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 Barack Obama: Son of a Gipper “The death of hope is the beginning of reason.” -- Nils Brunsson  | | Ben Heine/ MWC NEWS |
The cost of elevating appearance above substance is never worth the price. I said it under both the presidency of John F. Kennedy and Ronald RayGun. I am now saying it about the presidency of Barack Obama. We have elected a clean, well-spoken flim-flam man who is in reality just another house servant of the military/industrial/media complex. The moral, spiritual, intellectual and aesthetic bankruptcy of our present condition is beyond bearing. Paradoxically, it was actually more manageable under the past administration than it is at present. At least we felt no complicity with Bush. The dividing line between the Philistine and those who knew better was bright and well defined. Now everything is confusing. The sad disparity between appearance and substance in this new president is about the only thing that is beginning to emerge with some degree of clarity. I have finally reached the end of my patience with Obama. I have been back and forth on this since before the primary. I think his decision not to release the torture photographs was finally the last straw. I realize there are a lot of other issues, domestic and foreign, that are far more pressing and more in need of quick, effective, decisive remedy than assessing responsibility for the great steaming pile of dung Bush left on the deck. I choose to place emphasis on Obama’s refusal to prosecute Bush&Co for mainly subjective, personal reasons. Until I heard of the President’s refusal to release the torture photos, I had a reluctant attitude of support for the man. After all, I had worked hard for him, tried to believe his campaign promises and, along with a massive number of my fellow Americans, elected him to office. I am not writing this as an argument directed against his vocal critics on the Right. As usual, they seem to have missed the reality of the situation completely. Their arguments, from Sean Hannity to Phil Gramm, seem to focus on mythical inanities ranging from Michelle’s wardrobe to some imagined Socialist plot lifted whole from the pages of Das Kapital. My arguments are not directed at those around the bend on the Right, or even at the great unwashed, dumb, blind sheeple who couldn’t see the difference between McCain and Obama until nearly the day of the election. These dire assessments are directed at the progressive members of the electorate who formed the bulwark of his support and who have framed the most reasoned defenses of his policies. Most progressives I try to discuss these issues with seem to be blinded by the pixie-dust still filling the post election air. Gradually, among some of them, the vague awareness seems to be dawning that we have been had—once again. Sometimes the only way to stand in the real world and act effectively is to come to grips with our most seductive illusions, give up false hope and perhaps even give up hope itself. His refusal to prosecute Bush&Co, his attribution of the responsibility for torture to “a few individuals,” the reestablishing of military tribunals to try detainees, his blessing of the torture of prisoners at Guantanamo at this very moment, the obscene expansion of the war in Afghanistan, his reluctance to execute a prompt (if not precipitous) withdrawal from Iraq, his unwillingness to view the Iraq war as anything more than a mistake, his continuance of domestic spying, his appointing foxes to solve the problems of our economic hen house, and his unwillingness to even allow the advocates of single payer health care to present their position and their input, causes me to finally, reluctantly move to a position of rejecting him and his presidency. Of course how many in the Congress, Democrats and Republicans, ought to be brought up on similar charges is open to debate. The tenure of their guilt extends far before Obama to their support of Bush’s policies during the full span of his incumbentcy. If Bush&Co are murderers, then many Congressmen (and a couple of sitting Congresswomen at that time) should at least admit to having committed 2nd degree manslaughter. Their latest disgraceful vote to keep those poor, technically innocent, ruined men in Gitmo to continue their torture rather than be folded into the domestic justice system is so uninformed and so cynically political that I sometimes think I am living in the land of the retarded. Even though I do not completely accept the Illuminati, Bilderbergers, Trilateral Commission, 9/11 demolition-plot worldview smoke of my conspiracy minded friends. I must admit that, in the case of Obama, his increasingly compromised, ineffectual administration, and the timid Democratic Congress are more and more fitting their mold. The only question that seems to remain to be answered: Is Obama going along with the military/industrial/media complex out of complicity or cowardice? There is no question that, on all these important issues, he appears to be caving or shamelessly compromising. Have we only elected an illusion that, behind the mask, is as avid a supporter of war and corporatocracy as McCain would have been? At this time, I can only see small, inconsequential shadow reforms coming out of this presidency. Even the recent ballyhoo over the new emission standards are so far past due that, had Obama not taken action, we would look like we were going backwards. Besides, the former foot draggers in Detroit seem to have awakened to the idea that perhaps improved mileage might make them competitive on the world market. Duh! The failure to seek radical solutions for the problems of our economy, the absence of any serious discussion of legislation that might prevent another financial meltdown, the continued support of government of, by and for the corporations, the uninterrupted disastrous war policy, the unwavering support for Israel, right or wrong, the continued support for the increasingly un-reality based, hysterical War on Terror—all have cumulated to finally convince me that even my grudging support for the man and a hope for change in this wretched country was unfounded and wrongheaded from the beginning. I feel stupid and manipulated. We have elected a man who will never bring change, only small inconsequential modifications to existing, wrongheaded, pernicious, unchanging policies. To my friends who cannot bear to part with their initially seemingly well-founded love for the man and the appearance he and the beautiful first family presents to the nation and the world, I must say that his intransigence in the face of addressing the horrific policies and crimes of the past administration must be a deal breaker. I can no longer hold out any realistic hope for the man. As we used to say in the 60s, it is time for progressives to move from protest to resistance. Being the loyal opposition to the big insurance companies, Wall Street and the privatized privatizers will no longer do. We must now move to develop alternative local support structures that will operate off the national grid so dominated by big defense, big energy, big finance and big security. In your frustration, look around you. Talk to your friends and neighbors. Put your TV in the garbage can where it belongs (cable access is dead anyway.) Begin to form local neighborhood networks. Support local farmers and merchants. Try Slowfood. Form your own neighborhood credit union. Boycott Walmart—no one is poor enough to be able to afford to shop there—but it is better that your kid work there than killing Afghani women and children. Invite the manager of your friendly PayDay loan office to take a ride on a one-way trip on a rail out of town, and while you’re at it, print up a second invitation for the local Army recruiter. Stay in your home and, when the sheriff comes to serve the big bank’s eviction notice, have your friends and neighbors block his way and go to jail with you, your wife and your kids. At least you will have a roof over your heads, three hots and a cot. And above all, don’t believe the lies Obama is fronting on behalf of Wall Street, the Pentagon and his beloved health insurance campaign donors. Hunker down. The crap storm is not over and we have not yet even seen the bottom. “I hope for nothing. I fear nothing. I am free.” ... Nikos Kazantzakis Peace,
 Robert Boldt an editor of MWC News, is a freelance film/video producer living in Jefferson City, Missouri. He is active in local politics, worked on the Howard Dean and John Kerry campaigns and is a cofounder of The White Rose Collective. Articles by Bob Boldt at MWC News http://mwcnews.net/bob-boldt |
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