Do you ever get the feeling that the voting booth is a lot like those buttons you find on some big city street corners? You know, the ones you push so you can obey the law while pretending to make the light turn green more quickly?
From high profile veterans to the suddenly energized young folks brandishing Obama bumper stickers on their fuel efficient (sic) vehicles, the Left—in almost all its guises—drank the Kool Aid again. Not just the lesser evil fairy tale but also the “Democrats can be pressured by popular movements” fabrication. No demands are placed on Democratic candidates for fear any hint of leftist tendencies would make them unelectable. Instead, we hear: “Let’s get them in office and then pressure them with our time-honored and battle-proven protest methods.” Sheer, unadulterated fantasy. Not a shred of evidence to back it up but it’s put forth every time America elects (sic) another president.
Question: Was any pressure exerted on the last counterfeit lefty, Bill Clinton?
Answer: Token, at best.
Question: Did such activist pressure – as wretchedly feeble as it was – have any impact on Bubba?
Answer: NAFTA; the repeal of welfare; the bombing of the Balkans, Iraq, the Sudan, etc.; Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act; Defense of Marriage Act, abandoning his pledge to consider offering asylum to Haitian refugees; backing away from his most high-profile campaign issue: health care; reneging on his promise to "take a firm stand" against the armed forces' ban on gays and lesbians; the invasion of Somalia; increasing the Pentagon budget by $25 billion; firing Jocelyn Elders; dumping Lani Guinier; renewing the sanctions on Iraq; ignoring genocide in Rwanda; passing a crime bill that gave us more cops, more prisons, and 58 more offenses punishable by death; the passage of the salvage logging rider; continuation of the use of methyl bromide; weakening of the Endangered Species Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act; lowering of grazing fees on land; subsidizing Florida's sugar industry; reversing the ban on the production and importation of PCBs; allowing the export of Alaskan oil; the telecommunications bill; unconditional support for the Israeli war machine, and not pardoning Leonard Peltier.
I could go on for hours but either you get the idea by now or you just don’t wanna hear it. And don’t forget: much of this happened while Mr. Bill was enjoying the “advantage” of a Democratically-controlled Congress in 1993-4.
Ain’t democracy swell?
Besides, what makes us believe in some imaginary left wing pressure (which, if it even existed, we already know will not be aimed in Obama’s exalted direction) that has the strength to influence presidents?
While the savvy strategist/activists of the Left harbor their delusions of grandeur about their ability to sway the Prince of Hope, here’s a tiny bit what they—and all of us—have allowed to happen without exerting our “influence”: epidemics of preventable diseases; the poisoning of our air, water, and food (including mother’s breast milk); global warming, climate change, animal and plant extinctions, disappearing honeybees, destruction of the rain forest, topsoil depletion, etc.; one-third of Americans either uninsured or underinsured in terms of health care; 61% of corporations do not even pay taxes; presidential lies, electoral fraud, limited debates, etc.; the largest prison population on the planet; corporate control of public land, airwaves, and pensions; overt infringement of our civil liberties; bloated defense budget, unilateral military interventions, war crimes committed in our name, legalization of torture, blah, blah, blah...
Before you know it, the US government will start spying on American citizens and detaining prisoners without charges while allowing corporations to ravage the earth in pursuit of profit, wiping out entire eco-systems in the process. Oops...sorry: they’re already doing all that and the mighty Left is fighting back by supporting Obama?
Everywhere I went on Election Day, I was asked by friend and stranger alike: “Did you vote?” Once the polling booths closed, I could be 100% certain I’d not be asked another politically motivated question by such people for another four years. No one would be rushing up to me and demanding to know if I was planning to do anything about, say, FISA, the death penalty, the PATRIOT Act, homelessness, or factory farming. The election is over. Obama has won. For 99% of the Left, that means their work is done until 2012. It’s time to gloat and reap all the rewards, right?
My prediction: The only pressure that will be consistently exerted by those on the Left will be the pressure of their soft butts on their couch cushions as they sit back to smugly watch Jon Stewart, Keith Olbermann, Stephen Colbert, and Bill Maher.
My advice: Take up yoga, lefties, because you’re gonna need an awful lot of flexibility to perform the contortions necessary to explain and justify President Obama’s actions over the next four years.
The author makes very noteworthy points. It seems nobody has added a comment due to “leftists” falling into another romantic/elated post-election manic episode or coma – reason is once again out the window, and principles will be shredded by blind optimism.
Still. I’m glad Obama won - it was historic in many respects and it would be childish to overlook that achievement – certainly some road is possibly better paved for a “progressive agenda” now. However, let’s get real folks. It seems that maybe the bourgeoisie has finally become charming after all these years? I am glad to see the G.O.P. wind bags exit the stage for a moment. It affords us some time to regroup, and maybe build a genuine people’s movement. No need to be completely black and white about the outcome.
As always, CLASS is still more prevalent a factor than race and gender to consider in a rabidly Capitalist caste society. Obama seems to think he can work for both classes… a have your cake and eat it too philslophy that liberals eat up– or maybe you can call it free-market Utopianism lol… We’ll see what happens. Regardless we can breathe slightly easier now with the G.O.P. lunatics out of business for the moment...it’s something.
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Paul Donovan (3 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 12 comments)
on Thursday, November 6, 2008 at 12:03:02 AM
todays' read. I see that the same folks who were exhorting us to vote for and support Obama on the fourth are now on the sixth saying we have to hold his feet and the feet of Congress to the fire. What happened between Tuesday and Thursday in their worldview That they now feel as I did all along that Obama was never a progressive and could not be expected to come rushing in with progressive ideas?
I see Rob, ardent Obamist that he was is now inveighing the 'we must push hard' routine. What does that speak to for Rob's values and ideals? This is not the flip side of the coin he was advocating on the 3rd.
Yes, we have a great deal of work to do, and some of us have been saying that all along, but were denigrated for our non-Obama views.
Maybe some folks should have listened to us a little more.
Just saying.
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Jack Harrington (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 521 comments)
on Thursday, November 6, 2008 at 3:29:18 PM
reverse FISA and a whole host of other anti-democratic laws and destructive policies foisted on us by BushCo.
And don't dream that the Democrats will listen much better than the GOP did. They're the establishment, and that means they are invested in Imperialism and autocracy too.
Obama seems to be embracing the neo-liberals who hold hands with the neo-cons. This is not good news.
by
Laudyms (0 articles, 922 quicklinks, 10 diaries, 502 comments)
on Thursday, November 6, 2008 at 4:22:48 PM
"Ain't democracy swell?" Yea Micky, you hit the nail on the head--the US was founded as a republic. It only "became" a democracy through the propaganda and subversion of the Wilson administration, the regime that threw in the towel of the Constitution.
Anyone with a lick of sense would realize that democracy is just a lynch mob led by wolves.
Viva Z
by
William Whitten (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 975 comments)
on Thursday, November 6, 2008 at 5:05:43 PM
A republic is a COUNTRY (e.g., USA) and Democracy is a form of government that our Republic chose in 1776 to endorse and employ. Ppl as the above poster is spewing the same GOP talking points over and over even yet. Learn your "terms" buddy. Rove was no scholar obviously as he threw out terms that just didn't make any sense but the shibboleth rolled on and on and on.
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shirley reese (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 438 comments)
on Thursday, November 6, 2008 at 10:36:13 PM
5 comments
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