The hope is unravelling. The change has been redefined, minimized, compromised, sliced and diced into bite-sized morsels of what is now predictably called "the possible." It must be so painful for the true believers, who once more fell into the dream that so often grabs the young, the hopeful, the idealistic.
I wasn't in that crowd this time, but I feel the pain. It happened to me in 1992 as I watched that same dream turn into a corporatist nightmare and a personal debacle of ethics. This time around the play was too familiar, and the trappings so artificial and transparent they glared like cheap neon lights.
Not even a full year in office, there was Mr. Obama making regular old, predictable, tried and true, Washington-style, back-room sellouts to the pharmaceutical and insurance industries, with not a ray of sunshine coming into those White House windows. The steady parade of Washington's money grubbers from Daschle to Tauzin sitting down to carve up the health care turkey for industry was just what the crowds in Grant Park on Nov. 4th imagined, right?
Charles Schulz seemed to know the inside scoop on why people do this to themselves time and time again. Lucy pulled that football off the ground every season, and Charlie was on his back pondering his continued gullibility. Charlie the optimist, Lucy the ever present realist.
Becoming the POTUS is a bit like salmon spawning - a nearly impossible and treacherous journey. Lot's of liberals and lefties run for the presidency - none ever make it. Because it isn't allowed. It's not compatible with crony capitalism, and that -- believe it or not, is simply the end of the story.
The path to the White House means swimming up a river of money deeper and wider than anything you can comprehend. Money is in the hands of a very, very small group of men and they fully intend on keeping it that way. To be a viable candidate in either of the two sanctioned parties, you will be vetted by this group, and you will swear allegiance to their principles - none of which involve any Kumbaya leftist philosophy. This money controls the media, this media controls the vote.
Where and when Mr. Obama made his final conversion before being blessed as an 'sanctioned' outcome of the 2008 election I do not know. But, that he made it is as certain as his actions. Remove your rose colored glasses, take off the love beads and take a sober look. Watching the party in Grant Park, were you imagining a flock of Bush era Wall Streeters in charge of all things economic? Did you hope for Aetna and Pharma cutting secret sweetheart deals? Don't feel bad, we've all been suckered this way before. And, if Charles Schulz is right, this won't be the last time.
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Kerry Lauerman
Joan Walsh
Salon.com
Comments
I've said it before, and I will say it again, now. I didn't vote for Obama; I voted against Sarah Palin. John McCain's selection of Palin as his running mate disqualified him from the office. At 73, in only moderate health, there was only a 50-50 chance that he would survive one term in office, and virtually no chance that he would survive two, leaving us was a dishonest and clearly unqualified individual in the White House. (No, I will not argue the point. Anyone who wants to argue that point is too stupid to argue with.)
That said, we are left with the dilemma of the Undoable Job.
When Eisenhower was president, the presidency was a manageable job. When Johnson held the reins, it was still possible for a strong man to rein in opposing forces and achieve consensus, but Johnson was the last strong president we will ever have, the last giant among pygmies.
I didn't like Johnson, but I respected his achievements, even when I disagreed with him. Since then, however, our presidents have been form without substance, figureheads. Even Reagan, who achieved remarkable results with remarkably little effort, was a brand, not a true leader.
In Gerald Ford, we had our first unelected president, having been appointed Vice President by Richard Nixon, and then succeeding him as president upon Nixon's resignation. Our second unelected president, George W. Bush, was essentially anointed by the Supreme Court in what was really a dead-heat election in direct violation of the Constitution, which provides that contested elections were to be resolved by the Congress. In that event, Bush would have been elected because, at the time, the Republicans held the Senate, and it would have been the old Senate, not the incoming one, that would have cast the deciding votes.
So, while the Supreme Court exceeded its authority, the outcome would have been the same. Nevertheless, in my view, W was an appointed president, not an elected one.
We re now one step away from a permanent president. If Obama fails to win re-election, which, at this point, is a virtual certainty, the next Republican president will rule for eight years by right, and after that by fiat and economic and political conditions deteriorate to the point where a coup d'etat is not only feasible but also unavoidable. Nixon was on the verge of doing this when he resigned, realizing that conditions were not yet ripe enough for such a course of action.
Even if Obama manages to hold on for a second term, deteriorating conditions will make it almost inevitable that the next president after him will be a Republican, and will almost certainly will be our last elected president for a very long time.
It's over folks and, yeah, we blew it.
There are some who expect the impossible…and then profess disappointment when it is not met.
They are fools.
All I expected of Obama when I voted for him was for him to try to get as much for the common good as possible from a cosmic sized mess he had been left to clean up.
I think that is what he is doing…and I think he is doing it despite the considerable efforts to make his job as difficult as possible by people who should know better.
Obama is a man faced with a mountain of lousy choices…and damn near no close to decent ones…and he is being condemned for making lousy choices!!!
Some of the greatest entertainment I get these days comes from being thankful we do not have a person at the helm right now willing to do some of the bullshit many people insist Obama should be doing.