From MoveOn.org:

Breaking: The Obama Announcement That May Just Make You Cry

And after the sappy headline:

Yes! We couldn’t be more excited! As MoveOn Executive Director Justin Ruben puts it: “This is a historic day. The president’s support for marriage equality is great news that’s likely to energize progressive activists across the country.”

I’ll bet most people who are excited by Obama’s lukewarm and long-overdue announcement live inside the liberal bubble, where no one speaks of how little leadership and passion the president has shown on most progressive concerns, especially the ongoing disaster of unemployment in this country.

Put another way, Obama had been described as “evolving” toward the state of mind he was in when he endorsed marriage equality. I’m wondering how long it will take him to evolve into a leader who recognizes the urgent need for economic equality.

It’s true Obama had nothing to do with the financial collapse. There’s no way he could quickly reverse the effects of Dubya’s disastrous stupidity, or defeat all by himself the loathsome Congressional Republicans who are happy that one percent of Americans prosper while the rest grow poorer.

But again — when will this guy evolve beyond equating “the economy” with the interests of big banks and multinational corporations? When will he stop hobnobbing with the heads of companies that make billions, are taxed at outrageously low rates, and continue to outsource jobs and lower the wages of Americans still hanging on to jobs? When will he at least try to appear to be serious about fighting for working people?

Here’s Paul Krugman on the extent of the problem:

… There are now four job seekers for every job opening, which means that workers who lose one job find it very hard to get another. Six million Americans, almost five times as many as in 2007, have been out of work for six months or more; four million have been out of work for more than a year, up from just 700,000 before the [financial] crisis… Not since the 1930s have so many Americans found themselves seemingly trapped in a permanent state of joblessness…

The fact that Obama made a condescending speech to endorse marriage equality — as if it’s a big deal that he’s for something that wouldn’t even be controversial in more civilized countries — while he continues to ignore the scope of the unemployment problem, sickens me.

And the fact that MoveOn.org functions as a cheerleading operating for the president instead of pressuring him to fight for job creation makes me think the Democratic Party will never re-connect with the working class.

Full disclosure: I’m an out-of-work writer. If MoveOn.org reads this and is seeking someone to crank out news releases that are realistic, as opposed to euphoric-sounding and worshipful, please contact me.