(550 Obama-dumping days until 2012 election-Hugh's Obama's Scandals List)
Andrew Levine has a lot to say in his article “The Illogic of Lesser Evilism: The Obama Example”. A distillation of his advice for us liberals frustrated by Obama and the sell-out Dem Party Levine himself puts into the immortal words of Nancy Reagan, “Just say no!”
As a general rule, the worse the greater evil is, the more compelling lesser evil considerations become. That was the case in 2004, when abhorrence of Bush and Cheney was the message many expressive voters wished to convey. With the Tea Party making the GOP more dangerous than ever, the lesser evil argument is likely to seem irresistible again. Donald Trump, Michele Bachmann, Sarah Palin and every other Obama opponent in sight are living, breathing arguments for keeping Obama in the White House. For Democratic Party cheerleaders, like Rachel Maddow and the other talking heads who populate the MSNBC evening lineup, that’s the whole story. But they are wrong. No matter how ridiculous – and therefore scary -- the alternative is, the case for supporting Obama, especially with the election more than a year and a half away, is far from conclusive; and scaring people into the Obama camp now is, to put it nicely, unhelpful.
[snip]
Since Obama’s election, the process has picked up speed. Part of the problem is that incoherent Tea Party fury, conjured into being and then shamelessly exploited by our Gilded Age’s malefactors of great wealth, has spurred on the race to the bottom. But Obama et. al., diligently tracking the rightward drift of their servile and mean-spirited rivals, have much to answer for as well.
[snip]
Thus the erstwhile harbinger of “change” is now set on outdoing all past presidents in implementing the Reagan agenda. Count on Obama to keep on defunding the affirmative state and to keep regulation at bay. Count on him to continue the wars he inherited and the ones he has started. Count on him too to enhance the power of the “unitary executive” and to ride roughshod over the rule of law, not just overseas but in the “homeland” as well.
The result will be that everyone will suffer; except, of course, the super-rich, who will continue to make off like the bandits they are. In the process, the lesser evil party’s role is especially pernicious. On the whole, Democrats represent the quotidian interests of the bottom 98 per cent better than Republicans do. But when it comes to rescinding the progressive achievements of the twentieth century’s popular, especially working class, struggles, it is less clear that “we, the people” are better off with Democrats running the show.
Were a Republican president to go after the last vestiges of the New Deal and Great Society – Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security – as George Bush attempted in 2005, or to escalate capital’s war on labor, Democrats would seize the opportunity to quash the attempt. But a president who is a beneficiary of lesser evil logic can deflect public opinion enough for these and other Reaganite predations to go through. This is why Bill Clinton was, to date, our most successful implementer of the Reagan agenda. Now Obama is poised to surpass him. He will too, unless the 98 per cent of the population who would be even worse off if Obama succeeds in this mission make it impossible for their “leaders” not to stop him in his tracks.
So far, though, these leaders are still, for the most part, enabling him. Organized labor is especially culpable now that overreaching Republican governors and state legislators have backed workers up against the wall, shattering the idea that what’s good for the few at the very top is good for everyone else. But, so far from forcing Democrats to change course, union leaders, along with other mainstays of the Democratic power structure, have taken it upon themselves to bring their members back into the Democratic fold. Obama is counting on their continuing support, counting on them to demand nothing from him, and counting on the likelihood that they will succeed in getting their newly insurgent base to acquiesce.
[snip]
With no primary challenge in the offing and no credible “third party” to fear, it is not clear how a credible threat of defection might materialize. One way, ironically, would be to listen to the Reagans. They – or, at least, their better half – weren’t always wrong; and on this issue they actually have something useful to say. When Obama’s minions come asking for support, we can, following the late Lady Gipper’s advice, “just say no.” A few dissident union leaders have already done that. It is a basis upon which to build.
Of course, saying No is no substitute for building a real alternative; but at this point, with an election looming, it is a quick and dirty way to launch a credible threat that just might make the lesser evil less evil. This is why now is emphatically not the time to come to the aid of the Democratic Party. Perhaps in a year and half, for the few minutes we spend in the voting booth, lesser evil logic will be less illogical than it now is. But that will be then; this is now. And now the first order of business is to break the fall into “bipartisan” lunacy. To that end, it is crucial to realize that lesser evil thinking, so far from dictating what should be done, should itself be undone. It is a part, a big part, of the problem we confront.
The Democratic Party has long ago been captured by the corporatists. The Democratic leaders in Washington D.C. are either craven and opportunistic and/or seduced into their own “learned helpless” condition. 98% of the population is not represented seriously by anyone in Washington.
Time to end this bear-trap of immobility -- of stuckness -- with the supposed lesser of two evils. We must fight our own “learned helpless” enthrallment and that of our fellow citizens as best we can. Fight the “if we extricate ourselves from the bear trap by seriously threatening this supposed ‘lesser evil’ party, we will put into place a Bachman, Trump, Palin, etc. fiasco” specter. Rachel Maddow and MSNBC talking heads, as Levine points out, will dramatically remind us of the horrors of that. Especially with no viable true-left candidate in the immediate offing.
As I see it, being helplessly hog-tied by the corporatism puppeteers earnestly willing and empowered to reduce “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” for most all of us, no matter who is in the White House, is not a serious alternative for damn sure.
Levine contends there is time to break the momentum of a grim, no choice march to an Obama Bush III term. Time to combat the “learned helplessness” seduction of Obama’s favorable, “post-bin Laden’s execution” polls. The Democratic Party? Let’s break ‘em. After all, it is not the real Democratic Party, it is a corporatism Trojan Horse. The present Democratic Party continuing onward won’t end the madness and violence being perpetrated just beyond Obama’s amiable kabuki pretenses of taking responsibility for what was our America. Following Obama is the path of doom to further fascism.
As for Bachman, Palin, Trump, et al.? First things first. Disempower the betraying Democratic Party.
“Just say no!” Or, one of my favorite slogans from the sixties, “enough.”
-------------
an additional comment posted at correntewire by me:
Yes, Bush's evil contributed to destroying America ... Clinton's "lesser evilism" contributed to destroying America ... and now Obama's "lesser evilism" is destroying America.
With Obama we haven't turned around and are making our way back up any slippery slopes. Is the best argument for keeping Obama in the WH for another term that the journey down the slippery slope to hard full-out fascism is a little slower? Some may well argue that it is hastening it, but that aside ...
Whether as a Dem or former Dem you still want to point the finger and identify the dirty Repubs as evil and you can't bring yourself to calling the Clintons and the Obamas and other Dems as evil, then don't. But recognize they are the "enablers" of evil, and the results are the same. THEY ARE ENABLING EVIL. AND BY ENABLING THE ENABLERS OF EVIL, ONE IS ENABLING EVIL.
I grew up around alcoholism. Trust me, the enablers keep the insane system going. Again, it is the enablers who are the ones that keep the machinery of insanity going. The insane addict ones couldn't begin to, they are too often "out to lunch" and lost to narcissism. The enablers mean so well. They are crazed by the frustration of having to do it, keeping things limping along.
But they can't stop their short-term desperate enabling and drink in reality that they are actually empowering the monster by keeping the system, a destructive system that is destroying or at the very least eroding the spirit and sanity of everyone involved in their mission, this system limping along or careening destructively out of control when things COULD BE BETTER, HEALTHIER, SANER. They are locked into one side of the game -- the reaction side. It is a system that becomes more toxic as it careens forward enabled not challenged. Obama doesn't hold the monsters of fraud and amorality accountable? Let's not do the work of -- okay, call it "tough love." The work of RESPONSIBILITY -- THE ABILITY TO RESPOND. And DETACHMENT is key to recovery when it comes to the alcoholic dysfunctional system. Don't contribute to its continuing machinery of toxicity.
Enablers seem to work so hard. They are earnest but so myopic. And they collude with the addicts as they rail against them to keep the dysfunctional system going because it is their co-addiction addiction.
FDL tribalists fought hard against the people who wanted universal health care for America. Because .... because ... I still don't know why we were the objects of such malice. For thinking big in terms of reform and renewal? Dreaming big? Feeling entitled? Consider us impractical given how far the corrupt system of America was away from sanity and health in healthcare, but why aim the malice at those asking as RFK asked, "WHY NOT?" Our colossal impudence to ask for REAL change that would save lives and based on constitutional rights for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness in America. We recognized that the puny little trojan pony public option was part of the massive con to enable the oligarch extortionists to remain in charge. And we were unforgivably right. Which made them madder and more contemptuous of us than at the pirate oligarchs and the Washington Dem sell outs. Say what? Just the same way Obama clearly has more contempt for the people of conscience than he does for the people displaying racism toward him. Say what?
Denial is a ferocious river in America. Cronyism is ferocious. Gang-think and gang-non-think loyalty are ferocious.
I was thinking of Edmund Burke's line about "evil prevailing when good people do nothing." Then there are the "good people" who tackle the people trying to do something to stop the evil. They are dedicated to keeping a broken system going at ALL COSTS. They are enablers.
Addict behavior is crazymaking. Addict and coaddict enmeshment is 1000X as crazymaking and it would seem 1000 times as hard to do an intervention on. And this country has got to do an intervention on the insanity going on now from the evil and the lesser-evilers.
And the media as addict sometimes and coaddict at others ... is a formidable tool for keeping this broken system going.
Ripples of truth and enlightenment will prevail. May it be sooner rather than later. Messengers need to expect blowback and keep on messaging.
I was surprised when I, late in life, learned that just before MLK was assassinated his popularity had reached a low ebb. His truth was inconvenient as he called out the insanity of the American war machine. He didn't stay in a narrower more convenient groove for the status quo establishment and he ended up the target of evil and witnessed the enabling of evil by those whom he was fighting to help. He had a moral vision that was scary to the addicts and to the enablers of the addicts. Asked people to SEE the scope of evil being perpetrated by the American system.
We have time before 2012 to dump Obama and stop a broken system. A moving broken system is doing us no favors. Enablers of evil are doing us no favors. "lesser evilism" is every bit the destroyer that evil is.
Obama calls his brand of enabling bipartisanship. His enablers call out "the other side". He and they are enabling evil and together they are keeping us locked in an evil-mongering system.
Enough, for God's sake!
[cross-posted at correntewire and sacramento for democracy]
have you read my post entitled "revolution, and democracy?"
it's at:
http://yourdemocracyblog.blogspot.com/
it's at:
http://yourdemocracyblog.blogspot.com/
Thanks, Rolling. Appreciate the support. Many of us do our best to discern and pass along the truth. I was raised not to be honest but emotionally convenient to others. Now I may be making up for lost time. I am often surprised when people don't think and feel as I do. I probably wouldn't have the bravado if I expected the blowback. I am profoundly frustrated by massive apathy of my fellow citizens IRL in terms of what is happening with our unethical political leadership. I am glad there is cyber activism happening and pockets of citizen action IRL but wish it had more traction at this fateful place in time.
al, very compelling message, which I will post part of:
"politicians rule, for the rich.
this has brought the richest nation in the world into grave debt to what was once one of the poorest. it has enslaved the ordinary people to the wishes of the richest, who own the politicians. it has made munitions the only viable manufacturing industry in the nation, achieved by selling arms to most of the world's dictatorships. it has created many of those dictatorships in pursuit of markets. it has put america into 3 wars, which in modern america are not the struggle of nations for dominance or survival, merely sinkholes into which money can be thrown, to the enrichment of the munitions corporations.
the rule by politicians has looted the environment, threatens ecological collapse, has transformed the most prosperous nation in the world into a land of 'mcjobs' and poverty. this rule must stop, if america is to stop its decay.
i present to you a plan to change the course of history: it's embarrassing, i know, but i'm not here to whine, i'm here to change things. if you are tired of whining, here's a plan which may work, and costs very little:
we can begin a revolution to democracy. i say begin, for this is not a quick fix. it has taken more than 200 years for america to get this far into the mire, it will take several years to get out. revolution? yes, genuine revolution. not a violent activity, a little keyboard activity once a month will be your basic duty. but a revolution, nonetheless. it will be a transfer of the ultimate decisions, major policy, from those few hundred politicians to the electorate, a transfer of power from the few to the many.
will the people's decisions be good ones? yes, for the collective judgment of millions is certainly better than the rule of a few who will always put their private interest ahead of the national interest. in particular, the people who will suffer will be little inclined to send jobs or their soldiers overseas, not at all inclined to let wall street and the banks play 'go fish' with the nation's treasure.
how to get there? the first step is to get citizen initiative, in every state, and in the federal government. it will need a constitutional amendment, similar to the one extending the vote to women. citizen initiative is not a magic wand, but it will have a profound effect, even if seldom used: it's existence is material proof that politicians are not master of the nation. it will always be a reminder that politicians who do not work for the good of the majority can find themselves overruled. they can even find themselves in court, with no 'get out of jail' card from their guild brothers.
how to get citizen initiative? there's only one way: politely threaten politicians with loss of employment if they do not enact the enabling legislation for initiative.
here's how: on the first of every month, send an email to the democrat national committee, and to your state committee if you don't have initiative in your state. send it also to sitting office holders, and candidates in your electoral district. send it to your local newspapers too.
in this email, say: " i will not again vote for any democrat candidate until establishing citizen initiative is at the head of the democrat platform, in the federal government, and in the state."
that's all it takes. first time 1000 such emails hit on the first of the month, the democrat party will smile and forget it. when 10,000 hit they will start to think. when 100,000 arrive, they will act."
I will send my emails on the first of the month. I used to call Congress all the time. Especially for single payer when that had a chance or so I thought. Then I became very cynical.
Mike Gravel says if you can get 65 million Americans at the same time asking for the same change then and only then, will Congress give a listen. We need an umbrella organization to get us there. I was hoping the Green Party could be an umbrella and the various liberal causes could be the spines. I don't know if this is possible. I know the Dem party is now too far gone to help anyone despite the cheerleaders on MSNBC.
"politicians rule, for the rich.
this has brought the richest nation in the world into grave debt to what was once one of the poorest. it has enslaved the ordinary people to the wishes of the richest, who own the politicians. it has made munitions the only viable manufacturing industry in the nation, achieved by selling arms to most of the world's dictatorships. it has created many of those dictatorships in pursuit of markets. it has put america into 3 wars, which in modern america are not the struggle of nations for dominance or survival, merely sinkholes into which money can be thrown, to the enrichment of the munitions corporations.
the rule by politicians has looted the environment, threatens ecological collapse, has transformed the most prosperous nation in the world into a land of 'mcjobs' and poverty. this rule must stop, if america is to stop its decay.
i present to you a plan to change the course of history: it's embarrassing, i know, but i'm not here to whine, i'm here to change things. if you are tired of whining, here's a plan which may work, and costs very little:
we can begin a revolution to democracy. i say begin, for this is not a quick fix. it has taken more than 200 years for america to get this far into the mire, it will take several years to get out. revolution? yes, genuine revolution. not a violent activity, a little keyboard activity once a month will be your basic duty. but a revolution, nonetheless. it will be a transfer of the ultimate decisions, major policy, from those few hundred politicians to the electorate, a transfer of power from the few to the many.
will the people's decisions be good ones? yes, for the collective judgment of millions is certainly better than the rule of a few who will always put their private interest ahead of the national interest. in particular, the people who will suffer will be little inclined to send jobs or their soldiers overseas, not at all inclined to let wall street and the banks play 'go fish' with the nation's treasure.
how to get there? the first step is to get citizen initiative, in every state, and in the federal government. it will need a constitutional amendment, similar to the one extending the vote to women. citizen initiative is not a magic wand, but it will have a profound effect, even if seldom used: it's existence is material proof that politicians are not master of the nation. it will always be a reminder that politicians who do not work for the good of the majority can find themselves overruled. they can even find themselves in court, with no 'get out of jail' card from their guild brothers.
how to get citizen initiative? there's only one way: politely threaten politicians with loss of employment if they do not enact the enabling legislation for initiative.
here's how: on the first of every month, send an email to the democrat national committee, and to your state committee if you don't have initiative in your state. send it also to sitting office holders, and candidates in your electoral district. send it to your local newspapers too.
in this email, say: " i will not again vote for any democrat candidate until establishing citizen initiative is at the head of the democrat platform, in the federal government, and in the state."
that's all it takes. first time 1000 such emails hit on the first of the month, the democrat party will smile and forget it. when 10,000 hit they will start to think. when 100,000 arrive, they will act."
I will send my emails on the first of the month. I used to call Congress all the time. Especially for single payer when that had a chance or so I thought. Then I became very cynical.
Mike Gravel says if you can get 65 million Americans at the same time asking for the same change then and only then, will Congress give a listen. We need an umbrella organization to get us there. I was hoping the Green Party could be an umbrella and the various liberal causes could be the spines. I don't know if this is possible. I know the Dem party is now too far gone to help anyone despite the cheerleaders on MSNBC.
Thanks and reagrds
Rolling