The Obama Disaster, at Home and Abroad

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford, Founding Editor, Black Agenda Report |  Created 04/05/2011

“Shutdown – a real battle and test of wills over people’s programs – is better than Obama’s slick and slimy style of calibrated surrender.”

When you predict disaster, it’s no fun being right. Since long before Barack Obama was elected president, we at Black Agenda Report have said that this center-right corporate politician is a War Democrat whose foreign policy objectives – if not his rhetoric – are no different than George Bush’s. With Obama’s expansion of Bush’s wars and his opening up of a new, North African front, in Libya, we have been proved catastrophically right – right, to the point of tears.

When we said that Obama was a tool of the Wall Street bankers that backed his candidacy to the hilt, and that he would repay them with trillions in return, we were right – more right than even we imagined. We said that Obama was obsessed with trying to forge a grand alliance with the Republicans, and would wage an internal war against Black people’s interests and the left wing of the Democratic Party to do it. All that has come to pass. When the GOP took control of the U.S. House last November, we said it marked the “End of the Age of Obama [13],” and that the “best outcome that could result…is that the Republicans overreach and, in their white nationalist triumphalism, make it impossible for President Obama and congressional Democrats to reach an accommodation” with them. The GOP is over-reaching, while Obama has already sacrificed trillions in social spending trying to split the budget difference with Republicans who persist in seeking total victory. Obama has nothing to argue about with the GOP, having himself placed the entire Democratic social welfare legacy on the chopping block for the sake of deficit reduction. As we said back in November, gridlock – shutdown – a real battle and test of wills over people’s programs, is better than Obama’s slick and slimy style of calibrated surrender.

“How can Obama represent us, when he compromises with people who are trying to beat our brains out.”

The Obama disaster has forced those of us on the Black Left to organize around solid principles and to look at the political actors in our own communities with a much colder and unforgiving eye. So we now have the Black Is Back Coalition [14] for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations, that brooks no compromise with Obamite imperialism and servitude to Wall Street. We have allied ourselves with others on the Left, who are holding a major anti-war mobilization in New York City on April 9, and in San Francisco on April 10. Last week, the first Black-led anti-Obama demonstration in Harlem took place, outside a gentrified restaurant where Obama was hosting a $30,000 a plate dinner.

Nellie Bailey, of Harlem Fightback [15] Against Wars at Home and Abroad, challenged hundreds of protesters to “seize the moral high ground [16] that has slipped away under the false illusion that Barack Obama represents the interests of working class people, much less working class Black people.”

Professor of Africana Studies, Bill Sales, asked, “How can Obama represent us, when he compromises with people who are trying to beat our brains out.” Obama, said Sales, “is a moderate Republicrat corporate lawyer. Don’t drink the Kool-Aid.”

Charles Barron, a New York City Councilman, said the “last straw” for him was when Obama called up the president of South Africa demanding that former Haitian President Aristide be prevented from returning to his homeland. In a debate three years ago, Councilman Barron told me that he supported Obama, despite misgivings, because he wanted “to give a brother a shot.” Well, Obama has proven he ain’t no brother. He has shot his wad, and Black America will be a healthier place when he is gone.

For Black Agenda Radio, I’m Glen Ford. On the web, go to www.BlackAgendaReport.com [17].

BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com [18].