Many are counseling patience and understanding. Many aver for the fruits of bipartisanship. Because Obama is not President yet, many advocate a withholding of criticism for his behaviors/actions taken since he won a mandate for the change he promised.
But I say the hell with all that. Obama is not a panacea; he is merely a foot in the door. The Door of Change. And the special interests of the money power do not want that door opened.
Obama is a Democrat and for the last many years Democrats have done nothing but disappoint. For the last several years when bi-partisanship was required it was the bi of the Democrats bending to Republican will.
When it was time to end the war, roll-back Bush’s fascist dictatorship and restore the Constitution as the supreme Word, it was Democrats who made excuses a majority wasn’t enough to accomplish any of their campaign promises. Majority rule? Ha. Just another politics-as-usual shell game.
While the Republicans were prepared to impeach over the rumble-seat, teenage sex of our Peter Pan president, Democrats couldn’t muster even a rudimentary investigation in the face of Executive crimes against humanity and Constitutional treason. Pelosi and Reid couldn’t put the country through the ugly mess of simple truth and justice.
And it’s not surprising – over the last 60 plus years of American history there is plenty of bi-partisan atrocity to go around.
The Democrats won a resounding election, just as they did in 2006, not against a doddering, jingoist, clueless fool and his Christo-fascist muffin, but against the worst Presidential mal-Administration since the nation’s incorporation. Bush/Cheney is our own Nero/Caligula.
So forgive me if some of us are skeptical and cynical and, yes, perhaps hysterical because we see Barack Obama – a genius politician, a visionary, a virtuous and honorable man – go down the middle of a triangulating road which promises much but delivers next to nothing in the name of bi-partisanship, reconciliation and consensus.
I reject the notion that says the Will of the People and the Will of Fascists can be reconciled. Corporations aren’t democracies and neither is a corporate state.
Instead of striving for bi-partisanship with war criminals and their Congressional accomplices, I suggest we strive for accountability and reckoning for the immense crimes, both against millions of people around the world and the three hundred million here at home, perpetrated by the Big Lie Compassionate Conservatives – compassion for their cronies and conserving nothing but their own wealth and power. Is Bush 43 going to walk free from his crimes as did his odious Daddy in the name of reconciliation and the need for bi-partisanship?
Is truth and justice really so ugly and messy that our “leaders” must shield us from the spectacle by avoiding their Constitutional duty to The People?
Has our Republic fallen so far the People have no representation but puppets on a string?
It worries me when Obama holds his first press conference to reassure people about the economy and he says nothing of import, but merely stands as a front-man for a line-up of conservative banksters and corporate power apologists.
This isn’t the “change we need.”
Why do gambling markets take precedence over the common concerns of people? How do corporations respond to slow-growth? They cut expenses. People. Jobs. How does cutting jobs spur growth in the economy? It doesn’t. It steepens the slide. But it preserves bonuses for the Executive cabal.
We bailout the financial sector for their own increase; a reward for gaming the system and driving it into hell, while the people are left to dog-eat-dog it out and fight for the crumbs of Marie Antoinette’s cake.
The world rejoices Obama’s stunning victory not because they expect things to get better over-night but because the long, dark nightmare of the BORG/Vader Administration is coming to a close. And while thousands still die every day because they refuse to assimilate to American imperial hegemony, there is hope that Obama will bring a kinder and gentler empire.
No one expects revolution. No one expects Globalization to put people ahead of corporate profits and “shareholder value.” No one expects a shiny-happy America to morph into a beacon of freedom and a paragon of virtue.
Change doesn’t happen through hype and rhetoric, but through committed action.
Obama has brought hope; it’s the People who must bring change.
Because no matter how honest, virtuous and truthful President Obama is; no matter how powerful the U.S. Presidency; when it comes to changing the entrenched power of the few over the many – he is but a voice in the wilderness. He is the honest head of a corrupt system.
We don’t need President Obama. He needs us.
George Bush is the Money Power’s lawn jockey. He worked to codify fascism. He worked to weaken democracy. He worked to end a Republican form of government in favor of dictatorship.
The worst President for The People has been the most successful for the Enemy of the People.
The FEW have brought the world to the brink of catastrophe. To trust in the few now is proof of one’s insanity.
We have a foot in the door. And now we must kick it down.
Organize. Mobilize. Act.
Otherwise, no matter how wonderful our President, all we can expect is more of the same.
