Tags for this video have been changed from 'Chris Hedges' to 'Chris Hedges, Obama, OWC' - edited by Fusionaut

I don't think we should do anything, acquiescing to our own bondage sounds pretty neat.

This is a little unfair...Obama never intended to fulfill the promises he made. He wouldn't have been elected otherwise and even if he could he doesn't want to. Like many people I voted for him while holding my nose, I know he's better than McCain, I don't expect much more.

One nation under the dollar with liberty and justice for none.

I disagree with the assertion that Obama has "made war against the core values of liberalism", or that there has been an "even more craven attempt...to cater to [corporate interests]" (more craven than what, Bush?)

However, I agree with him about the Faustian bargain with corporations, and about him subsequently being crumpled up and discarded by them. But of late Obama appears to have decided to fight back, not that his critics on the left or right would ever acknowledge such a thing.

But regardless of that, I also agree that "all the pillars of the liberal establishment that once provided ... a mechanism by which grievances and injustices in this country could be addressed have shut, tight." The courts have been perverted by decades of intentional sabotage, Congress has been bought, and hamstrung by its own procedures, the unions have been systematically attacked and weakened, churches have been taken over by charlatans and hatemongers, and schools have either been defunded, or made dependent on the largesse of the monied class.

It's way past time for people to make a stand against the onslaught of this corporate kleptocracy. I just hope it's not too late.

>> ^NetRunner:

But of late Obama appears to have decided to fight back...


Election year approaching fast. Coincedence? I want him to succeed, but he's such a pussy. Dare I say Uncle T__? It's like he meant everything he said during the campaign, and then he got into the White House and "they" told him how things really operate on orientation day. Or they threatened his family, or had incriminating pictures of him, or... something turned him into a huge wimp. I'm naturally pessimistic though.

Call me jaded, but I am not surprised at all.
The political compass in Washington has been malfunctioning lately. I see politicians speak, and I can't tell which party they represent. They seem to say one thing on Monday, and the total opposite come Thursday. It's an absolute disgrace because it reflects badly on the state of our government. My belief is that the once bipartite dichotomy is getting diluted by successive policy failures from both camps. As of today, I will throw away my vote come '12 because neither party represents me. Many of my friends are moving around in the political spectrum as well. This sure scares politicians, thus more and more of them (including Obama) are moving towards the center, not that it would make a difference anyway...

>> ^Fletch:

>> ^NetRunner:
But of late Obama appears to have decided to fight back...

Election year approaching fast. Coincedence? I want him to succeed, but he's such a pussy. Dare I say Uncle T__? It's like he meant everything he said during the campaign, and then he got into the White House and "they" told him how things really operate on orientation day. Or they threatened his family, or had incriminating pictures of him, or... something turned him into a huge wimp. I'm naturally pessimistic though.


I guess I don't really care why he's fighting, so long as he's out in public giving voice to liberal ideas.

I don't know why we saw such a radical shift from the lofty rhetoric of campaign Obama to the mind-numbing centrism and bipartisanship of President Obama. Personally I don't think it's anything nearly so grandiose as blackmail. He always, even during the campaign, was talking about wanting to unite red and blue America. I think he really thought that it was possible to get Republicans to support health care reform, by proposing to do what the Republicans offered as an alternative to the Clinton plan in the 90's. I think he really thought Republicans would pass Cap & trade, since it was their alternative to more stringent policies like a carbon tax.

Basically, I think he was naive enough to believe that Republicans honestly care about the people in this country, and not just how best to whore this country out to corporate plutocrats.

I think he also thought that at least some corporate plutocrats honestly cared about the country, and weren't just in this to rape and pillage the country.

Personally I expected both groups to make their true colors known pretty early, and disabuse Obama of the idea that they wanted anything less than his utter destruction. I was right, but I think Obama got bamboozled into thinking it was just some sort of empty political posturing, because those people were still being personally gracious with him. I think he's starting to realize that their public personas are who they really are, and the personal courtesy is the partisan posturing.

Which is a long way of saying, I think before you go into the "Obama is a willing tool of corporations" or "Obama is being blackmailed" theories, I think the "Obama is a centrist who wants to end partisan bickering and promote compromise" needs a full and fair airing.

>> ^NetRunner:

>> ^Fletch:
>> ^NetRunner:
But of late Obama appears to have decided to fight back...

Election year approaching fast. Coincedence? I want him to succeed, but he's such a pussy. Dare I say Uncle T__? It's like he meant everything he said during the campaign, and then he got into the White House and "they" told him how things really operate on orientation day. Or they threatened his family, or had incriminating pictures of him, or... something turned him into a huge wimp. I'm naturally pessimistic though.

I guess I don't really care why he's fighting, so long as he's out in public giving voice to liberal ideas.
I don't know why we saw such a radical shift from the lofty rhetoric of campaign Obama to the mind-numbing centrism and bipartisanship of President Obama. Personally I don't think it's anything nearly so grandiose as blackmail. He always, even during the campaign, was talking about wanting to unite red and blue America. I think he really thought that it was possible to get Republicans to support health care reform, by proposing to do what the Republicans offered as an alternative to the Clinton plan in the 90's. I think he really thought Republicans would pass Cap & trade, since it was their alternative to more stringent policies like a carbon tax.
Basically, I think he was naive enough to believe that Republicans honestly care about the people in this country, and not just how best to whore this country out to corporate plutocrats.
I think he also thought that at least some corporate plutocrats honestly cared about the country, and weren't just in this to rape and pillage the country.
Personally I expected both groups to make their true colors known pretty early, and disabuse Obama of the idea that they wanted anything less than his utter destruction. I was right, but I think Obama got bamboozled into thinking it was just some sort of empty political posturing, because those people were still being personally gracious with him. I think he's starting to realize that their public personas are who they really are, and the personal courtesy is the partisan posturing.
Which is a long way of saying, I think before you go into the "Obama is a willing tool of corporations" or "Obama is being blackmailed" theories, I think the "Obama is a centrist who wants to end partisan bickering and promote compromise" needs a full and fair airing.


Obama needs to take a leaf out of FDRs book.

"I ask you to judge me by the enemies I have made."

>> ^ChaosEngine:

Obama needs to take a leaf out of FDRs book.
"I ask you to judge me by the enemies I have made."


I totally agree. He should go the full FDR:

For nearly four years you have had an Administration which instead of twirling its thumbs has rolled up its sleeves. We will keep our sleeves rolled up.

We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace—business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering.

They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob.

Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me—and I welcome their hatred.

@NetRunner

I don't really believe the "blackmail" theory. It just speaks to how sudden and drastic his about-face seemed to me. I mean, this guy had a HUGE progressive mandate when he got elected. Landslide victory, both Houses, 60-40 in the Senate (although sabotaged by "blueblood" prags). Then, Obama chastising the Repugs that "elections have consequences", and the optimistically prescient Nobel Peace Prize. Finally, some change I can believe in! Go, Obama, go!

And then... he just started caving. Offering compromises when compromises weren't called for or necessary in my view. And then failing to learn very quickly, if at all, that the opposition wasn't interested in anything but opposition. I agree that their "personal courtesy" was truly "partisan posturing", and he may has gotten suckered to a point.

Maybe part of the problem is that he has surrounded himself with people that have never shared his vision. Maybe this is some brilliant plan to expose the Republicans and the system for what it is so he has the support to proffer true progressive change in a second term, but I don't think so.

You can point to the list of his many accomplishments and tell me I'm wrong, but the big picture in this country hasn't changed. His victories are little more than election year bullet points. Very little has changed overall. Health care and financial reforms are a joke. Corporations are still raping this country's middle class by sending jobs and cash overseas while paying very little or no taxes. Unions, the very fucking organizations that created the middle class and kept it strong, are legally and financially weaker and have lower participation than ever. Environmental protections are being stripped at alarming rates, the country's infrastructure continues to crumble, students and teachers alike are being hamstrung by budget cuts, 1 in 50 Americans are in prison or on probation, and although we were walking on the fucking moon forty years ago, we currently have to rent space on Russian rockets just to get American astronauts to low earth orbit. Yeah, we have no money for roads, bridges, schools, health care, or Orion spacecraft, but we spend (borrow) many times that needed to fund these things for three useless wars and an entire Empire of hundreds of bases around the world. I'll spare you the Eisenhower reference.

Something fundamental has to change in this country, and I think that any change that matters is going to have to be HUGE change, even revolutionary.

I see a completely different Obama than the one I supported in 2008. Rhetoric that you want to hear is still just rhetoric. Palliatives for the disenchanted, and dogma for those who should be. Yeah, I know it's "yes, we can", not "yes, he can". That's what OWS is all about. Obama failed. OWS is Plan B.

I hope I'm absolutely wrong. I hope he does well and effects positive, substantive change. Unfortunately, I'll be voting for him not because I think "he can", rather, as the best of a bad lot.

>> ^NetRunner:

>> ^ChaosEngine:
Obama needs to take a leaf out of FDRs book.
"I ask you to judge me by the enemies I have made."

I totally agree. He should go the full FDR:

For nearly four years you have had an Administration which instead of twirling its thumbs has rolled up its sleeves. We will keep our sleeves rolled up.
We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace—business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering.
They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob.
Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me—and I welcome their hatred.

@Fletch I was nodding my head as I read your post. I guess for my part, I never expected Obama's election to be revolutionary from a policy perspective, even the implementation of everything in his campaign platform would've just seemed like good first steps to me.

I mostly looked for him to change the tone of politics in America, and inspire a whole new wave of people to become progressives, and that he'd keep his inspirational campaign rhetoric going nonstop through his first term, so he could build an unstoppable political movement.

I wanted him to turn the tide, so that the pendulum of politics in this country started swinging left again. I figured the big stuff would come a decade or two later after he changed the political landscape.

Eventually the majority of people who agree with liberal and progressive policies (but don't know it because they think "liberal" is a dirty word) are going to wake up and start demanding those policies get implemented. I'm hoping Occupy Wall Street is a sign of that happening.

Oh, and to be fair, health care reform is a big fucking deal, it's just that the really big changes aren't happening until 2014, years after Obama's electoral fate has been decided.

@NetRunner
I wanted and want the same things, although it wasn't so clearly realized in my mind. You are a very good writer and elucidate very well, especially, I think, to those of us inclined to stream-of-consciousness ranting.

I'll give over on health care somewhat. I've mentioned elsewhere that I'm somewhat pessimistic in nature, and I admit to being of the mind/club that anything short of single payer was a failure. It will (eventually) help millions of people who need it, if it survives, but I still don't think it was the HUGE change that I alluded to above. Change that would catch us up to the rest of the industrialized world. This whole conservative notion that Medicare for everyone is a restrictive government takeover of health care is ludicrous. Imagine living life and not having to worry that health issues will financially waylay your life or that of your family. That's more freedom. My employer pays almost $1300 a month for health insurance just for me. Who, besides insurance companies, wouldn't benefit from lower payments?

Anyhooo... I'll stop there. Preaching, choir, etc.

Good talk.

People's expectations of what can be achieved in 3 years in politics are unrealistic. You could do worse than Obama. Just wait.