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This isn't about defending Obama. IMHO, the absolute morality crap is what ruins our political system. The linked picture is a perfect example because it demonstrates how a lot of conservatives (and liberals too) see things as completely black and white. Something is either wrong or it's right, there's no relativity, and if it's "wrong" you can't ever ever do it without being a horrible person regardless of the consequences of not doing it. The facts that fast food is not something that anyone needs to purchase, and that there's a lot of competition in the fast food industry, while oil is something everyone needs with little competition, is irrelevant. It's either wrong or it's right. You have to support both or neither.
"I can't vote for him, he's pro-choice."
"I can't vote for him, he's anti-union."
Too many people have this giant list of "wrongs" where violating even one of them means the candidate can't get their support, no matter how much they might otherwise agree with their policies. It's not about electing the most effective candidate, it's about making sure you don't elect the morally wrong candidate. "Well, XYZ would be worse." is a completely reasonable reason for voting for someone. It doesn't mean you think the guy you're voting for doesn't engage in a lot of bullshit, but because you think he's overall better than the alternative.
Ironically, this is why federal politicians are such scumbags. They're forced to do nothing but lie every time they speak to the public, because otherwise they would never be able to meet these almost obsessive-compulsive standards of never compromising and never ever doing anything "wrong." It's impossible, they just have to pretend they're going to meet them and hope nobody notices.
It's also why our political system has become so broken, as compromise on anything gets you labeled as immoral and voted out. Since the Internet does a great job in exposing backroom deals, the best survival strategy in Congress right now has become:
1. Debate nothing but inconsequential, "morality" based issues like gay marriage, DADT, "preserving the family," "right to unionize," etc. This is so you can demonstrate to the moralizers that you're "correctly" voting no on everything the "other side" does, because these issues don't really matter and so it doesn't really matter what your vote is.
2. Completely ignore all the real issues like the debt, the economy, the federal entitlement programs, etc. This is because to actually make progress on any of these things, you'd have to compromise with the other side, and compromise is political suicide. Obamacare was a total abnormality that they got to address because they had supermajorities, which removed the need to compromise.
People need to understand that if real progress is going to be made, we're going to have to do some things that they consider "wrong." If you want to address health care, you are going to have to either "rob the rich" or "let people die." Probably do some of both, but shoving your fingers in your ears and pretending that we can fix it without doing either is just stupidity. The SS/Medicare problem is also a perfect example, the left insists that the programs not be cut at all and the right insists that taxes not be increased. We can't implement a solution that does both, because compromise is "wrong." No, the only things we're allowed to implement are cutting the programs out entirely or quadrupling the taxes, both of which are idiotic solutions, so of course it's going to get ignored. There's no point in even discussing it.
It should not be political suicide to state to your base, "Yes, I voted for this pro-choice bill, because in exchange for that I got their votes on all these spending cuts." This type of thing should be the norm, not the exception.
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