Thomas Frank: Obama, Get Your Class War On!

Good article, along the lines of what I was saying earlier but more articulate and constructive. Basically, Obama and the Democrats pandering to the right wing, especially with this "post-partisan" excuse, not only doesn't help working Americans but even allows some of the most outrageous friends of big business and laissez-faire capitalism paint themselves as populists and get away with it!  Republicans never pander leftward while Democrats post-LBJ consistently capitulate to the right.  Why? They consistently remain highly organized and principled reactionaries and its time to start swinging back, remaining true to our progressive principles, and not letting Obama get away with his rightward pandering. 

 

I'm still voting for him because I believe he does represent a positive change in attitude with the American people, has it in him (we've seen it in major speeches) to effectively and articulately analyze and challenge racism and neoliberalism, and as corny as it sounds, the first African-American president is significant considering that in the whole history of this country there have only been 5 black senators (Obama being one of them) and I don't want to be on the wrong side of history. But this doesn't mean when he's elected everything will change, we need a strong ground movement that keeps a torch to Washington's ass and ushers in an era of far-reaching reform.  Lincoln would have been nothing without the tireless work of the Abolitionists, FDR's New Deal would have been impossible without the New Deal coalition with the CIO and CP, and the Civil Rights Act would have never passed without Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement.  Hell, even take Obama's words for it - change comes to Washington, not from it.  

Like Lincoln, FDR, and Johnson,  I believe Obama could be a candidate most receptive to this change and usher in a new era of needed government activism.  But for every powerful progressive speech he has made, there are five more Wall St. lobbyists and conservative pollsters at his side telling him to "play it safe".  Will he take the middle road or make history? Time will tell, but I can guarantee that nothing will change without a principled, popular, groundswell of a movement that holds Obama accountable and maybe will even embolden him to really fight the entrenched interests of Washington and Wall St.  Anyways, I totally digressed, really read Thomas Frank's article right below this.

Fighting Back, From the Bottom Up

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In Solidarity,

-Steve

"Bipartisan" Gridlock

I swear to god if I hear the words "non-partisan" or "bipartisan" again I'm going to murder myself.  I know that there are a lot more important issues to be written about currently, but I just have to rant about this to get back into my blogging groove.  How in the hell are these such popular buzzwords in such crucial times and why would anyone just be begging for more democratic paralysis and capitulation to right wing rule?  Now I would consider myself too progressive to be called a Democrat, but the prospect of Democratic control of both houses of congress and our first African-American president excites me.  What isn't exciting is when they continue to bend over backwards to please these right wing assholes even when they are in the minority in both houses and have a terribly unpopular president out of the white house in just a few months.  

As of recently, Obama and Biden have stepped up the rhetoric against McCain, but why are they still using terms like "bipartisan".  In the past thirty years in American politics that equals Democrats giving up and moving to the right on an issue or bill.  If Obama wins the election his party will control two branches of the government at a time of great crisis in this country.  Imagine what would have happened in 1932 if FDR pandered to the right or "saw both sides of the spectrum," there'd be no hundred days, no New Deal and Americans would have sunk even deeper into depression with no hope of climbing out.  There's a right wing and a left wing for a reason: they represent opposing interests and opposing political viewpoints and platforms.  There's nothing wrong with that.  It's exciting, it's needed, it's a powerful objective to rally behind.  

The radical, pro-corporate, de-regulatory platform of the Republican party that has dominated Washington since the 1970's is what got us into this mess (this is not to excuse the two Democratic presidents within this period who did nothing to stand up to Republican congresses and followed their lead instead).  The American people should be out in the streets demanding the heads of these Fat Cat Wall Street speculators and their cronies in Washington, and at the very least, supporting the opposing party's first exciting candidate since the 60's.  I say there should be a voter rebellion and would gladly welcome every Republican congressman/senator up for re-election being purged, McCain getting his ass handed to him, and every Supreme Court justice dying in Obama's first term and having him stack it with partisan-left judges.  That would get rid of the gridlock and there'd be a wave of government activism that this country has not seen in too many years and has so sorely needed.  There's nothing wrong with action or with standing up and telling those who lead us into this disaster that they are wrong.

At least there has been a shift back to Obama leading but the margin is still far too thin for where it should be.  Unfortunately, I believe the reason for this is the "culture war" politics that the Republican Party, Evangelical Churches, and Media mouthpieces have been so effective at propagating.  There's absolutely no other reason this race should be this close.  How else could such an obviously terrible choice of a Vice President as Sarah Palin actually activate such a mass of people and pull the Republican back into this race?  Poking fun at big cities and community organizers are coded racist signals sent to whites in small towns, the south, and the suburbs who fear diversity.  And they went for it.  Poor and working whites who have suffered daily at the hands of the ultra-right economic policies of the past eight years of Bush have absolutely nothing to gain by voting in the same party for four more years.  This should be as clear as day to them, yet the polls are still close and they still choose to cling to their racism and fundamentalism while they drown.  I hope my cynicism is proven wrong, but the polls being this close in these times is just outrageous.  The American people themselves need to continue to organize and pressure our government for more far reaching change and if Obama wants to win, he should take his cue from the people, be emboldened by it, and drive these points home.  He seems to have been going in the right direction recently and I hope he steps it up even further and stops pandering with weak "bipartisan" rhetoric.

In Solidarity,

-Steve