Let me make this clear: I have no problem with anyone supporting Obama because of his policies. If what Obama says make sense to you, if you really believe that what he says and what he does work together, if universal health insurance that leaves millions of people out works for you, if corporate pandering is your thing, then go on with your bad self and vote for Obama, make a shrine of him in your house and tatoo his name across your forehead if you so desire, you have my blessing. I have no problem with anyone who is voting for Obama because they are aware of his policies and agree with them, down to supporting FISA and chipping away at reproductive rights.

However, if you are and/or consider yourself a progressive, then we are talking about a completely different standard. Do you know why? Because you are supposed to know better.
If you’re an Obama supporter and write a plaintive post about FISA legislation passing and the loss of privacy rights that this brings, and forget to mention that YOUR OWN FUCKING CANDIDATE voted for it after blabbering for months about what a bad things it is?
Then you, my friend, are a hypocrite, and need to go check your eyesight.

If you still support Obama after this, then you have forfeited the right to call yourself a progressive. You are supporting the guy who gave away your right to privacy. If you still support him, then you approve of his actions. Therefore, you are not a progressive.

If you are a feminist who knows what mysoginy is like and can call it out on anyone, yet you seem to turn a blind eye to Obama’s misogyny? Congratulations, you are not a feminist. By not calling him on it you have become an accomplice to said misogyny.
Call yourself whatever you desire, but you are not a feminist. You can be an Obamacan, a DemoRat, whatever you desire. But feminist you ain’t.

If you seriously think you can be a progressive and/or feminist and STILL support Obama, this is where cognitive dissonance comes into play.
What is cognitive dissonance? It’s the gymnastics our brain does when it has to reconcile our proffered principles with our actions. Basically it pretends to not acknowledge some things in order to not feel like a hypocrite.
Of course, just because you don’t WANT to call yourself a hypocrite doesn’t mean that you aren’t one. It just means you are not being honest with yourself.

If the same actions would have been committed by someone else, and you would have called them on it, or have called people on them in the past, but you refuse to do it now because it’s Barack Obama… then you are a hypocrite and an accomplice to his deeds.

This has been a public service anouncement.