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Thirty days to “hope”, right? That ought to be an episode in Morgan Spurlock’s 30 Days series. We could have Spurlock go live with those who have found “hope” in this election and explore how it takes hold of one and leads one’s mind to irrationally think.
What is rational anymore? Rational in the dictionary, if we consult Merriam-Webster, is “having reason or understanding.”
What does it mean to have reason or understanding? Reason can be an explanation or justification for one’s thinking. Understanding can be a mental grasp or comprehension.
Well, do Americans intent on voting Barack Obama mentally grasp the reality of Barack Obama’s candidacy?
I’m not talking about do they grasp the shallow perceived reality that Americans may or may not be ready for a black president. The question of, “Is America ready for a black president?” is such a loaded question that it’s no wonder the media in all its punditry keep going back to this question.
What I am talking about is what Chris Hedges talks about in his article, “Dennis Kucinich on the Democrats’ Bailout Betrayal.” He accurately puts Obama’s record into perspective after giving Kucinich his due for all the work he did to stop the bailout:
Obama’s voting record in the Senate is in line with the corrupt Democratic mainstream, including Biden, who works on behalf of corporations and especially the credit card industry. Obama knows where power lies in the United States. It is not with the citizens, who with ratios of 100 to 1 pleaded with their representatives in Washington not to loot the national treasury to bail out Wall Street investment firms. Power lies with the corporations. These corporations, not us, pick who runs for president. You cannot be a candidate without their blessing and money. These corporations, including the Commission on Presidential Debates, a private corporation, determine who gets to speak and what issues candidates can or cannot challenge, from universal, not-for-profit, single-payer health care to Wall Street bailouts to NAFTA. If you do not follow the corporate script you become as marginal and invisible as Ralph Nader or Bob Barr or Cynthia McKinney.
Obama has always served his corporate masters. He opposed Rep. John Murtha’s call for immediate withdrawal from Iraq and supported continued funding for the war. He voted in July 2005 to reauthorize the Patriot Act. He did not support an amendment that was part of a bankruptcy bill that would have capped credit card interest rates at 30 percent. He opposed a bill that would have reformed the notorious Mining Law of 1872, which allows mineral companies to rape federal land for profit. He did not back the single-payer health care bill HR 676, sponsored by Kucinich and John Conyers. He advocates the death penalty and nuclear power. He backed the class-action “reform” bill—the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA)—that was part of a large lobbying effort by financial firms, which make up Obama’s second-biggest single bloc of donors. CAFA would effectively shut down state courts as a venue to hear most class-action lawsuits. Workers, under CAFA, would no longer have redress in many of the courts where these cases have a chance of defying powerful corporations. CAFA moves these cases into corporate-friendly federal courts dominated by Republican judges.
I’ll rephrase that. For some people, it’s difficult. I understand. You want to be part of history. You want to make change. You're tired of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney and Republicans.
But, do you want to help Wall Street reign supreme for the next four years? Do you want to prolong this war in Iraq? Do you want to continue the suppression of civil liberties? Do you want to keep from the people what many Western industrial countries have---single-payer health care? Do you want to see more workers’ rights be violated and stripped away?
What makes you think that if you vote for a guy who has diametrically opposed all that progressives and liberals stand for than you will be able to push him to shift to the left? How in this country do you plan to do this?
It cannot be done.
Get rid of this notion that democracy is going to work for you. This democracy will do no such thing. This democracy is setup to work for the richest 1%.
Like George Carlin says, “It’s a big club, and you ain’t it. You and I aren’t in it.” And the recent bailout proves it.
You don’t matter. Your phone calls, your emails, your letters to the editor, your angry messages to the news networks, your spontaneous rallies and demonstrations, your signs with clever catch phrases to “defeat” the bailout, your time and energy, your hard-earned money put into opposing the bailout---None of it mattered.
Well, no, that’s not entirely true. Actually, for 228 members of the House of Representatives your anger and outrage mattered. Why it mattered is unclear, but let’s presume they themselves were opposed to the bailout or they feared what you, the voter, would do if they didn’t oppose it.
