Since Congressional Democrats are not exactly champing at the bit to fight for the president's PASS AMERICAN JOBS ACT NOW!! (Senate votes are lacking), his campaign strategizers figure they had better distract those amorphous swing voters from the crappy economy and unemployment crisis post-haste.
According to a N.Y.Times blog post by John Harwood, Obama will use social issues and his security state cred as wedges between what he calls his "like-minded thinkers" and the unwashed, uneducated right-wing rabble who jeer at gay soldiers at Republican debates. He will appeal to the sensibilities of the so-called "monied burbs" and run a campaign celebrating EGAD: the Environment, Gay Rights, Abortion Rights and the Drone killings of Al Qaeda suspects as well as the big get on Osama bin Laden. It's the Snob Appeal, stupid!
(Yes, it's OK to cheer for presidentially-ordered assassinations as long as a Democrat does them. Look at it this way: Obama outlawed torture at his ostentatious signing statement when he first took office. He is being merciful by using computerized Drone attacks to put enemies of The Homeland out of their misery quickly, without resorting to water-boarding first. Plus, he is being open and transparent about his murders. If Bush were still president, we would never have known that the CIA and the military are now one great big family and are killing American citizens. So eat your peas, civil libertarians. Don't let perfect due process be the enemy of some damned good pragmatism).
But back to the Harwood article: if it is even close to accurate, Obama will abandon the old-school Democratic plank (labor, the social safety net, poverty, the economy) and focus on what matters most to "lifestyle liberals" who are not particularly worried about their own money supplies. He has already voiced his disgust at the redneck crowd booing a gay soldier at a recent Republican debate. Therefore, he is one of "Us." (if you make over $250,000, that is). Shared outrage at the right-wing fringe is now reason enough to vote for Obama and feel all warm and self-satisfied. Pay no attention to 20 percent unemployment and 50 million uninsured and the highest childhood poverty rate in history.
And for God's sake, get over that white liberal guilt further instilled in you by Melissa Harris-Lacewell-Talkwell-Perry, accusing you of insidious racism if you no longer feel the Barry love. Agonize with Salon's Joan Walsh as she takes paragraphs and paragraphs to explain that she really, really likes and respects Melissa as a person but golly gee, it's not fair to call Obama critics insidious racists, yo. And that of course, the disappointment in Obama is no reason at all not to actually vote for him again. Because, think of the alternative.
And if you have some free time, do check out the Patchwork Nation website where the Obama operatives apparently gleaned the demographic info on their targeted "Monied Burbs." You can go to the map and find out where your particular locale fits in. I looked up my county (Ulster, NY) and was not surprised to find out I live not in a Monied Burb, but in a Service Center. I apparently used to live in a Monied Burb (Orange County). And that is so weird, because one of the towns (Kiryas Joel) in "monied" Orange County was recently rated as the poorest of the dirt poor municipalities in the entire nation!
Another category is the Evangelical Epicenter (Obama will likely avoid those towns like the plague). Then there are Tractor Central and Military Bastion (battlegrounds for sure) and Immigration Nation ( another issue to be kicked down the road into the next millenium) and one called Mormon Outpost (Romney shoo-in) and an agonizing one for Joan Walsh dubbed Minority Central (no Black Caucus slipper-wearers allowed).
22 comments:
Karen,
This really cuts to the insidious manner in which the Democratic Party was hijacked by gangsters using what were and should remain important social revolutions meant to protect individual rights.
Separately, I was impressed to learn that libertarian groups are also concerned about HR 1505, which Anne so brilliantly covered recently.
I don't want to go overboard by endorsing libertarians, but there are some (some!) common ground issues.
-Camp Obama, Homeless Ed.
Egads, don't you get the feeling that Obama is making himself irrelevant? He is so focused on the money trees that he can't see the rest of the forest burning down.
@COHE - I don't think you are going overboard by pointing out common ground. That is so important! It's time to stop shunning the Tea Party and Libertarians as if they had no legitimate points at all - that is just falling into the corporate plan for dividing us.
We should be looking for things we can agree on, and that requires listening to what they have to say and reading their ideas, then telling them when we do agree. The two party duopoly isn't going to like that at all, but tough tooties.
We all need to become liberated.
Wait a second - the "E" in "egads!" is "environment"?
Uh... What was that about the loosening of EPA clean air regs by the administration just last month or so?
Is O really going to claim to stand for the environment?
This inquiring mind wants to know...
Obama doesn't have the support in Congress he needs to pass his jobs bill? Well, I guess he should have thought about that possibility his first year in office when he had not only the good will of the American people but also a MAJORITY IN BOTH HOUSES OF CONGRESS! Most presidents hit the ground running their first year in office especially if they defeat the other party. They reverse legislation that the other party put into place and they put forth their big agenda items while the honeymoon still lasts. I remember writing letter after letter to the White House saying, “What are you waiting for? Do you think it is going to get any better than this?” Sorry, if I don’t feel too sorry for Obama the politician.
Of course, Obama giving up on a jobs bill is terrible for the Middle Class and Working Class in America. But isn’t Obama giving up a little early? Does this man have absolutely no fight in him whatsoever? Does this president have no influence in Washington? Is he incapable of using his bully pulpit? Or has he lost all credibility. Has he shown himself to be so weak a leader, that members of his own party don’t see the need to follow him in something as vital as a jobs bill?
And Obama’s advisors – it looks like their plan to win re-election is back to the Lesser of Two Evils. Well, I have a great idea for the DNC – Give us another choice! Someone with a backbone! Someone people can trust! I can only hope that the message of October six rings loud and clear – we want REAL representation and that ain’t Obama.
Valerie
I can hardly believe that our first Black President would be the first President to openly approve of assassinations as official government policy, then run for re-election touting it.
To think that, once upon a time, we actually feared for HIS life just about every day.
When Big Brother Barry told us in his inaugural speech that it was "Time to put away childish things", quoting from the Bible, he was giving us the impression that he was a Christian or had a soul. What he must have meant was 'Time to get down and dirty!'
How are assassinations, remote Predator Drone strikes killing more civilians than terrorists, and endless wars creating homelessness, death, destruction, displacement, hunger, thirst, grief, anger, and hatred any different than what the terrorists do? How is financially propping up the Killing Machine by sacrificing social programs at home even humane, let alone 'Christian'?
I continue to be surprised and disturbed at the Constitutional Law instructor turned Democratic President. He seems to have quite the dark side.
Hello. Shoot me now.
Did anyone catch this in the Times?
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/02/us/politics/romneys-strategies-as-governor-bucked-his-ceo-image.html?scp=1&sq=Romney%20revenues&st=cse
Does this put Romney slightly left of Obama?
I think it's a question worth asking.
Signed,
Camp Obama, Homeless Edition
@Kat,
Thanks for cracking me (and I'm sure, many others) up with your hilarious post. A little spoonful of dark humor always helps with the difficult digestion of Really Ugly Truths.
@ Karen
EGAD fails on the first point, Environment. Didn’t Obama recently order the EPA to shelve increased air-quality standards it was proposing? Seems to me that air is part of the environment.
As for the so-called white liberal guilt, that may exist, but some people who voted for Obama were not liberal (like me), and others (like me) don’t see Obama as a true African-American. Obama’s mother was an educated white woman (and a distant relative of Dick Cheney) and his father was an educated Kenyan foreign national. Obama was raised in a white middle-class home, complete with a private prep school, except for four years in Indonesia. If Obama seems preferential to bankers, well, he was raised by a banker for many years, his white grandmother Madelyn Dunham, the vice-president of the Bank of Hawaii.
(Contrast Obama with Herman Cain, an African-American born in 1945 in Memphis, Tennessee, who’s black mother was a cleaning woman, and black father a chauffeur. Cain rode on segregated buses in the south, and with his brother, stood guard as each took drinks from the "white" side of a segregated water fountain in a department store. That’s a lot different than being born in Honolulu in 1961).
@ Valerie
Yes, on jobs Obama wasted his popular mandate, and majority in both houses of congress; and Obama has the chutzpah to tell his supporters to stop complaining! And yes, Dems (and the rest of us) need another choice to Obama, and if the DNC doesn’t provide one, someone else will.
@ Anne
As for drone killings of Al Qaeda suspects, at least one of whom was American (and the collateral deaths), the head-shot kill of OBL, the endless wars, and the US worldwide military empire, how does that square with Obama’s 2009 Nobel Peace Prize? Obama was given the Nobel Prize "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples." Wonder how the Nobel Committee feels about its prize to Obama now?
Neil Gillespie
@Neil,
Obama will point to the fact that he is not AS BAD on the environment as the Republicans. He does believe in global warming and he doesn't completely want to dismantle the EPA like they do! So look at him as the low-tar and nicotine cigarette half smoked, as opposed to the unfiltered Camel smoked right down to the butt. It all goes to his lesser of two evils meme.
It all comes down to whether or not a citizen thinks the Lesser of Two Evils is still evil enough to vote against. I think it is time for Leftist Pinko Liberals like me to be throwing around ideas for a write in candidate so that we are all writing in the same person. I know she had a lot of oil money thrown into the mix but I have to say it was a bit heartening when Lisa Murkowski won in Alaska with write in votes. If the DNC isn't going to offer us a decent Democratic candidate, we should make our voice and our displeasure known by writing in someone else in 2012.
Just wondering if Obama will veto the Bush Tax Cuts as he said he would since his jobs bill is going down. Or if that was just a ploy to pull some of us bad pink dogs back into the fold.
Valerie/VLT
I decided long ago not to vote for Obama again. I am a lifelong liberal and progressive. Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me.
The U.S.A. is not a true democracy but rather a faux democracy which is controlled by the international corporate elite. The U.S.A. is the arsenal and banking center for the corporate elite.
This situation has been decades in the making and will not be changed by the ballot box. The corporatist control both parties so the game is heads I win and tails you lose.
I'd encourage people not to vote and to use every way they can to protect themselves and their families. I know that the Wall Street protests have been emulated in many cities across the U.S.A. and that the corporate controlled U.S. media is trying very hard to ignore them and denigrate their purpose, function and leadership. I'm afraid that if they get too large the violence will escalate and the police forces will crack down brutally. I believe that thousands if not millions would have to die before the corporatists ever gave up control. That may happen but I doubt their are enough disaffected persons yet to make that a reality.
A story by The Cable/Foreign Policy reports that Obama has waived legally mandated penalties for countries that use child soldiers. Obama is looking like the greater of two evils.
"Obama waives penalties in countries that employ child soldiers - again!" can be found at http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/10/04/obama_waives_penalties_on_countries_that_employ_child_soldiers_again
"In a meeting with NGO representatives on Tuesday afternoon at the White House, State Department officials, led by Deputy Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor Dan Baer, explained this year's reasons why the White House will continue to give military funding to countries that use child soldiers."
"For South Sudan, State Department officials argued that since the country didn't exist when the latest report on child soldier abuse came out, that country doesn't fall under the law. Their reasoning is that the report in question, known as the 2011 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report, came out June 27. South Sudan was declared independent 12 days later on July 9. They will receive $100 million in U.S. military aid this year."
"For Yemen, the administration's argument is simply that counterterrorism cooperation with that country is too important to suspend. Yemen is set to receive $35 million from the United States in foreign military financing. What stunned activists in the room, however, was State Department officials' admission that they don't know who actually controls the Yemeni military these days."
$100 million in US military aid to South Sudan. $35 million in US military aid to Yemen. Child soldiers, Democrat US President, Nobel Peace Prize winner. WTF? Obama the lesser of two evils? Compared against whom?
One commenter to the story notes that The Child Soldier Prevention Act of 2008 defines a child soldier as anyone under age 18, and that the minimum age to join the US Army with an Option 40 contract is 17 (with parental consent).
On the drone attack issue, what about using drones on Wall Street or Greenwich, Connecticut to go after financial terrorists, the makers of "financial weapons of mass destruction" to which Warren Buffett often refers? Oh wait, those financial terrorists are Obama’s big campaign donors.
Neil Gillespie
http://yousue.org/new-american-revolution/
I suggest that those of us in open primary states consider voting in the Republican primary rather than writing in an opponent to Obama in the Democratic primary. After all, the DNC calls the shots, not us.
The fact that our vote isn't cast for Obama in the Democratic Primary should say it all. By the way, I heard that some primaries have changed to caucuses due to the 'budget'. Or maybe due to insider politics.
Unless the DNC or other party bigwigs put pressure on Obama to bow out so we can vote for a real Democrat, I think he is toast, The polls are showing the same sentiment among the people. So in all likelihood, our next President WILL be a Republican.
Given that, who would you consider the least friendly to Wall St or the least Gestapo-like towards our growing OccupyUSA movement? Or the friendliest to Wall St. and the likeliest to use Gestapo tactics? (Other than Obama)
I would like to see some thoughts along that line. We could throw our collective weight towards the second ranking candidate, whoever that might be. The Republicans did it to get Hillary out and Obama in. They were strategic and smart, and we should be too.
It's going to take time to tear down The Wall of corporate-government structure. Which Republican is weakest or strongest as it relates to us, the 99%?
Write in Bernie Sanders. He's got the experience, is not doctrinaire and already caucuses with the Democrats.
@Anne,
I think that GOP candidate would be Romney, who is, by policy record, slightly left of Obama.
@Karen and Sardonicky readers:
Is anyone interested in helping to compile a blow-by-blow of Obama policies as President v. Romney's policies in Massachusetts?
-Camp Obama, H.E.
@Karen
Here is a hyper link to Obama waives penalties in countries that employ child soldiers - again!
For some reason the URL was cut short when I posted.
Neil Gillespie
yousue.org/new-american-revolution/
@Neil
Thanks for that enlightening piece of information. How despicable can Obama get? Did you catch @Kat's link to BAR - Obama vs. Those Crazy Republicans. Is He the Lesser Evil or More Effective Evil? I am fast believing that Obama is the Greater Evil.
@Anne
I plan on reregistering as a Republican so I can vote in the Washington Republican Primary but I am holding off until the last moment in the hopes that some brave soul will jump in at the last moment to challenge Obama in the Primary. Dennis? That was a hint! Russ? You are backing the wrong horse! At this point, I have lost all concerns about issues such as adultery so Elliot Spitzer gets points with me for taking on the big banks.
@James
Bernie is my favourite write in candidate at this point. If no one challenges Obama in the Primary, I am supporting Senator Sanders as the one we all rally around. He has been tireless in his support of the Middle Class.
The corporations are definitely determined NOT to allow any reasonable people into the race who care about the Middle Class. Personally, I would vote for one of those ethical Attorneys General who are fighting the banks – be (s)he a Republican or Democrat. As someone wrote not too long ago, party labels mean nothing any more. Obama is a Republican through and through.
@Valerie
Thanks for the heads-up on BAR, Black Agenda Report. Comments show people are very upset with Obama. Commenter "Cynical Negro" calls Obama "The Shoe Shiner-in-Chief" and "The House Negro-in-Chief", with calls for a primary challenger, and urged Cornel West to run.
Obama Humiliates the Black Caucus – and They Pretend Not to Notice
Neil Gillespie
http://yousue.org/new-american-revolution/
@ Traynor and all others. I agree with James Traynor that the best write in would be Bernie Sanders senator of Vermont if you're thinking of voting at all.
I also agree with another commenter that Obama is perhaps worse than any Republican could be because his policies are the same or worse than Bush's and he has single handedly done more to break the spirit of the American left. His policies if perpetrated by a Republicn would have energized the left but by a black supposed Democrat they have done more to fragment the left's resistance and will to fight.
Frankly, I believe that unless the demonstrations taking place all over the country get much larger and more violent then I doubt that voting or demonstrating will do anything to break the stranglehold that the global corporate plutocrats have on our and most other governments and their economies. In that case then(after hundreds or more are killed or injured) they will probably try to 'make nice' and offer a few crumbs to 'cool out the marks'. It will take very sustained and violent demonstrations to bring down the very corrupt system that has been constructed over the past three decades.
@Neil at Justice Network
Thanks for that link. Great quote there:
"Obama is no different than white corporate politicians. His one great distinction is to have a core constituency that cares more for his security and dignity than their own."
This post is awesome. This blog is awesome.
Sadly, I think Obama's tactics will be successful. Those 'lifestyle liberals' will eat it up.
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