A Progressive Case AGAINST Obama
Bob Maschi


“… retarded.”

That’s what President Obama’s former Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, called liberals in 2010 (the missing word contains 7 letters, begins with F and rhymes with ducking). He was quick to apologize, sending a ‘sorry’ over to the Special Olympics, but not to liberals. Some might consider this a family spat. A little drunken disagreement between siblings who, deep down, really love each other. But it is not. Instead, it highlights the major problem with Obama and the rest of the Democrat’s leadership.

They don’t like the left.

Sure, Obama’s done some good things while in office. His stands on gay rights are far above average, he gave us a couple of not-too-bad Supreme Court justices and he presented the country with a First Lady it could can be extremely proud of. And I won’t focus on all the negative aspects of the Obama administration (no Public Option, no Card Check). But by embracing Obama in 2012, the left will lose, no matter who is President in January of 2013.

The Democrat’s plan to win elections has long been a simple one: take the centrist positions, capture the moderate and independent votes and bully your leftist base into coming along for the ride (war against medical marijuana patients, even more free trade agreements). Political analyst Lawrence O'Donnell explained this best; “I didn’t… have to listen to anything on ‘the left’ while I was working in the Democratic Party because the left had nowhere [else] to go.”

In reply to this electoral strategy, the Republicans, (seeing their former positions taken over by the dastardly Dems), have forged even deeper to the right, pulling the entire political spectrum along with them. Which, in turn, forces the Democrats (continued war in Afghanistan, signed NDAA/indefinite detention of Americans) to seek a new ‘centrist’ position, hoping for a chance to capture every vote to the left of the Republicans.

Because of this, our country has one far-right party, one centrist party and a large scattering of lost left/liberals here and there—now considered the fringe and without enough power or media exposure to accomplish very much (Rick Warren preaching at inauguration, ties to Big Pharma). The results of this have been a deep recession, wars and a lot of confusion. Noam Chomsky explained it well; “In parallel, the political system has been increasingly shredded as both parties are driven deeper into corporate pockets with the escalating cost of elections, the Republicans to the level of farce, the Democrats (now largely the former “moderate Republicans”) not far behind.”

I have nothing against Obama personally (willingness to cut Social Security, illegal war against Libya). He seems like a nice guy. Smart. Cool smile. One hell of a speaker. Neat-o campaign art. And yes, it was inspiring to see the tradition of old-white-guy presidents broken. I understand that the Supreme Court will soon be in play and that a Republican presidency will be worse than Obama’s. For those and other reasons the left’s position is a difficult and uncomfortable one.

But if the left supports Obama in 2012, leading to his reelection, the Democrats will never have any reason to alter their centrist election strategies. They will never again take up the banner of poor and working people (spies on and murders American citizens, no arrests of greedy bankers), they will never oppose sending our children to war (no arrests of Bush-era war criminals, Plan B hidden behind counters), they will never really attempt to reign in the corruption and greed of the wealthy and their corporations (drone strikes killing children, little action on climate change). They will never make an honest attempt to heal our aching planet of its serious environmental problems (willing to lower corporate tax rate, appointed Monsanto VP to FDA).

They won’t have to. Their centrist electoral strategy will have proven successful and shown that the liberal left is comprised of easily-led sheep who lack true values, intellect and courage. Only by seeking alternative candidates to the left of Obama, can progressives pull the Democrat’s leadership back over to our side. It won’t be an easy thing for many die-hard Dems or knee-jerk liberals to do. But if we don’t make a stand against the corporate control of our political parties and the rightward drift of the political conversation now, we may not—and probably won’t—get another opportunity.