Strangling North Dakota with no mercy
Not only was Obama never on the left, he was never even a liberal. Not only does Obama represent the ruling class, he best represents the ruling class.
He is a liberal, not a left liberal.
Sarkozy was popular too at one time. He ended up with the country and dependent small countries on a general strike.
Don't hold your breath.
We will find out how craven Big Labor is if Obama doesn't push hard for EFCA and they still support him. Arms for Israel should have finally convinced the "social justice" contingent of liberalism.
I'd be terrified if mcCain were running things. He's insane.
I don't feel that Obama is out to personally harm me. Those others are. And still are.
There are differences between the two, no doubt. But nothing real fundamental. I struggle to think of how different McCain would be during this current economic crisis. Also, I don't know how different McCain would be regarding Iraq and Afghanistan. Obama famously boasted he was for a surge in Afghanistan before McCain. McCain was for drawing down troops in Iraq as the situation warranted (which, if you get past the cute little name (combat vs. noncombat), is what Obama is doing).
I've been trying to get people to understand this for over a year with no luck. Of course it was harder before he was president but there were still clues there. Now that he's president and it's obvious (someone said 200 broken promises and counting), it's hard for me to believe his approval rating is still in the 60s. How long will people hope that Mr. Wall Street is going to change things?
You are spot on about Obama. He represents the ruling class (or at least a significant part of the ruling class). How could it be otherwise? By it's very nature the electoral system in the U.S. weeds out any potential threat.
That leaves leftists with three choices:1) reject the electoral system completely 2) swallow hard and vote for the 'lesser of two evils' or 3) Understand that struggle for justice, democracy and socialism comes on many fronts.
I voted for Obama and will not regret that decision. I never expected him to be the Great Black Hope. His rise not only reflects the needs to the 'liberal' wing of the ruling class but also aspirations of millions of poor, people of color, hard working folks. I see him in the same light as I see FDR. FDR was of the ruling class and always had that perspective but he created an opening for the Left. I think that can happen again.
I am in favor of a labor party for the US. It is true that the electoral system is unfriendly to third parties, but it isn't unrealistic that we could get a few people elected to the House from a Labor party. It would open the flood gates. Perhaps then the dems and repubs could fight for "third party" status.
Certainly there are districts in this country that would vote labor. If the unions took the millions of dollars they give to democrats and helped build a movement, there's no telling what could happen. I know the two parties would (and do) fight it, and they come together to fight it, but no one ever said it would be easy. If anything, the democrats crushing an attempt at a labor party would further destroy the idea that the dems are in any way progressive. Unions aren't getting the bang for their buck anyway, just look at the collapse of the employee free choice act. democrats killed it.
If folks didn't figure it out when he named Larry Summers then they aren't going to get it.
Stiglitz, Krugman and others are pointing out that if you ignore all the losses and change the accounting rules the financial sector has plenty of dough.
Of course as Creedance once said
"But when the taxman comes to the door,
Lord, the house looks like a rummage sale ..."
It's all about reflating the bubble and having the street promise that next time they won't be bad.
And Obama has been able to sell it.
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