I’m sure I’m going to catch a face full of flame for this, but I’m with Yves Smith here. The author of ECONned: How Unenlightened Self Interest Undermined Democracy and Corrupted Capitalism, she sees Obama as much more of a friend and defender of the 1% than a friend to progressives. Sure, he’s managed to placate progressives with some minor social issues (DADT for instance), but when it comes to the economy, he has surrounded himself with neoliberal dipsticks who favor Wall Street over Main Street at every turn.
She tells the story of an encounter with another woman at the Occupy Wall Street Alternative Banking Group meeting in New York.
She was clearly active in New York City housing politics and knowledgeable about policy generally. I started criticizing Obama’s role in the mortgage settlement. She said:
I have trouble with members of my community. I think Obama needs not to be President. I think he needs to be impeached. But no one in my community wants to hear that. I tell them it’s like when your mother sees you going out with someone who is no good for you.
“Why don’t you leave him? What does he do for you?”
“But Momma, I love him.”
“He knocked you down the stairs, took your keys, drove your car to Florida, ran up big bills on your credit card, and Lord only knows what else he did when he was hiding from you.”
“But Momma, I still love him.”
Her story applies equally well to the oxymoron of the establishment left in America. Obama is not only not their friend, but he abuses them, yet they manage to forgive all and come back for more.
While I don’t think Obama needs to be impeached, he does need to be called to the carpet by progressives for his adherence to the cult of neoliberal economics, a brand of economics that has failed the whole world. And yes, I know his hands have been tied by a do-nothing Congress, but that doesn’t excuse his talking points about debt, deficit and his apparent unwillingness to untangle the SEC from the financial industry.
Obama talks a good game, but his actions do not demonstrate one.
If there was ever a choice of the lesser of two evils, it’ll be the 2012 Presidential Election.
So true. So dismally true. “Lesser of two evils” isn’t cutting it anymore. If austerity, corporate pandering, environmental degradation etc. etc. etc. are inevitable, let conservatives own it.
I vote for visionary realism.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoOIPvopKrc&feature=related
Michael J. Pollard For President!
http://www.box.com/shared/ck6k07et1y
Phil, America has a trade surplus in one industry which, unfortunately, doesn’t show up in most statistics and that is finance. Germany has devastated several European countries trying to take away some of that surplus, and created a stand off during our housing crisis which through the world into its economic crisis. Obama has rightly chosen not to devastate this economic base, while negotiating some sort of reform. Due to Republican intransigence he has so far failed…thus their desperation in avoiding any reforms.