Print this post.President Obama still doesn’t get that the 2010 mid-term elections were a referendum on him ~ and specifically his failure to deliver on the mandate of change that he promised in 2008. His progressive and Independent base fled the scene but he still doesn’t get that his spineless passivity has left him alone at the table still drinking his own kool aid.
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By Allen L Roland | November 5, 2010 [print_link]
I’ve read all the postmortems on the midterm elections which was not a surprise to me ~ mainly because I’m one of the millions of Americans who voted for change in 2008 and saw Barack Obama as an agent of that change and was quickly disappointed by not only his cabinet selections but his reluctance to deliver on those promises he glibly offered before his election. As Ted Rall correctly writes ~” People are pissed. They hate the bailouts, but the bailouts aren’t the main point. More than anything else, the American people are angry that their government doesn’t even pretend to give a damn about them.”
Or as Marshall Ganz also correctly wrote in the LA Times ~ ” The nation was ready for transformational leadership, but the president gave us transactional leadership ( horse-trading, operating within the routine, maintaining, rather
than changing the status quo). And, as is the case with leadership failures, much of the public’s anger, disappointment and frustration has been turned on a leader who failed to lead.” David Degraw , author of The Economic Elite Vs. The People of the United States of America , and his forthcoming book The Road Through 2012: Revolution or World W ar III offers an incisive analysis of the Mid Term election and how Obama got what he deserved ~
“The Obama referendum came in and he got what he deserved. When you run on change and leave the same criminals in positions of power and don’t hold anyone accountable for obvious crimes, and allow them to continue to commit those crimes, you deserve to lose your power. This is what happens when you put Tim Geithner and Larry Summers in charge of the economy, and support Ben Bernanke for reconfirmation as Chairman of the Federal Reserve. This is what happens when you keep Robert Gates as your Secretary of Defense and General Petraeus in charge of your wars. This is what happens when you lie to protect the interests of BP over the American people. This is what happens when you bailout Wall Street and the health care industry and sell out everyone else. This is what happens when your rhetoric is the opposite of your actions. The past two years have clearly exposed Obama as a spineless corporate puppet and he deserves to be voted out in 2012 .”
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DeGraw goes on to define the real problem ~ ” Hopefully by 2012 the American public will finally understand that they must support Independent candidates and alternative political structures, and cannot vote for Democrats or Republicans, if they ever want to achieve the needed change. Both parties serve the same corporate masters. Yes, there are some differences between the two. The Democrats serve half of the top economic one percent, and the Republicans serve the other half. We have Neo-liberals to the left and Neo-cons to the right, leaving99% of us without representation.”
The loss of both Russ Feingold and Alan Grayson, who led the fight against the corporate elite are outstanding examples of how the progressives have been run over by both parties ~ ” Two politicians in Congress who actually fought for us against the Economic Elite just lost their reelection bids. Alan Grayson and Russ Feingold lost because record amounts of cash went to funding the candidates who ran against them. Even their own party’s leadership didn’t support their reelection efforts. The bottom line in this money rigged system is that you cannot run against the most powerful corporations and win. They will just pour unlimited funds into defeating you, and your own party will desert you . “
So what can we do? How can we defeat the corpocracy and return the Republic to the people?
DeGraw offers a bottom up approach that just might work if we can get beyond our own political cynicism ~ ” Yes, I sound extreme, but these are extreme times. I’m not going to sit quietly as our future is ripped out from under us. I will not let my family’s well being and our country’s fate be decided by short-sighted greed addicted forces that have looted the global economy and brought poverty, death and destruction throughout the world.
I see the path we are on and I intend to change it!
It is evident that the overwhelming majority of the population has become cynical and feels that it is useless to try to change things. If these people would just realize that they are the overwhelming majority and take action, we can change things. We have power in numbers. We are 99% of the population. If we organize on common ground and fight back, we will win!”
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Click on common ground
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/339/t/10594/signUp.jsp?key=4898
and see how we can all aggressively move on common sense political reforms.
We are the ones we have been waiting for!
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Author’s Website: http://www.allenroland.com
Author’s Bio: Allen L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on hisweblog and website allenroland.com He also guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on Conscious talk radio http://www.conscioustalk.net