Obama and "The Hope-a-Dope"
Let me start by saying, I like President Obama. He is engaging, has a winning, ready smile, seemingly a good sort of guy. He's got a nice family, cute kids. He's got a dog now, the press told us while going through the obligatory act of assuring "the people" that the new president is one of us, something they do for all new presidents. A log cabin kind of guy, if not a cowboy. And he ran a campaign on change, one that got enough people behind him to install him in the White House. Quite a remarkable feat when one considers the deep racial divide that still, in spite of his win, exists in our nation.
After giving many wonderful, hope-filled speeches over the last two years--not only to our nation but more recently to Europe, to the Muslim world, to our neighbors south of the border--it appears the world kind of likes him too. He kind of stirs up likability, one that makes you see your aspirations and hopes in the words he speaks. Let's face it. You don't get the Nobel Peace Prize for being Attila the Hun, though apparently a Kissinger, a Begin, or an Arafat slips in once in awhile, all killers and terrorists to some degree, the first on a massive scale - but still aberrations to be sure.
Thus far, I am disappointed to say, President Obama has shown himself to be in the political ring what Muhammad Ali was in the boxing ring. Back in 1974, Ali artfully utilized the Rope-a-Dope on an unwitting George Frazier to take the heavyweight crown from his younger and stronger (and much feared) opponent. Ali of course used the tactic to rope in Frazier (the dope in this case) to win a fight; Obama roped in a broad spectrum of the electorate to win an election, even if against a doddering and rather scary opposition ticket.
President Obama's pretty speeches themselves do not constitute change, nor does one's ability to inspire the ever-perennial "hope" for the world to travel in a more socially just, less war-ridden and more economically and environmentally sustainable direction. Those are what we longed for as a people, the kind of real change longed for which would put our nation and the world on a better course. President Obama is slipping in the polls, and it isn't because he is losing the Right. He is losing the base that hoped for real change.
Let us now speak a little truth--President Obama is quite a politician, even if he thus far not shown himself to be not much of an agent of change. And why is this so? Because on a promise of change, this is what we have gotten:
- We are still and will be entrenched in two unwinnable wars and occupations both in Iraq and Afghanistan and will be for years to come if the powers that be have their way.
- The health care solution, if it ever gets put into final form, will be one that expands the clout of the main problem in our health care non-system--the health insurance industry--rather than eliminates it as it should with an expanded and improved (and many times cheaper) Medicare for All system. It will still put people at the mercy of the profit driven health insurance industry, while not allowing the pool of Americans to keep prescriptions costs low.
- Think we need systemic change in our economy; two names should suffice to put the truth to the lie that our financial system will not be turned to the interests of the people over the profit-driven interests of the financial corporations: Geithner and Summers, both tools of the industry they are supposed to oversee.
- Central and South America--beware. Thee president's tepid response to the Honduran coup de etat should be warning enough that this nation will not sit idly by while socially responsible trends work against the needs of the multinational corporations that set policy in this hemisphere. Rest assured, the empire, though increasingly in dept and faltering, is still intact.
- Rendition? It hasn't been rendered untenable. Guantanamo? Throw habeas corpus out the window. Some will never get a jury room. (And our president once taught constitutional law, once a sign for hope.) The Military Commissions and Patriot Acts. We'll tinker around the edges. Get use to them.
- Hope the continued privatization of our schools and our military will end along with the lack of oversight and greater expense they leave us? Forget about it.
- Ending of the expense ridden Medicare Advantage component of Medicare? Nope. The corporations have their hooks in what once was private and will not let go--and don't believe our elected officials will stop them.
- How about a simple solution to the supposed Social Security crisis--having those making over 106,000 a year continue to pay into Social Security to keep it solvent and a perpetually sustainable hedge against poverty for the elderly. You must be kidding. Too simple.
- Ending the promised corporate control of our elections and making illegal donations by the corporations to political campaigns. Oops, I forgot. Corporations are living breathing beings, just like you and I. They have human rights, you know, and besides, they are quite sensitive.
Many other items can be added to this list, and it is not meant to suggest that President Obama has not made some good moves. The point is that Obama is a part of a system that needs changed. In short, those who expected a major shift in America's domestic and foreign policy been hope-a-doped.
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