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Sep 05 2008

Bandwagon Politics

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Political Views

By James Secor

Translation

All aboard the Casey Jones Special

I wonder. . .is anybody listening? Is anybody paying attention? Is anybody actually seeing anything? I feel like I'm Laurie Anderson calling her home:

"Hello? Is anybody home?"

"Hi. I'm not home right now but if you wanna leave a message, just start talking at the sound of the tone."

"Hello? This is your mother. Are you coming home?"

"Hello? Is anybody home? Well, you don't know me but I know you. And I've got a message to give to you."

Yes. That's right. Nobody's home. Because if they were, they'd not be jumping on the Obamarama Bandwagon. But somebody's giving them a message.

The Left--a handy tag for people who write and who say they want change but, in fact, aren't really into doing anything when it comes right down to it (and have probably never been on the streets in the first place)--and The Nation--a magazine of disillusioned upper middle class/upper class writers with neat ideas but still believe that you can fix a broken machine with recycled broken parts from that machine. Recycling with new grease?

Even Robert Greenwald is supporting Obama via choosing to only bash McCain. Who really knows what the rest of the American public is thinking, after all. . .they believe they "elected" George W. Bush--twice. In fact, they let him steal the elections; in fact, he was not elected the first time around but appointed. . .without any outrage from the plebs. It seems, though, that the Left, The Nation and the plebs are all ecstatically for Obama for President based on. . .based on speeches that say nothing, address nothing but are about hope, the last scourge left in Pandora's box. This isn't, however, surprising: has anyone bothered to look at Mr. Obama's voting record?

If you look closely at Obama's performance for "the people" you find that, well. . . he's cynical, cynical and practical in his own interests (see here). He plays it safe as, closer and closer to this year, he begins not voting for much of anything. That's what "NV" stands for. That is as if to say that he's never around. It is also of note that he whenever he votes for something, it is not passed: all of these bills are pro-people, service-oriented bills. None of them passed and so it looks like Obama is all for us but the Senate is all against us. Our hero!

But wait! There's more! Whenever he voted "No" the bill was passed, bills that would have stripped us, "the people," of things we'd like to have. Again, he comes out looking like our hero, for those evil Senators all voted to pass what was bad for us. . .except Obama.

What pops up like a cartoon Jack-in-the-box boxing glove that clobbers the clown who opens the box is that he knew what was going down; he knew what was going to pass and what was not and voted so that he'd come out looking like a wonder boy fighting for our rights. In a manner of speaking, he never loses--when he votes. And he don't vote often (Cf. also). That is, he votes for himself, for looks--and he's an adept at it, for the vast majority of America has hopped on his bandwagon, a bandwagon run by the monied elite bankrolling his rise to fame and fortune--another fact people are choosing to ignore.

The New York Times picked up on this voting trend in 2007 when they did an article on his voting record in the Illinois Senate: just exactly the same method he's used in the US Senate ("It's Not Just 'Ayes' and 'Nays': Obama's Votes in Illinois Echo"). For further confirmation of his self-interested voting, see "Obama's Voting Record Belies Moderate Image".

How our elected officials vote and their trends in voting are important to us, for they tell us about their fulfilling their responsibilities to us--they are representing us, yes? Well. . .we all know this is not true, yet we continue to elect them. Obama is a tad more slick, a tad more machine-like than his predecessors or, it seems, contemporaries; for he only talks about his "ayes" and "nays" and never about the majority of his voting: NO VOTE. "No vote" is like saying "I don't care." That's right, Obama don't care about you all, his constitiency. . .and you's climbing aboard de Obamarama Bandwagon without thought, without looking at the evidence. And then, in the future when he disappoints you and your chosen blindness, your preferential ignorance, you will be broken hearted and bitch, bitch, bitch. As Frank Zappa sang, "Broken hearts are for assholes." Obama's not hidden anything but he has engaged in the magician's stock in trade: misdirection. And everyone seems to have bought it.

Ambrose Bierce noted that a politician is "An eel in the fundamental mud upon which the superstructure of organized society is reared" (see here). But he also notes that a vote is "The instrument and symbol of a freeman's power to make a fool of himself and a wreck of his country".(see here) Highly applicable to the present situation--and many times in the past.

Casey Jones wasn't paying attention at the controls and had a head-on collision. Killed alot more people than himself.

Obama = Hope?

And what did hope ever get you?

I am reminded of the old joke about the man sitting atop his house in a flood praying to God to save him. A log comes along and bumps up against the house but he doesn't get on. A row boat comes by to pick him up but he turns it down because he's praying to God and God will save him. A helicopter comes by: same result. When he dies, he goes up to heaven and shouts at God, "I believed in you! Why didn't you save me?" And God says, "I sent you a log, a boat and a helicopter but you wouldn't take my gift."

The Obamarama Bandwagon. . .just rolling along selling its snake oil to any and all--and everybody's buying, hoping it'll fix their ills.

Hope, the last scourge in Pandora's box.

Jim is a retired professor, a writer-playwright living out on the edge of the Gobi Desert where the skies are clear, the air fresh and the water possibly the only non-polluted water in the country: mountain run-off from the year-round snow-capped Qilian Range, which he can see from his front patio. He can be reached at: znzfqlxskj@gmail.com any time night or day.

Other articles by this author: http://mwcnews.net/Jimsecor

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Comments (1)

1. 06-09-2008 21:10

Mr. Secor, I certainly agree with you as far as you went with the subject of Obama but it would seem to me there is a great deal more to be said. The entire \'election\' process is theater.

I\'m not sure why you only pointed out Obama\'s flaws without including McCain for it is not the man, men or women but the process itself that has no real meaning left. Big Money essentially owns everything (in fact the financial elite are at this moment completing the greatest transfer of wealth in the history of the world and by the time they are essentially finished they will own or be owed for virtually every hard asset in the U.S. Those foreclosed houses do not vanish in a puff of smoke; who owns them now?) Big Money buys the politicians and therefore the laws and regulations, banks, money creation et al. Globalization is a euphemism for imperialism; having found it fairly easy to knock off the U.S. in only seven years, they want to rule the world and believe they can. I think they\'re wrong but they don\'t care what I think.

The only thing Big Money fears is the people themselves; their sheer numbers. This is of course why they go to so much trouble and expense to manipulate what the public thinks.

The only thing to be determined by this farce of an \'election\' is how much the public actually understands about politics, propaganda and the economy. Naturally, if the public really understood no one would vote and the people would already be on their way to Washington to resolve the problem.

Obviously that has not happened. Nor is the electorate going to stop paying taxes and therefore funding the criminal activities of this or any other \'administration\'.

Voting for Obama, who presumably will change nothing and works for Big Money just like all the others, tells the financial elite some of the people are beginning to catch on to the game. If Obama were to \'win\' by a wide margin then this could send the message WAY too many people are catching on and the public may be waking up sufficiently to worry Big Money.

I believe the result would be an effort to slow the process of globalization and imperialism in the face of possible exposure and potential revolution. I have noticed the records of the Project for the New American Century have been removed from the Net as well as various videos from youtube such as the one in which the collapse of building 7 on 9/11 was announced (time stamped) well before the event took place. You can see the neocons making an effort to cover their tracks. This would indicate some concern on their part.

A \'win\' by McCain tells Big Money they can do whatever they want because \"the people\" are beyond any ability intellectually to respond; they will believe virtually anything they are told and/or at least submit to authority as they have been doing. In other words, a \'win\' for McCain unleashes the neocon minions of Big Money completely; not only here but around the planet.

The only advantage I see at the moment for an Obama \'win\' is that it might allow more time to reach out to and educate the public for those who are attempting to do so. It is a process of grasping at the very last straw to be sure but it is the only genuine possibility for any sort of improvement I can see.

So I will hold my nose and vote for Obama. However, in the secret recesses of my imagination, the child in me; the unsinkable optimist, will also note Obama did everything he had to do to get into his present position; i.e. NO ONE gets anywhere near a presidential nomination without pledging their undying allegiance to Big Money (and the Israel Lobby)......what if Obama did what was necessay and yet somewhere deep inside he is really a populist? What if he actually cares and has had to hide his true thoughts in order to get the nomination? I admit it is unlikely but isn\'t it possible?

Needless to say, if this is true Obama is in the gravest danger and will almost certainly be assassinated if he attempts to actually help the people or the country and \'betrays\' Big Money.

I really am pathetic am I not? When I went to Washington to protest the utterly fraudulent Ohio electoral votes, I still hoped John Kerry would step forward and stand with us only to discover he had left town entirely......HA!

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