While I’m not a big fan of President Obama, I am less critical of his (in)actions than many on the Left side of the label ledger. I agree that Obama is too much a continuation of Bush on the issues of war and torture and the creeping demise of important civil liberties. However, those issues have some political pitfalls that influence the always self-interested politicians and political parties. Simply put – those issues will not decide the next election.
I limit my distaste for Obama’s mediocrity to the conjoined issues of jobs/economy and his health care plan. These issues are the ones where a majority of Americans had placed their faith in his administration. The true measure of how dismally bland his leadership has been is his abandonment of the people who elected him. He refuses to reflect their anger, address their rational fears, tell them what they already know or advocate for what they want.
Yet despite his deficit of what used to be known as “smart politics,” there is an intramural battle among the Left between the Obamapologists and the Obamabandonists. The former pointing at the latter, accusing them of an insufficient enthusiasm that will drive voters away and help ensure a Republican victory.
The Obamapologists have become enmeshed codependents. They’re a conga line of flagellants beating the sanctimonious purism from their souls as they march to the Temple of Presume. They’re the Defenders of the Fake; the Keepers of the Flameout.
The Obamapologists are suffering from a severe case of realpolitik myopia combined with delusions of grandeur. I will, by explanation and visual aid, attempt to realign them with reality politics.
Lesson 1 – You are not relevant
This battle between the Obamatists has absolutely zero influence on the overwhelming number of potential Obama voters. The group of every-day MSNBC watching, Progressive website-reading, blog-slogging Lefties are but a drop in the bucket of Democratic and Dem- influencable Independent voters. The majority of the voters the Democrats depend on do not hear A. Single. Word. You. Or. They. Say.
You cannot influence them in-between elections, and only marginally by begging them to the polls. Only Obama can truly influence them, and he doesn’t seem to want to make any effort beyond posing as "above the fray." Leave the delusions of influential grandeur to the Right – they’re experts.
Lesson 2 – Beef and Bef
Most voters are compelled by big picture impressions. While this is fairly simple, they are not, by any measure – stupid. They vote on what they see and hear, not what you want them to see and hear. They want what they’re asking for. What are they asking now? What do they want to see? I’ll let the eternal words of the late Clara Peller tell you:
Where, indeed, is the beef, oh great leader?
If you have 60 seconds to spare, Cliff and Norm will explain:
That is what the majority of possible Obama voters see – job creation Bef and health care reform Loobster.
Obama didn’t even bring the Bef to the table; he just described how great it will taste, someday, when the new, self-sustaining economy arrives. Until the Green Economy shows up, the Soylent Green economy will have to suffice.
A majority wanted a single-payer plan and blamed insurance companies for outrageous costs. Instead of advocating for the people, he worked for Big Insurance, made Congress the scapegoat for his passive-aggressive non-leadership and forced Americans consume the Loobster by interorectogestion.
Lesson 3 – Ockham’s Taser
Most are familiar with Ockham’s Razor – all things considered, the simplest explanation is usually the correct one. So why is there a massive lack of enthusiasm for Obama’s presidency? The Obamabandonists think it’s easy to see, and is what Clara and Norm taught us – he hasn’t given the people what they want, or even tried to, so they simply don’t think he has much interest in representing them.
Yet the Obamapologists think that the Obamabandonists are to blame. That their unnoticed intransigence infects the majority of Democratic voters by osmosis and infuses them with a severe lack of enthusiasm that did, last year -- and will, next year -- keep them at home on Election Day.
That is applying Ockham’s Taser – all things considered, the most convoluted, phantasmagorical, obtuse explanation is the correct one – even if it’s flopping on the ground like it was just hit with 50,000 volts.
The Obamabandonists didn’t deliver Congress to the Tea Peeps – Obama did.
Lesson 4 – Imitation is wishful thinking
Then there are those who think the Left needs to develop a media effort to match the right wing propaganda system. The problem is that, unlike the Righties, those on the Left can’t be demagogued, much less on a daily basis. What can be done to match the Right, anyway -- un-illuminati conspiracies?
The Rushian, Beckian, et. al.-ian Righties use their small, reptilian, fight-or-flight brainstems when they think of politics. The Right has the older, not-so-bright, mostly white, easily fooled and scared demographic locked-up (and they probably should be, for their own and our protection). There is no sizable or similar audience on the left.
Besides, even if this years-long effort did reach functional fruition, it could never accomplish what Obama could with a far less time-consuming couple of well-placed populist proposals.
A Pascalian Wager
Obama may well win re-election, even by running on his “Maybe I suck, but they suck worse” platform. That has become the New Democrat’s (see- Old Republicans) favorite electoral device. It has worked so well that the Party that used to frequently win the White House and routinely hold Congress can lose, as in ’10, to a gaggle of colonial-costumed screamers.
This time around things are different than in ’08. Because of Citizen’s United, the Democrats can only count on being greased with corporate lard if it looks like they’ll win anyway. The problem with that, as far as Obama’s chances go, is that there is absolutely no way he can rally his voters to enthusiastically march into the Chamber of Commerce’s gaping maw. The Republican’s voters are joyously screaming to be eaten alive, so the GOP will be greased regardless of their chances.
Therefore the Pascalian Wager. Obama can continue whimpering from Wall Street’s Wooly Pocket instead of advocating from the Presidential Bully Pulpit, in which case his re-election is a crap shoot that depends on the GOP candidate rolling snake eyes. Or he can turn his attitude around, scrape the “New” off the Democrat’s nameplate, and start representing the people. He might as well -- for the first time since being elected -- bet on the people, as he has everything to gain and nothing to lose.
Summary
Despite the pointless battle of the Obamatists, the Obamabandonists will, if he is the candidate, hold their noses and vote for him. The Obamapologists will march to the polls while flagellating and vote for him also. The majority of possible Democratic voters can only be scared to the polls by the Republicans, or enticed by Obama’s positive appeal. The latter is a real long-shot, though, as he has shown no sign of giving a damn.
I don’t want another 4 years of Obama. Call me a sanctimonious purist; call me a petulant, obstinate Obamabandonist. I don’t care. I refuse to sniff his Bef and eat his Loobster while I watch the poor and middle class being crushed.
Obama should have a primary challenge based on economic issues. That wouldn’t be from the Left, but from the majority viewpoint. It would either change Obama’s tune, or give people somebody they could enthusiastically vote for.
If you think Hope and Change should be more than a disposable slogan; if you like the idea of another minority winning a “historical” national election, Russ Feingold would be the perfect man for the job. Let’s get behind him and ask if he’ll help us escape the President’s and the majority’s dual-dose of Obamapathy.
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Ted Frier
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Comments
Thanks for commenting, Deb.
Betting on the people; now there's something Obama hasn't tried since '08. It's difficult to imagine him changing tack now, after all this time spent ignoring the peoples' interests, but maybe he'll remember how he got elected and re-fire-up the rhetoric machine about all the great things he's going to do for the progressive base. No, seriously, he means it this time, here's a jar of lube that proves he's sincere about wanting to minimize the pain for all us little people, and meanwhile as he listens to Geithner et. al. and marginalizes Krugman etc. it's only 'cause he needs the big bucks that Wall Street can provide, but this time it'll be different after he wins, really, c'mon, bef is delicious if drowned in enough Hopecestershire sauce...
I almost added a sentence about how people would still be suspicious if he did do a 180. Hope me once, shame on you. Hope me twice, yada yada.
Yours was more interesting. I'll shop for a bottle of Hopecestershire sauce as soon as my proctologist removes the Loobster. It'll be easier to walk after that.
I'm not entirely sure what you did while in the Islands? You certainly found no knowledge or understanding of Punahou and what it represents to the country and the world ... I know, those BufnBlu elitists are, like the Kochs and Welchs, hard to meet in person, except when you've been surfing with them all your life. Radford is the only school in Hawaii that is, simply, the mainland transplanted ... one learns nothing there ... it is all "there" there.
Mr. O'- my points above illustrate the completeness of those outside Hawaii's inner circle's inability to understand what happened in 2008. Neither a Chicago South Sider nor an African American was elected to lead this great but injured country away from another 1929- no, a member of the BufnBlu, the real Illuminati in many, many ways, used his chameleon skills, honed here where we KNOW EVERYONE FROM EVERYWHERE ... everyone comes to the beach here (Obama is a surfer), everyone. We learn what everyone is like, and, we often, when alone, or even for their entertainment, sit around mimicking them perfectly. A hundred years of it and we have it down to a science.
Case(s) in point: Obama rose to fame on his "MLK" like public speaking abilities. Even Harry Reid, who just spend the last couple weeks sleeping on the Prez's floor, has no clue who he's working with, and, in fact, privately marveled at how he can, "Turn On & Off" speaking like a Knee-Grow, seemingly at the push of a button, and this is true. But, the Prez is NOT an African American at all (no ancestry from slavery; no black relatives from the USA), and, in fact, his first dialect is not even standard English, rather, it is Hawaiian Creole, exactly like mine. One cannot learn Hawaiian Creole, as illustrated by Ms. Deborah above, this is because it involves over a dozen languages and is simply to complex, despite many Haoles who visit here and don't fit in insisting it is simplistic- (I won't go into their racist motivations for that), in fact, UH Social Scientists have proven it takes about 20 years of immersion to approximate our speech cadence and accurately know our vocabulary. (this is all very well documented, jut not widely read)
So, how does he do it, the MLK thang, that is? Simple, he can, as all of us in Waikiki, effect any dialect he wants, anytime ... and do it so well it plays in Oakland and Detroit to the point they wear T-Shirts with his likeness 7 days a week!
And, it is that ability that allows him to also fool the Wall Streeters into thinking he's another oreo who just wants to rub elbows with them ... what y'all can't digest is after Punahou Wall Street is a turn downstairs, not up.
Further, the Vitamin D content in his skin is something his is very aware of, and knows if he pushes too hard right now the haters of the South and the Midwest will escalate their "High-Tech Lynching" attempts, which he will address in Term 2.
He tried to get through the Green Initiatives and the Public Option, it was the Blue Dog Hater/Traitor seditious bastards, not our BLACK HAWAIIAN FEARLESS LEADER, who left the job undone. But, we will complete it, in 2013. They truly served their Southern and Midwestern constituencies poorly, in order to try and keep the seats they lost anyway, because the Prez is Black (he's not, he's Hapa, like nearly everyone at Punahou)
I will be happy to field questions, and anticipate much from the Obama/Clinton ticket with Sec of State Biden safely overseas.
IMUA (Onward)
Interesting analysis. However, I don't recall Obama advocating for "public option." I recall it being mention and pulled away, mentioned and pulled away...and that it had, all along, been dealt out of the HC plan from the word go.
Considering the large, years-long support for it, all it needed was a FDR-like boost from the Bully Pulpit. The time-honored device by which a President puts pressure on Congress to do the proper and popular thing. Never saw that.
Between Obama and any Republican? Then I Hope Obama wins, even though it means no Change. If I can't get real reform, I'll still settle for a slower march into the Chamber's belly. I shouldn't have to settle, though.
I live in a reliably red state, so my vote doesn't count anyway. I do have a Blue Dog Congressman, but given his Favorite Son son's name - Boren, he is a walkover winner anyway. The last two elections I voted for an indy the first time, and a GOPer the second...knowing, of course, the even worse nutdoodle had no chance. I just wanted to add my un-Boren vote to the total, for what it's worth.
AG Holder let it slip, "Americans are COWARDS on race." He was crucified, and now stays tight-lipped, but, who would know better than an African American (Not a Hawaiian Hapa-Popolo) like Holder who fought his way to the very top of USA Law Enforcement? Who would know better? A bunch of white folks who've, metaphorically, never left the farm?
Obama, and Holder, can't tell the truth because the "Consensus" after the Civil War, between opposing Generals who were actually West Point classmates, was too let the Southerners have a Gentlemens way back to respectability by "white-washing" the truth.
Sunlight is a' startin' toooo Shine on it now tho'- Hallelujah and Oh Happy Day!!!
I have seen many African American Democrats turn on the left, because they do not "support" Obama enough. This is an interesting, and unforeseen political division, caused by his election. I am seeing AFL-CIO folks being called "racist" for not supporting Obama's ideas on free trade....
While the Right has always had a significant racist element, they would be babbling crazy talk no matter what Dem was prez...it's just a continuance of their devolution down the slope of radical ideology. It always gets worse as the ideology fails.
But why Obama, etc, continue to play to that failed ideology as "New" Dems would confound me...if I didn't think they're also very much on the take. That is why the New Dems can't offer a real alternative -- they're just as bought as the GOP...the only difference is in silken degrees and the absence of nutbucketry.
The fraud of "Reagnomics" has been exposed. The people were ready for Knew Democratic reform. Obama still thinks he can resurrect Clinton...that is hopeless.
Different political climates require different types of leadership. Would the New Deal have accomplished anything, if FDR constantly compromised with Big Business?
Would the Great Society have accomplished anything in terms of Civil Rights, if LBJ invited the KKK over to the white house, for their input on integration, and various civil rights projects?
There is a time to compromise, but it depends. There is also a climate for compromise, and a time for total war. Obama can't see the difference between climates and tactics. Its just like warfare. You can't blitz in all terrain and you can't use static warfare in all situations. One tactic works in some situations, another in other situations.
He is really rather unimpressive as a politician. He is squandering opportunities NO DEMOCRAT should be squandering....
You also serve to buttress the DLC, pro-corporate wing of the Democratic Party with COMPRADORS.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comprador
I'd let your comment stand as an example of mental case idiocy, but you'll have to show some respect for adult conversation. If you want to rephrase your single digit IQ blather to meet a minimum adolescent standard, you can try again.
I agree. The majority wants change, not conciliation. They respect bold and see wishy-washy, finger-in-wind as weakness. Obama's advisers seem to think they can ride that 04 DNC keynote speech forever, but things have changed dramatically. Bending to the radical Repubs only makes him appear incompetent or self-centered. It's like his only concern is keeping the seat warm for the sake of his own butt.
He can count on the Repubs tripping over their own base, though. But that doesn't rescue the middle class or help the poor. It doesn't even, by extension, help the economy.
The problem, at this point, is the GOP listens to its base, and the Dems don't.
As to the intramural battle, this is happening now because his polls are weak, so the True Believers want to blame somebody, anybody but....
Last election, the same TB's were casting the same accusations. I even saw somebody passing around a list of "250 things Obama has done." In real politics, when you have to make such a list, it shows why making that list is futile.
Anyway, the overall point of the post isn't that the left shouldn't argue, it's that the finger-pointing is pointless. That, and I simply wanted to put my viewpoint out there per Obama's pitiful performance. We don't need more "conservative" destruction, and his weenie-waffling is delivering it.
I assure you, you'd never get 2 steps with your version of reality. One thing you see in all inner city African American communities, South Central, Oakland ... all of em ... is Polynesians. One thing you don't is whites.
I have been with my boys in Watts and the LBC, you would simply be laughed out of the conservation, not beaten up, btw, just laughed out, for the utter laughable nature of your insistence that race plays no part.
Nana- I like your writing, but no one tell me what to write- NO ONE! I will continue with my own experiences, as they are based in 6 decades of US racist hate. It has gotten a lot better- because we fought in the streets, and courts, for it, not because the South and Midwest decided to be fair.
Brother, have you any sense what it is like to even try and rent a house when your black? Truly, do you? Again, I'd love to have you tell my Popolo friends how easy things are for them in this post-racial society, right after the cops pull em over, again, ad nauseum for DWB.
To get ahead as a Black Man in the country you have to 1000 times better than the competition- Joe Louis, Jesse Owens, Jackie Robinson, Hank Aaron, Michael Jackson ... and, yes, Bruddah Barack.
That's how it is, and no matter how much it bugs you we won't stop till it does.
Again, Nana, I pointed out the other day: Have you ever, even once, heard a bunch of Black Folks sitting around hating on Classical Music? Ever? Writing articles and posts about it? Funny, since the Habsburgs basically started the Classical Music industry, and they also were heavily involved in the Slave Trade shipping and New World colonizing, and, Hitler's admitted hero was Wagner, to the point of dressing up like him, right before hating on Jesse Owens, and everyone in Africa, during the supposed peace of The Olympics- yet, no Black Folks sitting around hating on Orchestras, anywhere- yet, hating on Rap and Hip-Hop is such a White phenomena it is practically a tradition already.
What do you make of that?
During the Civil War many Union soldiers were amazed the slaves didn't want revenge ... just freedom. The struggle continues, again, what is your experience either in true inner city black communities or in the Deep South backwoods?
The Acid Test of anything is whether you can say it to everyone, not just your little circle, as exemplified totally by the look of surprise on Tea Baggers and Right Wingers on the rare occasions they are confronted in mixed company for their political views. You sure don't want to role model them ...
Thanks
rated
To illustrate the race issue I'm making here, I just took a break from work and this OS stuff to watch a Sunday news show ... FALSE EQUIVALENCY UP THE WAZOO, YET AGAIN!!! The Hallmark of the right, and of those in racism denial- think Fox's OBSESSION with the 2 Philly so-called Panthers ... anyway, the false point was made again that all the birtherism wasn't really just veiled RACIST HATE- but that, gosh darn it, there were Truthers during Bush who said he knew about 911 in advance ... Yeah, all those Truthers who polled out to 59% of the Democrat Party as believing in the 911 Conspiracy, Yeah, all those Truthers, like the majority of every candidate the Dems offered up- yeah, oh, and Bill Gates also jumped in as a Truther ... pulling your leg ... that is the numbers of the Repub field of 2012, and their polled constituency, and their favorite reality star/presidential candidate I'm actually referring to here, as you really know- a bunch of RACIST Haters!
All that over some Vitamin D ... too bad, sooooo sad
You’ve done it again, and this one is even higher than your usual standard. This is great.
You highlighted one very important point that most Obamapologists try their best to ignore when talking about what they see as his “accomplishments” in office. The really big-ticket items have not only been failures, but their failure was initiated and promulgated by Obama himself, as he undermined them before they even got started.
I almost lost a load when I read your “interorectogestion” comment; I mean the image of the painful endeavor of ingesting ‘loobster’ that way was just too much.
;-)
I have been equally annoyed by those who insist on blaming the obamabandonists for his falling popularity. What an absurd perspective. Since when are employers who point out the failure of their employees blamed for those failures simply by virtue of pointing them out? WTF?
“…tilting at illusory Faux Liberals.” That was well placed and sell stated.
And as you well know, I’m fully in tune with the idea that continuing to elect the same people expecting different results is clearly insane. Electing different senators and house reps is the key. Obama is basically immaterial; send him something progressive to sign and I think he’ll sign it. He just won’t make a stand for it. And congressional reps and governorships are clearly where the tea baggers found inroads. It is possible.
Lastly, I will join the chorus:
I’m sick of the ‘race card’ game,
When criticism rings Obama’s name.
RATED
For instance every time you rent a movie at the Redbox (goodbye video store jobs) or go through the self-checkout line at your grocer (goodbye bagger jobs for the retired and handicapped), you are supporting a market force that will eventually do away with human labor altogether as soon as automated systems can be designed to replace expensive, whiny breathers.
Okay, I may have strayed into the woods a bit, but I'm stickin' with it. Thanks for a thoughtful piece.
This is not a typical recession, where inventory has to clear out and new consumers who qualify for loans have to rise to become buyers. This is closer to a depression. The fundamentals of the economy have been hollowed out and shipped away. ONLY government can create jobs, just as in the 30s, and notice that recovery only happened when government pumped enough cash into it - WW2, to actually resurrect consumers. The "market" is waiting for consumers who no longer exist. We can lop-off 20% of the workforce and claim the economy has 'recovered," but that's not the America we should want.
As to incompetence...well...look at the numbers, and observe how he lost Congress...in a big way. "Post Partisan" would have been fine if team Obama made it about ideas, not numbers. Instead, absent leadership, they throw H-care to Congress, and played a pathetic game of spending news cycle upon news cycle doing absurd contortions to try to capture a few GOP votes-- only to have those Senators back out and leave Obama looking like a chump. And leave Americans with a pile-on-more-bureaucracy, feed the crooked insurance companies plan rammed through by resolution.
More incompetence surrounds stimulus, where he asked for too little, didn't explain why it was the only thing that would get people back to work, and traded away most of it for totally ineffective tax cuts. THEN, to rub salt in their own wounds, some genius on the team decided to roll out the slogan: Recovery Summer. I can't think of a better way to get Americans compelled to ridicule. Obama certainly truly thought Geithner et. al, could blow up yet another credit bubble. If not, then exponential incompetence.
He can't press a button and make the economy jump, but, knowing that, he should have acted like he was siding with the people against the fraudsters who caused the mess....instead, he went the other way around. Talking about what jobs will come "someday" isn't fooling anyone.
There are complexities that make this different than the 30s, and that has to be factored in. More factors than I can mention here. However, doing nothing at all, and waiting for the Confidence Fairy, and ignoring the primary concern-- jobs...for the far less concerning 'debt" issue...he again is looking like the GOP is leading him around like a mule.
An interesting conversation that deserves its own post, and thanks for your thoughtful comment.
Thanks. I hope you didn't pucker too much at the thought of inverse loobster consumption.
I think that if Obama led with the populist message Americans want to hear, he could coat-tail a few more Dems to help him do what most want done. To me, another absurdity is kow-towing to the CofC crowd in order to raise money to fool-up enough votes. I say eliminate the middle man and go, in honesty--straight to the voters. But alas, New Dems are too slow to abandon what worked, once, and are stuck fighting last decade's war.
Too many suckling pols at the CofC teat is the biggest factor in not getting work done in America's interest...it's hard to change their way of thinking when it's so profitable to them.
That said, I'm neither an apologista or an abandonista -- I'm a clothes-pinata, that is I will cast my vote for him while holding my nose. I'd say his re-election is iffy -- he wins if and only if the Republicans offer up one of the unusual suspects -- and even then, the election will be close. Call 2012 the last gasp of the enthusiasm gap.
As for Russ Feingold, who couldn't hold onto his seat in Wisconsin, I fail to see how he can be seen as either mainstream or a threat. Not that I disagreed with him on most issues, but he was clearly viewed as too left of center even by many Democrats in his own state.
Right now, I'd say the best hope for America is future demographics -- how's that for the audacity of hope?
I agree with you about "future demographics" except for one thing. Since we don't see any way to break out of the bind we're currently in in terms of electing people, I don't see any future hope. The only thing I can see that might offer up something in the future is that when things get way worse than they are now, people might finally find the strength to step away from the status quo.
I mention Russ because I like him, and he could push economic issues that would generate enough popular enthusiasm that he could also insert those important civil liberty issues and not get slammed for "refusing to protect 'Merriker." Besides, can you think of anyone else?
I'd bet Wisconsin would like another bite at that apple. Anyway, that aside...who better? Kucinich is too...well....Kucinich. Clinton is too Clinton. I'm too unknown, and you're too busy. However, if anyone asks, if nominated I will not run; if elected I will not serve.
So, it's up to you, Tom.
You're right about the demographics, but even as the olde guarde wastes away in the Depends, there are 4 fairly young, black-robed ideologues set to become the shadow government. Besides, if we don't see a real Democrat soon, who will know what one looks like when the population finishes shifting? By then we may well be owned by a conglomerate of Chinese and Saudi companies anyway.
I'll borrow your clothes pin...as long as you use it externally...after you're done "enthusiastically" voting for Hope He Changes. Unless head cold season aligns with election day, that is.
He is incredibly shrinking, isn't he?
You might enjoy this little ditty I composed back in December of 09. A fun way of looking at it, and predictive of where we--and he--are/is now.
http://open.salon.com/blog/paul_j_orourke/2009/12/27/dear_abby_my_president_is_ignoring_me
You have it right here.
Fly
Too bad, we who aren't white are sick of racist hate and apologists.
Jan-
(sighs) The Prez ain't black ... but, no amount of yelling or trying to explain can get through any of your heads (proof of institutionalized racism of USA, as if any is needed)- he is HAPA, mixed race with NO African American in him- none, Hapa-Popolo, he is OUR Black Hawaiian Fearless Leader and he is playing Wall Street for fools, and, sadly, you are falling for it as well.
Paul-
Little book, couple thousand years old- Art of War- I know you've read it, you've read everything!
You're right, he's not black, he's yellow.
You do realize yella is a racist slur? The proof keeps on coming ...
I don't have the answers for folks, I don't think least worstism is it though -- but people have to make their own choices.
I am really fed up totally with supersensitive idiots grabbing any common remark and screaming racist. "Yellow" has been a standard appellation for cowardice for centuries and has nothing to do with racism. The Israelis use the same crappy technique accusing any criticism of the vicious brutality of their government as being anti-Semitic.
First you brandish the deeply stupid concept that Obama is not black and then speak of totally whacky nonsense that Obama has secret and masterful plans for defeating the financial crooks by dumping huge amounts of cash in their pockets. I'm afraid your totally deluded viewpoint has no value at all and labeling Obama's total surrender to all the things he promised to defeat and rectify as some sort of masterful victory verges on religious delusion and clearly classifies you as having no sense as an observer.
What would be supersensitive is your nose were you to ever call a light skinned African American young male, "Yellow". You, who purports to deal in words, know full well they mean different things at different times- a classic example is the word niggardly, one we all who went to University know the meaning of, yet, are not SO RIDICULES as to think we could, or should, use it in mixed company, or ever again- some things simply reach their logical end point.
Your false claims that you can do these things simply prove my point- you have no actual or significant appreciation for, or involvement with, a large section of the American Population, the one you seem to be claiming to know something about here, African Americans. Well, Jan, Obama is NOT an African American in any way in the traditional sense, and is black only by the ONE-DROP RULE OF JIM CROW, and I call him Black Hawaiian, so you must not be reading this with your ears steaming so- is Jim Crow something you are here to defend as well as your false assertion that you could call an actual light skinned young, or old for that matter African American "yella"?
You guys are really something, you are "sick" of hearing about racism as you think it doesn't apply to you, while Trump basically joins the KKK ... you are "fed up" with being told about Hawaii, by people who grew up around the president, when you obviously know absolutely nothing about the place ... fascinating, as Sen. McQuack likes to say ... you too ought to read Art of War in between Trotsky ... then you have a clue on how a "Black" man in America became president, and how he will get re-elected, WITHOUT THE NADER VOTE!!!!
I think you grew up so close to the Bankers that you just hate them so much it clouds out all else ... hey, so do the rest of us ... but, it seems naive, especially with your credentials, to think they can be beaten down quickly without putting people out of work, like, you know, that earlier depression, the one it took WWII to finally get us out of.
I will say this, the system is rigged as hell, and the bankers are crooks of the highest order, so we agree on that ... the sooner Ms. Warren can get started, the better- another courageous move by the very, very brave prez.
It is a shame FDR appropriated the left during the New Deal to the point of making the Socialists and Communists irrelevant to the conversation, and that McCarthy helped whitewash them out of history, at least until recently, but I fail to see how that reflects on the president in 2011. His second term will be, apparently, a very big surprise for you- watch what happens, just let him get in first.
Actually, "he" doesn't even have to be a he -- Palin's fans think she's got bigger balls than most of the boys. That's one reason the doddering old man and the bimbo got just barely short of 60 million votes in 2008.
This reverence for the bad-ass is exactly why Obama's rightward drift may very well fail. The Hard Left will stay home, Right of Center Independents will see his "compromising" as weakness, and the rightwing nutjobs are so screwed up, they see him as a dictator and a wimp at one and the same time. Good luck, Barack -- good luck, America!!
I have more faith in the majority, even if they aren't well enough informed--a failure of a purchased media--to render even semi-wonkish judgments. The polls prove this faith isn't unfounded, as a majority have known for about 7 years this country is going in a very bad direction. Obviously during W, and well before the crash.
This silenced majority simply doesn't have anyone of note to speak for them, and with Obama, they still don't. The debt is below the wish to focus on jobs, yet President loopa-doopa-do wants to play Centrist Man, and "appeal" to that illusory middle. His debt shtick is far more about fearing being crushed by the corps than working for the people. More about being re-elected the 'easy" way than being held in general esteem for taking the 'hard" populist path.
Have faith in Americankind, brother Tom. Have faith.
Obviously the HC plan is industry-sop hogwash, and the projected savings almost assuredly wishful.
And Oahu,
Try writing a post proving this emergence of racism among those who voted for the man. I'm hearing wolf, but I'm not seeing any wolves, at least among those people. Even Cornell West, then, has become a racist?
As to Sun Tzu, I did read The Art of War, many years ago. That's why I knew where to look for this description of Obama's poor choice.
He isn't standing on dispersive ground, which is his Democratic territory, and where he doesn't have to fight, but merely wait for an attack where he has his troops and allies.
He chooses difficult ground, where the enemy holds an advantage, and where he should -- if he had stumbled instead of willingly walked into it -- keep marching through.
Instead of advantaging his strength, where he could, if he chose to, merely feign weakness as tactical...he walks into weakness and attempts to feign strength. That would be fine if he was fooling his enemy, but by marching onto difficult ground, he has already proven weakness.
He sure has a lot of rope wound around him for a guy who, if your claim is true...is playing rope-a-dope. Perhaps that tactic is proving to be evidence of self-realization...if not immolation.
My post-in-progress on USA Racist Hate is up, and has been up, and when I finally finish it, which I will, but who knows when, frankly, it sadly seems the updates keep coming, I will promote it, which right now I am not ... I do work on it though, and today add more photographs of actual people who were slaves to whites in this great country.
I ain't a gonna stop till the hatin' do!!!
First of all, I don't see Obama as being "black" in any but a biological sense. He was raised almost entirely by white people and for most of the formative years of his life, he was immersed in white culture, not black culture. Certainly, he doesn't have a ghetto vibe or even the aforementioned Cornell West's Baptist-tuh Preacher shtick.
Racists and the superficial may see him as black, but I fail to see how his slightly darker than normal skin color somehow outweighs every other aspect of his background. I'm not suggesting he doesn't have an additional burden no other President has ever had -- to put it bluntly, he can't afford to be seen as NWA. But surely, his skin color and his name have worked to his advantage in the Mideast over most if not all former Presidents, especially W the Redneck Cowboy Crusader.
As for the unthinkable, to date every President who has been the victim of an assassination attempt has been white. In fact, every one of them except Kennedy was a WASP. So let's just say assassins tend to be fairly indiscriminate in their insanity.
But leaving aside the mixed bag of color, who -- or what -- is Barack Obama? With my reading of The Audacity of Hope, I pegged him as a centrist compromiser, and to date his performance as President has substantially confirmed that. And I'm also forced to admit I was hoping for more.
That said, I must reluctantly admit that given the present horrendous political divide, that may be what we will have to settle for. People like us are loathe to admit it, but sometimes the best that can be accomplished is mediocrity. And I'm afraid that's all we have to look forward to for the immediate future.
Tom,
Obama could easily change the dynamic, and the subject, by speaking what most Americans want to hear. His ability to let the Repubs frame the issues is nothing new among the New Democrats. The debt issue is pure GOP and beltway babble, the people aren't that concerned, and the fact is the debt isn't the biggest problem. If we can't restore workers, the debt will only continue to grow. The debate is bass-ackwards. Of course, those top less-than 1% want to keep what they have stolen, and so that's what the debate revolves around.
Recent CBS poll--question: National priorities-problems
Jobs/Economy 51%
Deficits/Debt 7%
The people are waiting in the traditional Democrat's wheelhouse. The Captain is down in the lounge playing Liar's Poker with the pirates...and losing everybody's shirt.
Sometimes mediocrity is simply mediocrity.
http://www.pollingreport.com/prioriti.htm
That said, his options are limited, too, and all the more so since he got his ass kicked in Nov 2010 -- just as I -- and a lot of other people predicted. All the same dynamics and perceptions that led to that shellacking remain in place, so I'm predicting he's mighty liable to get his ass kicked again in 2012 -- no matter who the Repugnants puke up.
As I said, the Hard Left will stay home -- just read the temperature around this Liberal bastion -- the center sees him as weak -- a fatal flaw in a President -- and the Hard Right is 100% against him. I don't know who's giving him political advice -- Alexrod? -- but whoever it is is as dead-wrong as Rove was in 2006.
That is what I am striving to begin here ... so, lets continue ... and, I very much admire the depth of Tom's writing, and the breadth of Paul's reading, which is why I put some effort here instead of abandoning ship- which is not in a surfer's nature.
So, back to the Islands, first, Obama was NOT raised in white culture, no, no, no, no, no!!! I realize that despite this being a state, which most of you have visited, the conventional wisdom is we may as well be Bhutan for all the understanding of our modern culture.
You see, we are post-racial, we are not white, we aren't Hawaiian only either, we are so mixed that corporations have spent millions here trying to analyze our mixed culture so they can try and get the haters they employ to stop with their primitive nonsense. I won't cheerlead for Motorola, or any other company who for sure doesn't put the people's interest where it belongs, but, some of their management aren't selfish and filled with hubris, and actually want to improve the way they do business ... hence, huge investments in trying to figure us out.
He was NOT raised in White Culture- NOT!
Punahou, his alma mater, is, almost to the student, bi-racial or multi-racial ... very few pure Hawaiians, very few "pure" europeans, very few! And, those who are pure whatever are not excluded by the mixed mass- we just don't play that shit!
Why? it is quite simple- the Haole, the early white population of Hawaii came clean a loooooonnnnnggg time ago on the truth ... we don't try and hide it, don't try and cover it up, and, once you admit it you can move on ... that's why AG Holder said Mainlanders are cowards on race- because they are!
Come on guys- the whole Birther thing is one big, fat excuse to say hey he's a nigger! Now Trump thinks he can take on Cosby? Really, the whole thing is race based, against blacks- Huckabee dog whistling the Mau Mau right into Indonesia, where, btw, most muslims live and have never seen the MidEast, to say all this isn't about the USA's institutional racist hate against blacks is simply disingenuous- and, farcical on this, the 150th of the Civil War beginning at Sumter, where, today, a bunch of hating racist white southerners burst into the song "Dixie", by themselves in the corner, and the end of the ceremony ... Comments on this?
Once we get that out of the way, we can start talking about Punahou, what it means, and why the prez can give MLK diction speeches, despite never spending one minute with that type of Knee-Grow until he was well into his 20s ... this is Hawaii, folks!
Aloha Kakou
Raed
and when Obama starts denying he's black as you seem to believe.
The old Marlon Brando remark comes to mind when I think of Obama: "I coulda bin a contenda"
I was in a bookstore in Vallejo, CA. As I made my purchase in this mostly African American community, the cashier and I were discussing the prez- I mentioned his school and one that I attended were right next to each other ... behind me was a "Black" American, and, you should have seen the look on her face as she eavesdropped!!! She simply could not digest what was said, which was the truth, btw ... I swear her eyes nearly bugged out, then, I noticed she was going to ask me something, but, just couldn't find the words to conceptualize it. Usually I am helpful in person in a situation like that, but the purchase was a gift I had to deliver, so I left the poor thing standing there dazed and confused.
So, that's not what would happen ... it is what did happen.
I realize you have no intention of learning something new, and are, simply, just plain set in your ways. Reminds of that other famous Brando quote, "What are you rebelling against?" --- "Whaddaya Got?"
First, as I've asked time and again, how are we to define "black"? If it's simply a color, Obama ain't. If it's a single-drop of blood -- well, I have no desire to waste a moment's breath on that senseless discussion.
Yes, there are certain physical characteristics one might try to ascribe to black, but anthropologists more and more dismiss the idea of race altogether. And I'd say with good reason, particularly in a multi-racial society like America.
For better or worse, America has been a multi-racial society from First Contact. As far as I'm aware, the New World is the first place red and yellow, black and white were thrown together.
Yes, that melting pot has been stirred very painfully, and up until very recently, very unsuccessfully. It may be my prejudice showing, but I'd say the Red Man got the worst of it -- and is still getting the worst of it, but that's a discussion for another time.
No one with a lick of sense or honesty is going to argue that it's an advantage to be a minority in America, but the very fact that Obama IS President argues irrefutably that it’s not the disadvantage it was even a decade ago.
Still, I insist one reason for Obama’s election is that he did indeed appear to transcend race, and I believe one reason for his misguided political moves is that he is still trying desperately to do so. I believe one reason he doesn’t “embrace” his so-called blackness is that he ISN’T black, at least not in the sense in which I’d use that word.
In fact, as Oahu seems to be saying – Hawaii is so multi-racial that race has begun to be all but irrelevant as a determinant in the islands. No, I didn’t grow up in Hawaii – never been there as a matter of fact – but I assure you, I’ve spent plenty of time in mixed-race environments.
Hell, as a musician, I’ve played places where the only white guys in the room were in the band. And I willingly concede, it can be a very uncomfortable feeling.
Frankly, I'd hesitate to even try to define the word “black”, as it’s commonly used, beyond “color”, which again I find not a very useful distinction. Maybe a few illustrations might make my point, tho obviously a lot of people aren’t going to agree with my assessments.
Barack Obama is not -- cannot -- be black, in the same way as John Lewis. Oprah Winfrey black? Yes. Haille Berry? Not so much. Duke Ellington black? Yes, Prince? Not so much. Billie Holiday black? Yes. Lovely Lena Horne, not nearly so much. Redd Foxx black? Yes. Bill Cosby? Not so much. Paul Roberson black? Yes. Sidney Poitier? Not so much.
As I said, some will see my assessments as racist, but it wasn’t me who first made these distinctions. The divide between field hands and house niggers, between darkies and high yellers, between cotton pickers and café au lait, was not made by me. Spike Lee dealt with this very touchy subject in one his films.
All that said, I’m not looking for “propers” or a pedigree for anyone to be able to call themselves “black”. I’m trying to get rid of the word altogether as a way of determining what a person will think or how they will act – that is racism of the worst sort.
That said, this whole idea of blackness is a vile vestige of colonial times that has little or no use in the 21st Century, and the sooner we get rid of such useless – and harmful – distinctions, the better off we’ll ALL be.
Of course, that's not my pedigree, but I was getting civil rights lectures when I was 5-6 years old. My family were early adapters.
I tell this more out of pride than anything else.
Thank you for acknowledging my point in all this ... Obama is not "African American Black" (yes Jan, he's got their votes locked in, not just for skin color, but for oration) and he is also NOT what you think, a Wall Street sell-out, again, you have to consider where the man came from, The High School which has produced more Senators (multiple US States) more Members of Congress, more Generals, more Admirals, and, more self made billionaires and a great number of inherited millionaires, than any other school in the WORLD! Further, to give you an idea of how the BufnBlu Illuminati works, how exactly did Case become a billionaire? Through Parsons- who also went to school here and engineered the merger!
I could go on and on and on, but I already have. Thank you all for your work in Civil Rights. I marched here in the Islands, I marched on the Mainland, I got beat by pigs with sticks, tear-gassed- but, we won, and now we have a re-match, and, we will win, and then, mark my words, you will see what he does in term 2 and it will not be what you think ... I accept your strong feelings of justice not being served cuz it aint right now ... this is a long haul and he has a lot of racist hate to overcome to get re-elected. So, I want to acknowledge you are right about much of what you say, just not about the prez and his pinko 5 year plan.
Aloha, and, thanks again Tom, and Paul and Jan for not being haters, especially since it took more guts there, and real ethics, than it does here where we have it worked out already.
A parting shot, though, it is all about race ... look how the prez's sister is virtually ignored, nothing at all until today, yet, she is one of our most respected residents here in the Islands -- race, plain and simple ... and she is Eurasian, well EuroIndoAsian, actually.
Peace OUT
The Rushian, Beckian, et. al.-ian Righties use their small, reptilian, fight-or-flight brainstems when they think of politics. The Right has the older, not-so-bright, mostly white, easily fooled and scared demographic locked-up (and they probably should be, for their own and our protection). There is no sizable or similar audience on the left.
Great writing Paul. I admire your "I'm not gonna take it anymore," tude. Will you not vote? I am so torn on this whole issue and I really can't argue with your points here.
I read, somewhere, that when you hear the same argument many times, your response settles into that small brain area. The response becomes routine, in a way, just like driving a car. While their arguments begin there, responses can find that area, and that's why sometimes the fervent ideologue's rote arguments get reptillian-ripped apart by people whose normal thinking preference is cerebral.
Something like that. You'd know more about it, and the terms, but that's how I think of it.
Of course I'd never withhold my vote out of simple spite. I'll always vote, even if motivated by voting against...though most people vote "against."
Nice to see you.
And there's a reason Kucinich was not allowed in the debates in 2008. He'd have smoked them all. Lots of leftists out there - very, very few actual liberals. Democrats are just as greedy for power as the Rethugs, that's why they can't stand up to them.