This betrayal of workers is not the first betrayal of the Democratic
base by Obama and Congressional Democrats. Scarcely two-thirds of the
way through his first 100 days, Obama has also already betrayed a vow
to end the Iraq War, having announced his intention to leave upwards of
50,000 trooops in that benighted and blood-stained nation for years to
come.
Instead of closing Guantanamo, he has made a vague promise to close
that horror show a year from now, but then left open the possibility of
continuing to hold people indefinitely without charge, and even left
himself a loophole to torture them.
Instead of restoring the Constitution, Obama has already begun
adopting the Bush practice of using signing statements to assert an
unconstitutional presidential authority to ignore laws passed by the
Congress. He has declined to order a halt to the odious practice of
using the NSA to spy wholesale on American's electronic communications.
Instead of assuring that the laws of the land be faithfully
enforced, as he swore in his oath of office, and promised in his
campaign, Obama has refused to order a Justice Department investigation
into whether members of the prior administration should be charged with
crimes such as torture, warrantless spying on citizens or lying to
Congress.
This litany of betrayals shows that rather than audacity, this
president has chosen mendacity. Instead of change, he is giving us at
best small change, and when it comes to abuse of the Democratic base,
no change. (And I haven’t even mentioned his wholesale betrayal of
ordinary citizens in his pro-Wall Street bail-out of the big banks and
financial institutions.)
At least President Clinton waited two years before he began a wholesale sell-out of Democratic voters.
Obama isn’t even waiting for the honeymoon to end to start his betrayal.
__________________
DAVE LINDORFF is a Philadelphia-based journalist. His latest
book is “The Case for Impeachment” (St. Martin’s Press, 2006). His work
is available at www.thiscantbehappening.net
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