Change You Can Believe In / Obama's shift To The Right

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By Allen L Roland (about the author)

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For OpEdNews: Allen L Roland - Writer

We are watching the disturbing morphing of George W Bush into Barack H Obama as the powerful influence of the establishment and status quo play their role in regards to Obama's shifting positions on torture, investigating Bush's abuses of power and increasing troop levels in Afghanistan ~ the more things change, the more they stay the same : Allen L Roland

I am watching an increasingly disturbing tendency for Barack Obama to move to the Bush right on issues that he based his progressive mandate of Change You Can Believe In.

It's almost as if he made a deal with the establishment before he was elected on a mandate of change ~ but part of the deal was that there would be little if any change. Thus, the more things chance, the more they stay the same particularly when there is not an effective two party system whereas the establishment and special interest groups are firmly in control of both parties.

Paul Watson and Alex Jones raised the same point last November when they wrote that 'Obama the Messiah-Dictator is more dangerous than Bush' ~ " Mark our words - the causes that the liberal left has been fighting for over the last eight years will simply be forgotten just like conservatives were put to sleep when Bush came to power. Obama is the pacifier that the establishment needs to quiet the simmering anger amongst Americans that has been threatening to boil over..... It will no longer be “fashionable” to fight the police state amongst the political left.

Mark our words ~ there will be no repeal of the Patriot Act, there will be no repeal of the John Warner Defense Authorization Act, there will be no repeal of warrantless secret surveillance of American citizens.... Democratic control of Congress and the Senate since the 2006 elections has achieved nothing in the way of reversing the Bush administration’s assaults on the Constitution, so why should we expect Obama to do anything different ? " http://www.prisonplanet.com/the-more-things-change-the-more-they-stay-the-same.html

Sam Smith, The Progressive Review, documented yesterday the rapid morphing of Obama to the Bush right.

Obama's moves to the right

Pushed for what appears to be the largest tax cuts in American history in order to placate the right. He is also only the second president in American history to institute tax cuts during a war. George W. Bush was the other one.

Named the most conservative cabinet of any Democratic president of modern times.

Plans to expand the failed war in Afghanistan ( Allen's note: 17,000 more troops will be sent to Afghanistan this spring and summer in the first major military move of his presidency. The increase would come on top of 36,000 American troops already there, making for an increase of nearly 50 percent.)

Has come out in support of the right wing approach to public education.

Is expanding Bush's so-called faith based programs.

Obama's retention of rightwing programs

Refuses to end renditions

His Attorney General plans to continue secret searches of library and bookstore data files.

Will not prosecute Bush administration members for war crimes

Refuses to object to Karl Rove's claim of executive privilege in refusing to cooperate with a congressional investigation."

We also now learn that the CIA is secretly using an airbase in southern Pakistan to launch the Predator drones that observe and attack 'al-Qaeda and Taliban militants' on the Pakistani side of the border with Afghanistan, a Times investigation has found. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article5755490.ece

Wiktionary.org sums up my point clearly when it comments on the phrase The More things change, the more they stay the same ~ A proverb making the observation that turbulent changes do not affect reality on a deeper level other than to cement the status quo.

Allen L Roland

http://blogs.salon.com/0002255/2009/02/18.html

http://www.allenroland.com

Allen L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his weblog and website more...)

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