. It never passed.

Then, he took on financial market reform. The Dodd-Frank Bill and the CARD Act passed, along party lines. The rhetoric and the partisanship was getting to extreme levels at this point.

Still, I blamed the TEA Party and extreme wing of the Republican party for manufacturing apocalyptic scenarios if any of these reforms were passed. I defended Obama as a president who attempted to work across the aisle, but was shut out.

Then came November. Republicans took the House and nearly won the Senate. Obama would try to pull a Clinton. The problem: the economy was faltering, a government shut down was looming and he still had to raise the debt ceiling.

What did he do? He put propositions on the table and compromised every balanced approach to end up with a one-sided, Republican monstrosity:

He kept the Bush tax cuts
He abandoned his "grand bargain" of a balance of taxes and cuts
He opened more lands to offshore and onshore oil drilling
He let the BLM auction off coal mining in the Powder River Basin at the "competitive" rate of 0.90/ton (sales rate is around $12-13/ton)
And recently...he told the EPA to withdraw smog and ozone standards. Ozone and smog formation is very dangerous for public health.

The president I elected in 2008, defended in November, 2010 and tolerated in most of 2011 has finally forced me to think outside of the two-party norm for 2012. I really don't want to be in the position, but his appeasement and acceptance of non-centrist Republican ideals has forced me into this state. I can no longer defend him without sacrificing my own principles.

No matter what he does, he will always be criticized by Republicans. There is always an election to win and a party platform to shore up. If he opens up lands for drilling, they will say he hasn't done enough. If he allows for increased coal mining, they will say he is waging a "war" on coal. If he withdraws important, life-saving standards under the guise of "regulatory burden," they will say he is killing business. There is compromise, there is centrist and then there is Obama. Republican? Democrat? Who knows....