hello dear regulators
a little political commentary today, a little less me me me – sometime I get to macking and start telling folk more than I should, so lets take the spotlight off me and put it on obama
obama in big trouble, mostly i believe of his own doing, but this put us in a tribulation more pressing
barack could have handled this much differently, its easy i guess for me to carp from the bleachers, he all about the longgame, i got to give him that much, its his shortgame thats questionable
and there some structurals that have tripped him up, this recession for one, global complexity another
now he got to contend with an angry electorate out for scalps, but still he could have played this out different,
now it look like him and the dems going down in nov unless he step up his populist game, my concern is that it wont be enough – democrats got a serious enthusiasm gap, mostly because of obamas moves, the way he roll
obama brought a political army with him to the whitehouse and immediately begin to ignore it in his attempt to be bipartisan, eventually it just dissipated,
he take better care of his enemies than he do his friends, lately he starting to channel fdr a little teenincy bit but he will have to do better than a couple of speeches here and there, he will have to show the troops that hes learned a trick or two, that he got a decent learning curve
my boy been so iffy his victories – healthcare, saving auto industry, 2 supreme court picks, et al – dont feel like victories to a dispirited base,
obamas team go so far as to ridicule the progressive troops, the very folk would walk on nails for him if he let them
problem is that he been so iffy its hard to back him up, this from somebody who consider him brotherme brotherblood brotherblack – brother in trouble bring back my vietnam blackinization days, my me and you brother against the world training – I desperately want to back him up
lately he been coming on somewhat strong but its hard to believe its any more than electoral convenience
i always knew he would be a disappointment to me because you dont run for president (and win) unless you ready and willing to play the game, to make more compromises than i would consider legit
but thats why he do what he do and i do what i do
when you a race of activists everybody dont take the same path, and there more than enuf struggle to go around –
im not a politician, ima political theorist, i can afford principles obama cant
but principles aint been obamas problem sad to say, he been confused about the nature of struggle today and still may be – thought bipartisanship and being holier than thou would bring the republicans to their senses and turn them into something they not and have no intention of being – serious about governing
barack and i both would like to think that race has nothing to do with the rabid resistance some folk have to him – least they havent tried to impeach him like they did clinton – but i have to believe that some of the unreasonable anger toward obama is sublimated racism –
obama dont want to see that, or feel like he cant afford to see that, he cant afford to let his presidency become about race because thats a recipe for going down in political flames, but his election has clearly infuriated the yahoos.
i am concerned for the brother, he been cornered now
which mean we been cornered
barack has led us into a trap and we gon to fight our way out of this one
our goal now is not to win but to survive
and survive we must
the alternative too painful to contemplate – think president palin and the options become startlingly clear,
think teaparty cabinet in charge of social security, in charge of education (think texas), in charge of the army and the security establishment, in charge of our lives, imposing their own little sharia on us all
the mind boggles
folk remember the republicans for economic policies that enriched the rich and beggared the rest of us, and for their attempts to ‘starve’ the government (how is this any different from the goals of the taliban)
these the very same folk ran the government and the economy into the ground, fought wars on false pretense, ran policies that shamelessly enriched the rich and ruined the economy, the list goes on. and on and on
well I got news for you, teaparty folk worse, repubs dont believe in gov but the teaparty folk actually hate gov, I believe they hate us all
but the most insidious aspect of republican control was to try to use the power of the government to ensure their continued rule, to treat the gov like it was an arm of the republican party, remember the attorney generals, remember the way bush used the supreme court in elections, the way the repubs lockstepped K street, what about the recent supreme court decision to unshackle corporate donations
these are political transgressions we would deplore in a thirdworld country
we cant let them back in power, we just barely cleaning out the stink they left behind when they were
and if its palin and the teaparty in power i just dont know what id do – well yes i do, id take it and knuckle down for the comeback but i would be very dispirited
if you think you dispirited now, just contemplate president palin – go ahead, I dare you
and dont think its not possible, could have won the last election if the economy hadnt tanked on them, if they had played their cards differently
there is no way that we can get out of this november unbloodied, economy and jobs so bad that incumbents, mostly democrats, will pay – also the dems won so many republican seats last two elections they ripe for correction
i dont know why obama didnt come up with a wpa type job op from the beginning, now that he been cornered he propose a little weak version he know doesnt have a chance in hell, nor any other of those proposals he coming up with
they just theater at this point and we know it,
so far his idea of saving the economy been saving wall street while mainstreet twist in the wind – o barack, my brother, that just wont do – you gon have to throw down my brother, talk to fdr while yall hanging out there in the oval office – or are you just not ready for prime time
but it does not matter, we cant afford to let that boy go down, we just cant afford it, we will have to save him in spite of himself
and im not talking about just speaking out in our respective ivory tower forums – as im doing now –
we all know what it will take to bring this one home, full service electoral politics,
i know how that works, i know i personally need to go sign up with some organization to do yeomans work – callbanks, voters stuff, motorpools, get out the vote ops, etc etc etc etc etc – should trot on over to the next ofa (organizing for america) meeting and get busy
perhaps even leverage myself into a leadership position – I know how its done, ive done it before
and even thats stepping late into the game, should have been organizing all along so that when time come to throw down you bringing resources to the table
whitehouse organizing under pressure too - obamas op, organizing for america, been doing stealth organizing, they trying to pull some slick tricks off but its been shaky – political analysts assume that OFA will not have any measurable effects on the midterms, i suspect they right
while the teaparty firing all burners, got the enthusiasm for turning out obama we had for turning out bush
whitehouse recently gave OFA 30 mil, but its kinda late in the game for that, more like they setting up for 2012 than for 2010 – but the repubs have already crippled barack when the dems have had a historic majority – if they take congress now its back to square zip
so, knowing what I know, seeing what I see, there a couple of reasons why im not down there at OFA syracuse organizing and electorating
one, who got time, im already critically overextended and i dont know anybody that isnt
two, its hard to throwdown for obama when he dont seem to want to throwdown for himself
you feel like you gon give your all and be left holding the bag
while obama continue to do his bipartisan thing and get his lunch ate
but thats what the game require and im trying to convince myself to step up – I confess, i love america, i love what america can be, the one use its power to help people, its own and others, to be a good citizen of the world
that america the teaparty represent, that one i dont love so much
ima child of the 60s, i remember the civilrights movement and i detect the parallels, the same impulse that lead me to march and picket and sit in et al, thats whats driving me now
this a crossroads moment and when the story told i want to be able to say i did my part
whole world depending on us
right now the frontlines of struggle is electoral politics, and ima do my part, i always have – and ima hope barack gets his act together in time to inspire folk less motivated
and if he get his butt kicked this go around i hope it will inspire him to try harder
samesame the rest of us - process
cause this battle for the soul of america, a battle to define what america is, what america means
as evidenced in the recent tussles over the meaning of sept 11th, that battle to define what this day means to us, does it represent america crumbling under assault or rising above it
9/11 was an unprecedented hammer, question is how do we leverage that hammer into power, what is power, what is it that makes america great, what make it less than great
whats the difference between fundamentalists burning the koran and the fundamentalists who flew that plane into the towers – they both fundamentalists and fundamentalism is a problem wherever it seed – think palin, think teaparty, think koch brothers
the republicans couldnt even condemn the koran burner with a straightface when those the very attitudes they been fanning and counting on for november
now they trying to fight off teaparty incursions into their own ranks, but thats what happen when you lie down with dogs you get fleas,
our best hope now is that they end up nominating a bunch of unelectable teaparty folk, but we cant depend on serendipity when the stakes this high
these the very same folk trying to take over in nov
and 2012 – and they just might win
im telling you, this a battle for the soul of America, and its a battle we losing
this a battle we cant afford to lose
im tired, im tired and im weary, ima old warhorse in need of rest but I suspect I got one more good campaign in me, let me get a couple of stretches in ima be ready to mount up
we gon have to save brother obama in spite of himself
cause this aint about him, this about the people
those of us call ourselves progressives, those of us feel that we have a responsibility to look out for all the civilians who dont have our skilz, to be a voice and instrument of the peoples will and well being, for folk in need, who feel that we are only as strong as our weakest – well we cant afford to sit this one out
rightwing been outorganizing us for some 40 years now, it will take generations of hardwork to change the attitudes we see in play now
but its all coming to a head in about 50 days – midterm about getting the vote out, thats all it is
we know what its gon take to turn this around
only question is will we do it
i dont know what tune barack call himself playing
but
that sound you hear thats the warhorn
thats a real old tune, lets do this
in the name of the conqueror – word by rickydoc
