Woe, woe!

Man, 61, gets six months
for slapping two year-old
for crying in Wal Mart.

Well, it happened. The Democrats lost big time in Massachusetts. Now the finger pointing and blame giving will start in earnest. Not only did the voters there elect a Republican to Teddy Kennedy’s former seat, they elected an ultra-right one, and a male centerfold no less, from the party of No. And this even with a respectable turnout that was supposed to favor democrats. Oh woe, woe! It’s like the end of civilization as we know it (not that we are very civilized to begin with). How could it possibly have happened? What went wrong? Was it the candidate? Was it her campaign? Did the Democrats wait too long to take action? Was it a result of Democratic arrogance and overconfidence? Maybe the voters of Massachusetts didn’t want universal health care? Who knows?

I think I know. And I think the answer is basically simple. American voters voted overwhelmingly for change, obviously change from the previous administration. Obama promised us change. But he hasn’t delivered any meaningful change. Oh yeah, he’s made a few more or less cosmetic changes, and perhaps some useful ones, but he has basically just continued the Bush/Cheney business of aligning himself with the big corporations, looking out for the banks, insurance, and pharmaceutical companies, and ignoring what is now usually described as “Main Street.” His much touted stimulus plan has stimulated no one but the very industries that caused us our problems in the first place. He even appointed Bush’s former executives and such to continue in their offices. He even kept Gates in place rather than picking a new Secretary of Defense. Not only has he done that, he has also not only continued the “war” in Afghanistan (that most everyone knows is a lost cause) but has accelerated it. He has not managed to close Gitmo, has not done away with “don’t ask, don’t tell,” has largely ignored the African-American community, and totally sold us out on health care. He didn’t even try to get a decent health care plan, refusing to even consider a single-payer system, abandoning the public option, and basically giving an enormous gift to the insurance giants. He has made no attempt to bring Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld and the other war criminals to accountability, and in fact has become increasingly chummy with Bush, now treating him as any other ex- President, who should be honored and called upon to perform honorary duties such as fund raising for Haiti, the very country that he helped destroy. In ordinary everyday speech, Obama totally “blew it.”

In short, Obama has “talked the talk but has not walked the walk.” People generally don’t expect politicians to keep all their campaign promises, but they also don’t expect them to break promises of meaningful change, and Obama has done this blatantly. He has been rightfully labeled “Bush light,” but I don’t think that goes far enough, he’s been much more than merely light in his continuation of the very policies people voted against. For anyone to charge Obama with being a socialist could not possibly be more ridiculous. As for me, I am sick to death of these phony and unnecessary “wars,” and the continued threat of starting new ones. I am sick of having our country managed in the best interests of the huge corporations that bribe our leaders, I am tired of Israel running our foreign policy and dragging us in to supporting their murder and genocide. I am fed up with “empire.” And I am outraged at the amount of money we are wasting on our military/industrial/political complex year after year, that dwarfs all the rest of the world’s defense budgets put together. I am also sick of having my tax dollars used to kill more and more innocent people. Most of all I am sick of being constantly lied to, not only by our politicians, but also by the media that is no longer even a shadow of the “fourth estate” it was supposed to be. I do not think I am alone in this. In fact, Obama has been caught in a massive lie and the voters of Massachusetts have seen through it. I suspect the rest of the country has too, and this does not bode well for either 2010 or 2012. EXCEPT there is no alternative! It will be either Obama or another Republican, in which case the status quo will continue. As long as there is no significant difference between our two parties there will be no meaningful change of any kind. Obama’s failure to pursue a single-payer system or even a public option “because he thought it would be too difficult,” is an admission that even he doesn’t believe meaningful change is possible. But “Hell hath no fury like an electorate scorned,” and I think that fury is just beginning. Will Obama change his ways? I doubt it, “leopards don’t change their spots.” We need a viable third party desperately, it’s well past time to admit that we have a one party system that is stealing us blind and feeding us fairy tales.

LKBIQ:
Anger at lies lasts forever. Anger at truth can't last.
Greg Evans

TILT:
Clever mice sometimes escape from cats, even when greatly outnumbered.