Chris Hedges writes: "No one grasps this tragic descent better than West, who did 65 campaign events for Obama, believed in the potential for change and was encouraged by the populist rhetoric of the Obama campaign. He now nurses, like many others who placed their faith in Obama, the anguish of the deceived, manipulated and betrayed. He bitterly describes Obama as 'a black mascot of Wall Street oligarchs and a black puppet of corporate plutocrats. And now he has become head of the American killing machine and is proud of it.'"
Portrait, Cornel West, 03/25/11. (photo: Columbia University Press)
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Obama is not wonderful, but fear Romney.
I can't really comment on West's psychologizing. "Fear of free black men?" But the divide between West and Obama appears to be as wide as the Grand Canyon. From Obama's perspective, I can imagine West comes off as about as radical as you can get politically in the U.S. I think, sadly, West's expectations for Obama, like many of our own expectations, were wildly overblown.
I do wholeheartedly endorse West's "We must never give up."
I know a young man who's spent his entire life traveling the world with his parents. His observations produced this response from him concerning America's future as he saw it. "America's going down."
As a progressive, I too am disappointed in Obama but I think that West's supposition of the "lesser of two evils" stated above is reality. I will vote for Obama and every Democrat on the ballot.
And he was "given" a Congress with huge Democratic majorities in both houses. And what did that gladhanding, Uncle Tom do with those majorities? Pissed 'em away gladhanding the right wing and the corporations all for the alleged reason of "bipartisanship." West has it right, Obama is an Olympic-class coward and sell out.
He has not done as well as he was expected to do. Perhaps we thought that he had more substance?
Perhaps Obama's greatest failing (so far) has been his lack of "public" leadership and use of the bully pulpit.
In an era of corporate financed media, with a right-wing agenda, Obama needed (still needs) to use his great oratory skills to make the case for the "change" he talked about while campaigning.
I'm inclined to cut him some slack to a point. How many of you ever took a new job and hit the ground running? Oh, it happens, but I suspect not very often and not in the Presidency.
Maybe with a solid, gutsy, victory under his belt, he will get more confidence. But the pragmatist that he ALWAYS showed himself to be, is unlikely to try to champion lost causes just to prove a point.
Whoever is in the White House can only succeed with brute force support (ie Republican style unity) or obstruct using the veto. But to help get that type of unity for Democrats, Obama needs to help the right ones get elected.
Maybe next time.
I suggest you read the book. Obama could never come close to the heroic Uncle Tom.
If you paid attention you would have realized that those "Democrats" were NOT a "huge majority" of anything but people with a "D" next to their name. Maybe you are unaware of the term "Blue Dog Democrats" or maybe you think it means they owned blue dogs.
Obama never had a majority of "Progressives" of either stripe, and it could be easily argued that he was saddled with a "huge majority" of "Right and Right-leaning Centerists".
But keep voting for the "D" please; Unless you are intent on "punishing" them (US, YOURSELF) by voting for a Republican instead, as you mentioned earlier.
Now we're in our third year of outright betrayal from Obama and I am flabbergasted to see people applying the same old excuse when it obviously no longer fits the facts of the situation.
Why has Obama betrayed us? Because he has made (or not made) decisions which betray his own emphatic and clearly stated campaign promises; a betrayal not just in the letter of his words, but in the underlying spirit of them. That is called "betrayal", and if any doubt remains I suggest looking it up in a dictionary. While you're there you might also look up the word "ostrich".
He supported a hyperinflation that has put $11 trillion, according to Sen. Bernie Sanders' report, into bailouts of Wall Street and London banks, and so there is no money for jobs, unemployment, healthcare, Medicare, Medicaid. If continued, these policies will result in mass death in the U.S. Medicaid, e.g. supports 7 in 10 nursing home patients.
We need to pass Glass-Steagall, introduced by Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH), and cosponsored by Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC) and Democrats Jim Moran, John Conyers, Jesse Jackson, Jr., Lynn Woolsey, and Jim Moran now. Obama will never let it, and his henchmen, like Barney Bailout Frank, won't either. There is nothing that can save the U.S. except writing off--as FDR did--all the worthless securities and derivatives. It's Wall St. and London't problem--not the American people's. Unless we dump this burden, as FDR did immediately on being elected in 1933, the U.S. and its people are dead.
The entire House is now in their districts for a "work period" which lasts until May 23. If you want to stick it to Obama, get your representative to cosponsor H.R. 1489--Kaptur's bill. If he sees enough cosponsors to pass it, Obama will probably quit. Any Republican who wants to reduce the deficit can cut $17 trillion with G-S.
The Republicans ran the U.S. economy from a Clinton-attained balanced budget into the Great Recession. Also, thanks to the G.W.B. administration (and the Cheney Principal that, in effect, says that if your next door neighbor even MIGHT have a gun, and a secret desire to come over and harm you, you must take your gun and go over and beat him to the punch. Intelligence was falsified, to get the people and the Democrats into thinking Hussein had nukes and was going to nuke us. Between these two Republican abuses, the result was the equivalent to setting the state of the union of the U.S. on fire.
Then, within a mere few months after Obama got into office, and had to do damage control putting out the fire, so to speak, the propaganda of the Republican state of the union arsonists, as it were, were chanting, "Look at all the harm Obama is causing."
As for health care, the system was BROKEN AND WORSENING, and much of the health care bill was aimed at rescuing it. ALL sweeping new bills need lots of fixing after they are passed, but the Republicans poisoned the information well, yelling that the Obama efforts at DAMAGE CONTROL of what they hung on him, was all HIS fault. They want to set us back to where THEY LEFT OFF at end of 2008.
I would add that some Americans probably even thought we would get cheaper gas by invading Iraq and taking over the oil fields. That didn't happen any more than "drill baby drill" will have an affect.
Most Americans follow the nationalism call even when they have no clue that oil and refined products are PRIVATELY OWNED AND CONTROLLED COMMODITIES. Gas will ALWAYS COST whatever they WANT IT TO COST; NO MATTER WHERE THEY DRILL AND EXTRACT THE OIL.
GWB and Cheney would not have succeeded if we had a smarter Press, smarter Congress and smarter voters.
So, of course history repeats itself, and will again. Korea; Vietnam; Iraq.... What's next?
Sometimes on some issues it is as plain as day that Obama was never a Progressive and never will be. Why else are our soldiers not marching out of Afghanistan/Pakistan and coming home? Why all the Goldman Sachs connections and Chicago School of Economics advisors? Why was Single Payer never on the table. Why were tax breaks for the rich even allowed to discussed, let alone be continued? That obama, he ain't one of us. We must replace him.
Then, other times, President Obama stands out as an effective proponent for the working class and the middle class by pushing Health Care reform through. His administration has changed how we as a nation interact with the rest of the world, using dialog and respect. His administration has effectively gone after many off shore tax havens and opened up hidden Swiss bank accounts. It is so obvious we are much better off with him as President.
There are other examples in both categories. Yin anfd Yang.
At best, Obama is allowing Progressives a chance to regroup and press for full fledged Progressive political change. At worst, we tread water and pray we have enough left to fight back.
Obama betrayed and sold out the millions of people who voted for him and believed in "change." The only way that progressives and real liberals can fight back now is if they join together and make it clear to the Dems that Obama cannot be reelected. But given the apparently large numbers of fuzzy and weak thinking souls who call themselves progressives and liberals and who post on this site, that this banning together will ever happen is highly doubtful.
These are the people you see throughout these comments and on places like DKos who provide nothing but excuse after excuse, and lipstick for the pigs that we have been given. They don't seem to understand the difference between party loyalty and progressive advocacy.
I will agree that a more forceful Progressive voice is needed in the race and I was hoping a third party challenger would emerge. But just ranting isn't going to get it done.
Who should the ticket have on it? How do we "band together" to draft those people or otherwise make it happen?
It's frustrating to me as much as it is to you but, if I were Jim Carey in the movie "Liar Liar" my answer to "what are you going to do about it" would be the same as his... "NOTHING! I'm gonna bitch and moan and threaten and then take it up the a$$ like I (we) always do!"
Excuse my attempt at levity while explaining a truth about reality :-)
Yes, the far Right (Koch brothers, GOP Congress, Limbaugh, etc. would love to bring Obama down, but Obama is not the liberal progressive we thought we were getting. He is a New Democrat and as some have posted here, his record is mixed: some good things accomplished and some obvious disappointments .
In the coming 2012 presidential election, Third-Party distractions will only siphon off the liberal-progressive focus, splinter its votes, and decimate any chance for the left to command any influence over the present cultural and economic blood-letting defining the political battlefield today.
But shooting ourselves in the foot, apparently, is preferred over holding what power we have to influence change. Relinquishing that, and then whining about it like sore losers, seems to be the addiction the left cannot break.
No one in this comment stream has challenged West's use of the "black card". Just because he himself is "black" does not condone the implicit racism. No matter how valid the points made via West's anger, and no matter what anyone thinks, the veiled messages that attack Obama via his skin color (he's hardly your classic African American) simply pander to the negative energy that attaches to the imagery, rather than the idea that the president may be a lackey, or croney, or whatever.
If I were a zoo-worker and were to grab the tail of a lion and awaken that lion, and then you were to relieve me at my post, and take hold of that tail, you would think twice about letting go.
The 9-11 affair was a strong impetus in the American "psyche," to do something, even if it was impulsive, and training camps for terrorists were (according to the news sources in the U.S.)located in Iraq, near the Pakistani border. Correct me, if that is not accurate.
If one strips from the article and one or more comments above, little by way of specifics remains. Does the author, or anyone else, have some un-exaggerated facts to lay out?
Can you lay them out without all the empty clap trap, and just state exactly what things Obama promised, and specifically where he defaulted on specific promises.
I'm NOT saying you are wrong. I'm just saying that there are so few hard facts or figures, and so much emotional jargon that these obscure any compelling information, if there is any.
From the very first campaign promise, I perceived Obama would be frustrated in coming up with a feasible exit strategy and be stuck. My current perception is that this is exactly what occurred.
Perhaps now that Obama managed to accomplish what Bush lost interest in doing, viz., getting OBL, it will facilitate a more expedient withdrawal from Afghanistan than previously predicted.
With the successful mission of finding and killing OBL, and confiscating the data bank for al Qeada, Obama has an opportunity he did not have before. The public is poised to accept "mission accomplished" now I think, and if he uses this "political capital" right, he can accelerate troop withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan, while continuing covert activities to go after terrorists.
I just hope he starts moving that direction soon. This is how GWB used 9/11 to get us into the mess we're in anyway and Obama should not underestimate the power of this accomplishment to unify Americans with a "shift" in tactics.
In my wildest dreams I never would have imagined that a complete dufus and nincompoop like GWB could have been elected President. And that was BEFORE he was in office the first time. Who would have thought that a complete failure at almost everything he touched, an alcoholic, and after the Iraq invasion and inability to get OBL, he could be elected a SECOND time?
Never underestimate the stupidity of the American voter. Obama is not a "shoe in" and we should keep that in mind come election time.
“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe.” A. Einstein
And agree with you about Bush, although I do believe if not for the conservative activists on the U.S. Supreme Court, it should have been Gore that won the Presidency. In 2004, again, there is a lot of evidence to make the case for yet another stolen election by the Republicans. You can not call these people stupid! Machiavellian, yes!
In 2012, the republican planners may make the same decision -- why not stick with Obama and get what they really want? No republican president could make cuts in social security and medicate (i.e., privatize them). But an Obama democrat could do it. That will be his marching orders for his second term.
Personally, I'd rather have an incompetent moron like GW Bush whom no one would allow to cut social security and medicare. Democrats in Congress would oppose a republican's efforts to privatize social security and medicare with all the strength they had. When Obama makes the same plan, they will vote for it.
What occurred at state level in the latest congressional elections reflects one set of dynamics, but the presidential election will be a different set. The office is his to lose.
That doesn't mean nothing can go wrong to prevent it. Obama is highly intelligent and probably more politically savvy than many give him credit for.
There are some individuals and groups that that had outlandish expectations that they, through him, would create a Shangri-La for the poor. There are roughly speaking two kinds of poor:
One kind (although their lives may have been shaped by things over which they had no control)are hard to help. Many street people have mental problems, or are addicted to alcohol or drugs. Many unemployed lack skills, and have not availed themselves of opportunities to learn them. Many who cannot read or write have shirked free opportunities to learn how.
The most "helpable" individuals suffering today are those who want work and who, the minute they are given an opportunity, will work hard and conscientiously . These, if offered skills training will jump at the chance.
There may never be enough money or resources to help the first group beyond helping to keep them alive.
I strongly disagree with you however on your contention that anyone, really, voted for Obama because they thought he could (or would) create a "Shangri-La for the poor. Sorry, but that sounds like a typical conservative/Republican talking point.
Republicans love to tout individual responsibility, self-initiative, etc., decrying government intervention when it comes to social services, but ironically, it's Republican policies that have put many of these people out on the street.
And we will clearly have an even greater crisis on our hands if they succeed in ending Medicare and Medicaid. Republicans are, by and large, a selfish group who believe they can live in a free society, reaping all it's benefits, including unbridled profit (often at the expense of those who work for them), and not have to pay taxes. Or resent the taxes they do pay. Somehow, it's just an unfair world that asks them to part with even a penny of their hard-earned money.
Obama is not Cornel West, that's for sure.It's not his style to radically push the envelope. As I've note here several times, he's a New Democrat, i.e., a moderate.
But, I like you, hold out some small modicum of hope that after he gets another four years, we will see some things from him that come out of a more liberal or progressive agenda.
Along with getting opportunities those opportunities have to be seized and availed of. Brother must lift brother, raise his own personal bar, and do more than cry out for an improvement in his and his brother's condition. Conditions provide opportunity, not fate accomplished.
Demonstrating can open doors. But the child sent to a better school must study harder. The family man must step up to his duty to wife and family. The man advanced to a new job must seize that new position and compete to keep it and prepare for the next step upward ahead.
It's not enough to get recognition, to be heard, to gripe about how bad things are. New gains must be met with new learning, new levels of taking responsibility, putting pressure on ourselves to deserve more.
For those who have read Dr. West's analysis and have labeled him to be the bitter one, please answer this question: which person in the photograph looks bitter, Dr. West or President Obama?
I say that the photograph's bitter persona is....President Barack Obama.
Given the image, and given what Dr. West has detailed about the conversation that transpired at the time, my question to President Obama would, respectfully, be this: what gives you the right to be bitter about a supporter's rightfully-thoughtful criticisms? In my humble opinion, anecdotes such as this incident, and the general milquetoast, cavalier, take-them-for-granted manner that President Obama has shown for his base is what will make his re-election campaign a difficult one.
i would like to add and suggest that the president got in over his head. though i could certainly be wrong, i say he had no idea what he was in for. he's been steered into this office, and the vote for him was steered as well. yeah we fell for it.he's been steered to do the unpopular bidding of those that paid for his election. he's the "black fall guy" for the "white-male global elitest power structure responsible for looting the u.s. treasury, giving it to wall street at main street's expense. furthering the chasm between the ultra rich and the poor. furthering the conquest of empire for those elites at our expense with never-ending war. this includes the re-invasion and exploitation of africa and it's mineral resources under the guise of coming in peace to bring democracy.
the never ending debt, broken economy,governm ent,health care,educations system, just plain broken infrastructure all laid at the feet of the black president. certainly this was laid out years ago. now he's here to take the fall.
Though I also wish Obama would show more courage at times, anyone who expected Obama to turn Washington and the world completely upside down - make everything he said he believed in come true overnight - has themself to blame for the disappointment they feel at seeing reality happen instead. It was not possible for Obama or any mortal to fulfill the fantastical expectations many people harbored, and it is surely not a sign of great enlightenment to wish the president would act as if there were no one in the world of any significance but his/her own supporters.
I really wonder how people can look at Obama's (or anyone's) presidency and come to the conclusion that he could easily do whatever great things he (or she) wanted but just decided to sell out instead.
He re-apoints the same people that tanked our economy and says they are the best and the brightest. Come-on man!
Dr. West is right of course. But what do you do when probably 80+ percent of our elected office holders, judges and appointees are both morally bankrupt and intelectually dishonest?
The pungent stench of decay grows more pronounced as the days go by..
I see the fall of the american dollar to a new world bank, a type of police state with over security at public places & events. I see the early taging of people by forcing a SScard on children at birth, when it use to be 13.(I was 16) It's getting scary out there & I feel like I'm the only one htat wants to do something about it.
The problems with this country are deep-rooted and systematic and until the system itself is overturned, we will continue the free-fall of a dying empire. As I write this, Tennessee is movuing to weaken teacher unions, the Right Wing crazies are foamin at the mouth over a speech Obama made that was almost identical to one Bush made a few years ago and Texas is looking into voting rules that hearken back to Jim Crow. We are in a class war, one where color doesn't matter, religion is insignificant and the two-party political divisions are a sham. NOTHING will change until the people take to the streets in mass, to disrupt commerce and force the powers that be to arrest, beat and probably kill many of us so the world can see what this 'exceptuional' nation has become. Until then, voting is a shallow exercise as elections are blatantly, openly, shamelessly manipulated. Prof West's criticisms are valid because they underscore what is obvious with Obama; he is nothing more than the figurehead of the vile, corrupt greed machine called the federal government. No real power except the ability to read speeches. No real sense of the desperation the poor and working class feel. No real solutions to our problems because there's no concern for those 'too SMALL to fail.' These comments are all well-meaning but until we start clogging streets and closing banks it's "so what
It goes downhill from there.West reveals that he is egotistical,bit ter,short-sighted,vendict ive and adolescent in his responsees. He can be considered anything but objective in his assessment of what is undoubtedly one of the most challenged presidents in US history.
I have to wonder if, early on, Mr. West revealed something in his own character that was suspect. During a campaign, there are always those who attach themselves to a candidate for a variety of motives. West would do well to reflect on his own flaws first and sense of personal integrity. What a dissappointment you have become, Dr. Cornell West, another crab in a barrel pulling the others down. I pray for your enlightenment and peace of mind.
Hope
Being progressive shouldn't be a black or white issue, but a humanistic one. I look less at rhetorical speeches or comments and what a candidate actually does.
However, people are still mad at me for voting for Nader in 2000, since Bush ushered in a more blatant type of cronyism that in some ways affects the Obama Administration.
In the end, although Obama isn't perfect, I would still rather have him than many of the loony Republicans trying to take his place.
If Obama gets gets a 2nd term, he may move towards more progressive reforms that Dr. West originally envisioned for him. This is the only saving grace I can offer for leftists still upset with President Obama.
In 2012 I will vote *only* for anyone who *convinces me* that they will end the war in Afghanistan and close Guantanamo, pronto. Obama has lost all his creds with me. As for Afghanistan, he is beginning to be as intolerant of criticism as was LBJ over Vietnam. The only thing that remains to reveal his poverty of humanity is to ruin the careers of opponents, but as is clear he is getting alarmingly close in the case of Dr. West. He's looking for ways to smear the dead Richard Holbrooke, but *his* wife can fight back.
His defenders ring very hollow indeed.
One should "never" put real faith in politicians. One way or another they mostly have their own agenda's which prove out. I though that G.W. would present a better picture of a president, but he was hijacked. Now Obama it seems!
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