Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Obama: A question for readers
The question is a simple one. If you sauntered into your local book depository and picked up a volume titled The Liberal Case Against Obama, what would you expect it to contain? Can you suggest topics for various chapters? Can you think of a few important points that may have been obscured by the onrush of history?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
18 comments:
Let's start with the blindingly obvious: the continued abandonment of the rule of law, including torture, unconstitutional warmaking, assassinations and the effective repeal of the Fourth Amendment. Then there's the obsessive protection of the lawless administration that preceded this one, including the war on whistleblowers.
I tried to collect these points as they arose because I knew there were too many to recall thru the "onrush" as you put it. Haha....the problem is retrieving my bits and pieces, particularly since I just got a "new" refurbished computer. But, damn, the latest outrage deserves a chapter...apparently, Obama doled out jobs to his fatcats, and in half the time it took Bush to do. Take your pick: arrange chapters by broken promises or by parallels to Bush. Oh, and please illustrate it! :)
How about the fact that the Wall Street banksters are still plying their trade instead of being paraded in front of congress in orange jump suits.
Liberals are to the democrats what neo cons are to the Republicans, you need them to establish where crazy starts, then back it up a few notches.
Barack Obama appears to be able to help out his liberal union base while simultaneously throwing the moderate democratic main street majority under the bus.
You should have a chapter on how Obama has damaged the Democratic Party and the liberal-progressive cause as a whole. I think the little guy may have effectively destroyed the left in America. This ongoing catastrophe is being little noted by progressive writers.
The healthcare law is a perfect example. It is essentially a Republican law and will most certainly harm the nation and further entrench the corporations.
But because the Democrats passed this sucky bill--and defended it--the Republicans will be able to use it for decades to prove that progressive policies don't work. This permanently damages the liberal cause in America.
There should also be a chapter on another mindblowing development that is being almost completely ignored in the progosphere--the marked fascist tendencies of the Obama Adminstration. The Electronic Frontier Foundation rates the Administration's performance on human rights as worse than Bush-Cheney. In other words, the Obama Administration has the worst record on human rights in U.S. history. Dark days for the left.
Chapter 1). Obama and Wall Street. Bailing out banks and protecting their managers. Falling for the con and opening the public purse. Failing to coordinate an international response.
Chapter 2). Obama and the Generals. 2 wars forever the country goes the way of russia. Sponsoring war in Libya.
Chapter 3). Obama and Justice. Prosecute whistleblowers. Protect those who subverted the justice department. Torture.
Chapter 4) Obama and the economy. Black unemployment through the roof - no policy response to unemployment at all. No international economic coordination. Capitulating to the right to get his stimulus package - tax cuts for the rich and scraps for the poor. The politics of trickle down.
Chapter 5) Wisconsin - Betraying the unions.
Harry
I'll buy it Joe, no matter what it contained. Write it and I'll be there.
See Paul Street's books on Obama.
Interview with him here, where I describe the basic contents:
There are chapters on Obama’s corporatism, rightwing foreign policy, industry-coddling “healthcare reform,” “the myth of the postracial presidency,” and his continuation and expansion of Bush’s assaults on civil liberties.
(VERY long shot --)>
Luke 11, 15
But some of them said, He casteth out devils through Beelzebub the chief of the devils (St-James version)
But certain ones of them said: "He expels the demons by means of Beelzebub the ruler of the demons (New World Translation)
Luke 11, 19
And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils ... (St. James)
If it is by means of Beelzebub I expel the demons ... (New World Translation)
hey, did everyone forget what obama did with health care reform? that was an outrage.
catlady
I agree with Harry's #5. Today in WI we saw the death of worker's ability to bargain (i.e., leverage) with the passing of Act 10.
Obama provided NO leadership on this issue. WI was the battleground for Republicans to test Obama's leadership and ability to withstand pressure from those who challenge him. He failed on this issue. He's also failed on nearly every issue presented before him (as many above have already mentioned).
Obama's war against public education, probably the most outrageous and destructive of all of his policies.
He and his dumb jock DOE secretary Arne Duncan need to go.
Why would I want to contribute to something that would effectively make it even easier for us to end up with someone far worse in office? Why would we want to shoot ourselves in the foot that way?
Do I think he has some things wrong? -- absolutely! Do I think the alternatives are even worse? -- absolutely!
As a sort of all-inclusive complaint: Betraying or conceding the bulk, if not the entirety of the liberal philosophy of government, including but not limited to: progressive taxation, the social safety net, executive war-making powers, civil liberties and the right to privacy, habeaus corpus, governmental transparency and the protection of whistleblowers, the efficacy of Keynesian economic stimulus, the Labor movement and protections thereof, and universal health care.
Placid, you raise a good issue. The right has acted so maniacally in recent years one instinctively does not want to give them any aid. But I don't think that one book can turn the election.
More importantly, we must tend to the ideological battle. Whoever wins in 2012, the perception will remain that Obama equates to liberalism. If Obama fails -- and he has failed so far -- then, in the public mind, liberalism will have failed.
The only solution is to change the equation. Obama = conservatism in disguise. Liberals have to stand up and shout "This man does not represent us."
Hey...that's a good title for a book...
I have to agree with Joe's response to Placid: at this point in time, it's an ideological / philosophical battle of ideas, and the man who represents Liberalism in the public eye is an utter betrayal of it's principles. The most frustrating aspect of Obama's presidency for me has been his public depiction as a "Socialist" while he rules like a Reaganite. How can the masses understand that there exists a viable, proven political ideology which would speak to their concerns when the man who ostensibly represents it serially stabs this same ideology in the back - undermining the public's perception of it's viability while actually pursuing it's polar opposite?
If Obama were actually a Republican in disguise, a political "false-flag" operation, he could hardly be more effective. If I were titling the book, my first thought would be "A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing"
Before 2008, Rs were the party that stole elections. Obama made sure that this distinction was muddled when getting delegates from states where he didn't run & other shenanigans.
When he'll be done, he would have had damaged the "D" brand at least as much as W damaged the "R"s and make possible for TPTB to relaunch the R (whether next year or next time). The title of the book should remain Jr.jr.
I would make sure that readers understood that it isn't just since he became president that he's sold out liberal beliefs.
Those who "hoped" he was a liberal despite the evidence need to be shown up for the naifs that they are.
Carolyn Kay
MakeThemAccountable.com
Post a Comment