"Acts of courage and patriotism", were the words used not four years ago by then candidate Obama describing whistle blowing. Today as the DNC in Charlotte, North Carolina wraps up and Obama accepts his parties nomination I can't help but think about the irony of those words. I'm also extremely disappointed with not only Obama, but with many of my fellow anti war advocates who have turned a blind eye to the crimes of the Obama administration. Obama was an extremely good and well spoken candidate in 2008. He said things people wanted to hear. The problem is he far from delivered and actually did the opposite of many of the things he said.
Back
in 2008 I was a high school senior who didn't care much about
politics. I do remem be r however that Obama did get me excited. I
listened to his speeches and his critique of the Bush
administration. I remem be r seeing the headlines in the paper and
hearing CNN talk of the economic crash and the exploding national
debt. I got excited that perhaps we could change things and that
this country, not fifty years after Dr. King's famous speech could
elect a black man to the highest office in the land. "Change"
and "Yes We Can" be came more then just slogans to me, they
actually meant something that perhaps we could move our country
forward. I remember watching his victory speech and feeling
inspired. Now in 2012 I know be tter. In this way I owe Obama a
thanks, I'll forever now be a social activist with the knowledge that
electing candidates will never be enough.
Since Obama took office, in spite of his fiery rhetoric our country remains a corporate controlled false democracy, a criminal entity in the middle east, and a haven for the millionaire and billionaire capitalist who exploit cheap labor here and over seas. The Obama administration has allowed the Bush era Tax cuts to be extended for the wealthiest Americans. He has upped the war in Afghanistan. He has used drones far more then the previous administration. He has failed to tackle "Too Big To Fail". He has allowed American's first amendment rights, among others, to be trampled on. He has done nothing about the problems with the Federal Reserve. The Healthcare Act didn't go near far enough.
Bradly Manning and other whistle blowers have had their rights suppressed. Now there are reports of Obama leaking documentation about his "kill list" and his drone warfare to make him look strong on national defense. When did the Democrats be gin to brag about their warmongering and civil rights suppression? Of course they still won't brag about it in their speeches as nothing about the "Kill list" or the Drone Warfare was mentioned at the DNC. They still know that their base is strongly against the wars.
This
type of hypocrisy is not new for the Democrats. It was alive and
well during the Clinton administration. I didn't watch the Clinton
speech at the DNC, (I caught some of it on the Daily Show) be cause I
knew it would be the same hypocritical rhetoric we always hear from
the Democrats. I did however catch an ad from the Obama
administration with every-ones favorite Democrat, Bill Clinton in it.
Clinton says "The Republican Plan is to cut more taxes on upper
income people and go back to deregulation, that's what got us in
trouble in the first place." This ad took me back for a moment.
Did Bill Clinton really just appear in an ad condemning deregulation?
Back in 1999 Bill Clinton over saw the repeal of Glass-Steagall
which separated Commercial and
So what exactly does all of this tell us? Should we not vote? Should we vote third party? What can we do? Not voting is always an option and I understand that option. It's not one I advocate be cause the alternative to the Democrats can have some very serious negative impacts on people's real lives. Voting for a third party can show you are dissatisfied with the Democrats but it can also help elect people who will be even worse. This of course only applies if you live in a swing state. I think the biggest lesson that can be derived from the hypocrisy and the actions of the supposed party for the working class is that we can't rely on any type of establishment to effect positive change for the underclass.
Every example of progress made for oppressed people has be en done on the grass roots level. The establishment and the state have always be en reactionary. From the Labor movement, the woman's movement, the civil rights movement, the LGBTQ movement, all of which are still a part of our struggle today, all of them have be gun on the grassroots level. Not once has the establishment and the state be gun a movement towards social justice or equality, it be gins with the people. We have this huge problem in our country today where people think voting every four years be tween two candidates from the business party is democracy. We have a huge amount of activists who campaign for one of these candidates rather then participate in grassroots organization to accomplish goals themselves. When will the left learn this much needed lesson, I hope that with the amount of blatant lies and hypocrisy of the Obama administration the left will learn this lesson now. We certainly need them too!
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