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Memo to American Left: 'We Have Let Obama Down'
When Obama came into office with a mandate for change, the left sat back and waited. Instead, we should have mobilised
Both Barack Obama and I are Chicago boys, schooled in the tough-minded, arm-twisting don't-mess-with-me attitude of crushing rather than compromising with your unforgiving enemies. We are both products of machine politics, I from the west side's "rotten borough" 24th ward loyally turning out Democratic party majorities of almost, and sometimes exceeding, 100% ("Vote early, vote often!"), and Barack from a south side community-organising operation that got things done door-to-door, block by block.
When Barack Obama became US president, the left should have mobilised. (Photograph: Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images) In the 2008 election campaign President Obama's most important strategist was the Chicago fixer David Axelrod,
a master of hard-knuckle progressive neighbourhood politics who had
masterminded the re-election campaign of Chicago's first African
American mayor Harold Washington. But after Obama's inauguration the new president appears to have muzzled Axelrod in favour of Rahm Emanuel,
a ferociously combative, rightwing Democratic political assassin. The
enforcer Emanuel has so far failed to enforce much of anything for
Obama by way of decent legislation, and Axelrod is sidelined except as
a mouthpiece.
No wonder that at home on my desk is a manila folder file labelled OBAMA BETRAYALS OF CAMPAIGN PLEDGES, so full it's bursting apart. I was about to start a fresh new file of his latest missteps when suddenly I caught myself. Hey, wait a minute, I'm falling into the same old tired habit of reflexive negativity honed in the Bush years.
Howard Zinn, the historian-activist who before his recent death was probably the wisest mind on the US left, told us he was not disappointed in Obama because he never expected much in the absence of a national movement to push him in a good direction. Zinn - a lifelong student of the American abolitionist, labour, civil rights, feminist and gay rights movements - preached that real change "will have to work its way from the bottom up". Alas, we at the "bottom" have not really been there for Obama to fight for his ear, which currently belongs to Wall Street.
Franklin Roosevelt, the president we hoped that Obama would be like, had a huge advantage over our new president. At FDR's disposal were powerful mass movements - Huey Long's "Share the Wealth", Father Coughlin's radical racist anti-capitalist broadcasts, the elderly Townsend Clubs, the veterans' bonus marchers and militant labour unions with their sit-down strikes - that were an effective threat, a countervailing force to rich rightwingers eager to destroy the New Deal. FDR's good angel, his wife Eleanor, constantly reported to him about just how bad it was in the real world of the Great Depression. But Roosevelt told Eleanor and anyone else who came to him with demands for progressive change: "OK, you've convinced me. Now go out and put pressure on me."
That's where we've let Obama down. We on the American left - in a dysfunctional marriage with a bought-and-paid-for Democratic party, tamed by leechlike dependence on "non-profit" liberal foundations themselves funded by corporations, a women's movement obsessed by the abortion issue, a gay movement fixed on gay marriage - simply aren't up to the job. We have not backed up Obama with a serious antiwar movement (there isn't any), and our Big Labour is too weak to fight for itself, let alone for the rest of us. Grassroots activism still exists, but during the 2008 presidential campaign we slipped into the habit of allowing ourselves to be used purely as fundraising vehicles. Fundraising is no substitute for hell raising, as the Palin-loving Tea Baggers and Town Hallers are teaching us.
Obama came into office with a mandate for change. That should have been our signal not to sit back and wait for him to deliver but to mobilise to make sure he followed through. Instead, we relaxed our "Chicago muscle", the hard volunteer work that elected him. And I started my self-satisfying, ultimately pointless OBAMA BETRAYAL file.
Last week in America's northwest, Oregon voters, who are traditionally anti-tax-increase, showed how Chicago muscle works. Against fierce opposition led by Nike and other big businesses, they delivered a huge progressive victory by approving tax-raising measures on the wealthy and corporations. They did it the low-tech way, slogging door to door, volunteers from an improvised coalition of unions, community groups and small businesses, working together to overcome a well-funded rightwing scare campaign.
Sooner or later we on the
American left will rise again and look beyond single-issue obsessions,
sever our dependence on corporate charity, and - as FDR and Howard Zinn
advised - relearn the lesson of how to apply pressure on a president
who needs us more than we need him.
Clancy Sigal, is a screenwriter and novelist in Los Angeles.
Chicago-born, he has worked precincts for Democratic candidates since
his teens. He emigrated to the UK during what David Caute calls the
'Great Fear' and returned to America after the 1984 miners' strike. He
is a reformed Fleet Street journalist
- Posted in
268 Comments so far
Show AllSpeaking of Oregon...what about all of those Doctors from Oregon who drove to DC to promote single-payer and were shut out by Obama, after Obama sat silent while Max Baucus had doctors and nurses arrested for promoting single-payer.
Rahm veal penned activists and electeds and muzzled them, in one case calling them "fucking retards".
I have 8 manila folders bulging with examples of Obama ignoring activists nearly every day of the past year.
Blaming the victims has no cred, Clancy.
His report about what transpired here in Oregon is pure Bullshit, as is the rest of his essay.
Although I was trying to be polite, you are right..its time to get the scoop shovel out.
The only demographic that might have earned some blame are college students who should have been protesting in favor of single-payer. With millions of baby boomers delaying or cancelling retirement solely to retain employer-sponsored medical insurance, the job market for young Americans and especially colleges grads will continue to worsen. The status quo or Obamacare will hurt them more than any other group.
Hi Ray,
I'm several years older than your average college student, but still in my 20s. I TRIED to find an active (and I don't just mean a website) group working on single payer over the summer. A lot of these organizations exist in Washington and on the Internet only. I signed up for the email lists like everyone on CD told me to and got the typical call your Congressperson type messages but never word of a local event.
When I finally did find a local event, it was more of the MoveOn, support Obama variety.
The healthcare debate really heated up over the summer when college is not in session which partially explains the lack of campus activism on this issue. I will say, however, you are right, I was one of the youngest people at the rally I did attend.
I think the fact that so many progressive organizations only exist as websites and Washington offices that issue email action alerts is a MAJOR problem and it is not confined just to the healthcare issue. This affects the peace movement and all progressive movements. Its netroots with no real roots. When you add in the fact that some of these organizations are faux-progressive and basically exist to drum up support for the Democrats at critical moments, you can see we really have a problem on our hands.
His "report" in NOT "pure Bullshit." But the TITLE is Bullshit. He should not have presented it as a scolding of the Left, but there is much of value in what he is saying. If we "deconstruct" it and re-construct the argument to retain what is of value.
Howard Zinn (and Sigal) are CORRECT that we need to build social movements, SERIOUS social movements if we want to affect the polticians of EITHER party. We should not have illusions the the inherent "progressiveness" of people like Obama can be relied upon to deliver policies which serve the needs of work-a-day Americans. Or the people of the world. Ain't gonna happen. He will look out for the corporate interests who ARE effective players in a market-driven economy AND a market-driven polity.
We progressives ARE NOT effective political players. And I most pointedly include most commenters on Common Dreams, including myself. This is not a morla judgment. It is an objective diagnosis.
We may volunteer at our local co-op, might be vegetarians or even vegans. Might bike to school or work. Might be respectful of "diversity" in our personal values, decent in our relations with those around us. But are we effective at turning this country around? Turning this economy, this "mode of production," this mode of "consumption" around?
Where is the anti-war movement? You cannot blame Obama for the collapse of the anti-war movement.
I disagree with Clancy's suggestion we should abandon our files of Obama's betrayals. I think we need to face those facts, but without whining about them or slipping into an annoying, "I told you so" "shoulda voted third party" rant. (Third parties are largely self-satisfying alternatives to breaking out of our intellectual/cultural subculture and engaging with the ideas of most Amewricans. It takes MORE energy to elect a third party candidate than to elect the same candidate as a "good" Democrat. People who claim that is untrue have little or no real campaign experience).
We gotta get together with our neighbor and build a movement--build several movements in order to pressure the politicians to vote through policies which serve our interests and, yes, those of humankind.
I certainly agree about movement building. I have never been pro-Obama except when using him as an anti-Clinton entity. If you've been reading comments here for awhile, you would know that Obama is Public Enemy #1 and the leading International Terrorist in my eyes and those of many more. Movement building is facilitated by population density, whereas I live in a small village in a very rural county--by choice--having lived in urban regions most of my life. Our village has a mantra--the last of the Left that's Left--it proudly parades on July 4, while our highest political officer waves at the crowd from a manure spreader towed by an ancient tractor. In many ways, our village is a movement, while in contrast the city of Portland has many movements but isn't itself, although it has lent its voice to many Progressive undertakings.
Curious, I assume that you are in Oregon, can you tell what kind of organizing was the around the Oregon tax hike referendum, if any?
Hello pjd412--Yes, I live on the central Oregon coast. During last year's legislative session, taxes were raised in order to stop the tide of red-ink due to declining revenues brought about by the contrived economic crisis. Once the bills were passed and signed into law, out-of-state forces started the process of getting the two refferenda approved for the special election that was recently held. Once enough signatures were procured, helped along by the reactionary echo chamber, the usual gammut of ads demonizing the tax hikes ensued. A lot of opposition was led by small communities and organizations already feeling the effects of very serious budget cuts made at both the state and local levels in efforts to remain solvent. Regional newspapers chimed in to support the tax rise through very powerful editorials. One very effective political cartoon compared the amount of the proposed tax increases with the amount of monies already cut--millions versus billions--which served to undermine the reactionaries false hysteria about jobs being killed, etc. This is the URL of the main umbrella organization, http://voteyesfororegon.org/ and its support was very broad-based, and the best answer to your question lies at that site. Nevertheless, a lot of people were persuaded to vote against their own interest.
From the cited website:
"A large group of community organizations, including unions, small business owners, advocates for children and seniors, churches, environmental organizations, and civil rights groups have come together to pass the measures. Over 250 organizations formed the Yes for Oregon coalition to mobilize voters for the January election."
As I've mentioned, Oregon's politics are quite lively, with few taboo issues, if any.
The only way to pressure Obama or any political party is to urge people not to give them any more money.
Every message from the White House or any party is an excuse to ask for more cash.
"Sign this and that and send money."
Were we letting Obama down when he was Senator Obama and he repeatedly voted for funding the "wars" in the Middle East? I suppose we let him down so badly that he HAD to vote for immunity for the telcomms. We really let him down when he voted for the original bailout packages despite 4 out of 5 (at minimum) callers to congressional offices opposing the bailouts. Yes we let Obama down so badly that within days of his inaugaration he authorized drone attacks in Pakistan. The list of bad decisions that would have been better if only we had not "let him down" is endless. To borrow from a local radio show - Clancy Sigal, who are you crapping?
This is the TRUTH - This is my favorite comment posted here.
"We on the American left - in a dysfunctional marriage with a bought-and-paid-for Democratic party, ..."
Well, he got that part of it right. A divorce is long overdue.
What an apologist cop-out of an article.
The one part I do agree with is that the Left/Liberals/Democrats, whatever you call yourselves have seem to fallen asleep when it comes to WAR, the Anti-War movement, etc.
It just goes to show you are probably NOT anti-War, you were on the street protesting the WAR under bush, because american Left / Right Politics is more like a football game where you are all for your team, good or bad and all against the foe.
If you were Truly Anti-WAR, there would still be marches on the street. This website would have honest writers calling Obomber a WAR Monger, a Murderer and a Continuation of George W. Bush - Instead it seems to me that WAR is okay now that Obomber is killing people.
It's like the Republicans, even though W. didn't do much different than Clinton and Obomber isn't doing much different then Bush, at least when it comes to Foreign Policy and WAR, they are still against Obomber. Neo-Cons should love this guy, he is still out there killing them damn muslims (sarcasm there, for those too slow to get it) .
Anyhow, really the only people I know who are against the War are the Libertarian / Anarchy leaning people and here in LA the Answer Communists, as in the 3/20 Anti-War rallies, which are coming pretty soon.
But serious, all you peace people? Why are you not calling for Obombers impeachment? He is carrying on the Bush Doctrine, Gitmo is still open, he is as much a War Criminal now as Bush was, is, whatever ...
Stop making excuses for Obomber. He isn't some prince charming here to save the people.
(Oh, and lets see if my honesty and hard truth gets me kicked off this site. It seems to me they only like "left" apologists leaving comments here, and censor the hard truth - so much for freedom and democracy)
Please do not paint us all with such a broad brush. I have been anti-War and pro-Peace for years. I and a hardy band of similarly minded folks have been on the street corner of our very conservative community for YEARS reminding the residents that the war(s) must end. We did not stop our action because Obama was elected, although some thought we would. In my opinion Obama was elected because yet again the lesser of two evils was elected. Until our system is changed and people are allowed to hear from candidates who are not controlled by the moneyed class that is how each election will turn out.
As for looking for Peace activists, have you never heard of Veterans for Peace? They have not stopped working against War as a solution to international problems. If you or any of your friends are veterans, why don't you join them and work for what you say you want. Stop moaning and get busy.
The hard-core anti-war/pro-peace people haven't gone away, or changed our tactics (though the effort gets quite tiresome after so many years, and we do need to pace ourselves, especially since so many of us are 'over 55').
It's true that many 'marginal peaceniks' were duped by Obama, and then disappointed. Likewise the 'marginal progressives', in general. It's the 'casual protester' that has drifted away, and the people that are 'left' have little ability at this moment to bring them back.
Any concrete suggestions?
I see... it's all because gay people want to get married.
This is the equivalent of excusing a man's whoring & partying on the wife who 'let herself go' after marriage.
Well, wait a minute, a man's whoring and partying are two extremely different things. Whoring on his wife after she "let herself go," and partying have little to do with one another. I think most men would agree that one can party and not whore. Obama can party all he wants. It's bending over and grabbing his ankles for every Tom, Dick, and Harry corporate lobbyist that might be indicative of something else for which a wife might be concerned.
Well, if you ask me, the problem is Bam is doing too much blow with Larry and Timmy in the Oval Office.
The Left was marginalized by the DNC/ and Obama. When Obama immediately brought in Wall Street big guns to his economic team it should have been a sign of what was to come. Furthermore, his sham of Health Care reform immediately eliminated any discussion of Single Payer. Instead Obama sold us out before he even began his presidency.
Re: that real change "will have to work its way from the bottom up"...
Funny how that was not the case for Bushco. Indeed, "change" is still happening, initiated from the top, down. The ruthless consolidation of money and power continues without even a pause.
Look, if Obama made "promises" that he broke, as the author admits, certainly Obama is accountable for lying.
To redress this fact, I would support a call to release the database of names of citizens Team-Obama collected who were duped. That mailing list is gold. Since Obama has broken his promises, we should call for the release of the vast network of names and addresses of all those he betrayed so that progressives might be able to build on the travesty that is the Obama presidency.
Sigal misreads Obama, but, dammit, she has a point in the middle of all the crap -- where IS the pressure from the Left? What DID we do except gripe and send e-mails? Would Obama have yielded to a large amount of public pressure -- I think so. Even if he had to bite the hands that put him into office -- he likes too much his cozy chair in the Oval Office to risk widespread voter dissatisfaction. Some he thinks he can afford to lose if he has to run against Palin (increasingly likely); he's be the anti-Palin candidate like he was the anti-McCain/BushAgain candidate in 2008.
But we really didn't even try to put Barry's feet to the fire. We gave him an out and boy did he take it!
So why aren't we marching in the streets? What does it take by golly? Do we have to wait till martial law is declared before the public truly wakes up?
Gary
“Acceptance of dissent is the fundamental requirement of a free society.”
-- Richard Roysher
There was, in fact, significant mobilization for single-payer. It got nowhere. Where was Gary?
The only possible justification for Common Dreams to have published this drivel is the quality of the reader comments. Flaming, yes, but to the point.
The corporate media ignored huge DC rallies for single payer, but blew up into headline stories the small teabag rallies which were funded by America's rulers. Of course, where the money came from wasn't mentioned.
We have a large inert mass in the middle insulating the rich from any significant shift of wealth. And yes, at the same time Obama is ass-kissing the right, he's kicking the left in the teeth. So just how are we supposed to hold his feet to the fire?
Fortunately we are not alone in our fury at his having spent or committed $12 trillion to Wall Street. There will be pain in Nov 2012 and it serves the Democrats right. Unfortunately, the cure will be worse than the disease since the voters have no imagination beyond the 2 party system. So far. A few more rounds of bad or worse may stir them up.
When the people fear their government there is tyranny,
when the government fears the people there is liberty.
~ Thomas Jefferson
....but you voted for him..?
So what? I voted for him too but he won't get our votes this time.
So what??? Is that some kind of a retort? Do you think life is a video game that you can reset every time you screw up? Do you believe that you have the right to complain after you helped to get us into this mess to begin with? You are nothing more than a ditto head of the DLC. You were duped once and, no doubt, when the time comes, you'll do it again. You're either young or incredibly naive for your age. It's people like you that make this country live on its knees, not the corporate whores who enslave you.
You have no business predicting who will vote for Obama again. I am in my 30s but I am not a naive voter or some DLC dittohead. Hold your predictions until the election actually happens. I will let you know by then if you were right or wrong.
Hey, So what?, I know the problem is not Obama. It's the gullible people who listened to all the rationales for not voting for him and then went ahead and did so anyway. I wonder what the people of Afghanistan, or the seniors who lost their pensions, or the people who died in the latest drone attack would have to say about your cavalier, "So what?" attitude. Not to mention your Indian friends. I have every right to say whatever I like as long as it makes sense, and so far, you haven't proved you aren't as naive as you say you are.
Royce
Right, Gary, and as you can see, we are among the loneliest. Nothing but gripers here.
I would of course reverse my opinion of the other 36 gripers here if they could show me their arrest records for protesting in the streets. Alas, even I can't claim that. I've always marched and protested INSIDE the lines. I really have to admire those who do it right. Dr. Flowers, you are 1 in a thousand! Had there been ten thousand outside the chambers that day, AHIP would be looking for jobs right now.
Sorry. I have been arrested multiple times for civil disobedience, but it was always part of an organized movement. Arrests by themselves are NOT a sign of committed activism. The"real action" is NOT "in the streets," it's in the workplace, the farmer's market, the PTA meeting, the door to door petition campaigns.
Neither street actions nor voting are effeective unless they are rooted in actual social movements which attempt to reach out to our eveeryday neighbors and NOT simply reinforce the moral purity of the street demonstrator or the "realism" of the campaign worker.
I don't have intestinal fortitude to read another bizarre essay, blaming the left for not holding Obamafraud's feet to the fire. This pretzel logic has become very popular, apparently, with Common Dreams, because not a day goes by now, that such articles aren't given prominence, and/or headlines.
So the notion that leaders are supposed to lead has gone the way of women and children first, I see.
Indeed. It's our fault that Obama couldn't be a leader?
This discussion to me has a bit of Alice in Wonderland about it. Eight years ago, were conservatives lamenting that they needed to organize to make Bush govern as a conservative? No - Bush wanted to rule as a conservative, and he did. But we need to make Obama govern as liberal? That would be because he never intended to govern as he campaigned - as a liberal.
How insulting to anyone with half a brain! But what can you expect from the Hollywood crowd!
We let Obama down? You are joking.
Obama won the presidency, in part due to a wave of progressive support fooled by his Hope message. No sooner than he win the presidency, he fills his cabinet with hawks such as Hillary Clinton and Rahm. During Israel's on-slaught of Gaza in which serious war crimes were being committed by Israel, he chose to be silent to the atrocities. This all before he ever accepted office in January. The record gets worse from there.
Obama is a corporatist and a lier. Obama has worked his way into the company of the lying elite.
Both parties at the national level are corrupt beyond our understanding. DO NOT VOTE FOR ANY OF THEM. Why offer legitimacy to corruption? Starve them of legitimacy, don't vote! Now move on to local politics where you can still make a difference.
One of the clearest points this author shares is how non-profit organizations (which by the way...they do make profits if nothing else to pay FAT salaries for those who work in the administration and to keep the lights on etc.) take money from corporate executives and even members of local city councils (in my case it was one city council member who made a few hundred dollars to a local soup kitchen to encourage the org. heads to back off the pressure to get the council to repeal an anti-camping ordinance and IT WORKED!) and do very little to actually implement social justice changes where oppression is taking place. I call these non-profit orgs "poverty pimps" because they need to have oppressed to keep their paychecks coming.....
sick!
Rich M.... why don't you stop HARASSING ME as you are clearly doing now that I put you in your place the last time you responded to my intelligent posting. You are a punk and clearly you despise anyone who criticizes you. You need a life!!!
Ephraim and RichM are trying to help you out. This article is about Obama and the Left. As another poster mentioned, Obama chose to divorce the left even before coming to office. RichM doesn't harass anyone. He is here to correct brainwashed Obama apologists the best he can and I commend him for his tireless efforts. A free thinker would actually listen, read, pay attention, and learn.
I am NOT an Obama apolgist...I didn't vote for him or McCain (I knew what to expect from both of them).
And I know exactly what I was commenting about....which was not about Obama in the first place....it was about the correct problem of non-profit organizations that are sitting by and letting the right, center and liberal political agendas to keep the oppression of the masses in-tact! Poverty Pimp's (non-profits) ARE part of the problem because they shut up as soon as they are threatened with DEFUNDING for their programs if the organization does not COOPERATE with the funders! What part of that was somehow an apologist position for Obama???
Geeeezz!! Stop defending RichM...we are all adults here aren't we??? Ranjit...why don't you read what you are commenting on before you actually make a comment.
Well, free, I'd like to add my two cents here, if you don't mind, of course. I like what I think you're saying. I think you're saying that non-profits are fronts for corporations because they depend on grants to survive. They must write grants that appease the status quo since the only people with money are giant corporate trusts. Is that what you're saying? And since some of them rely heavily on begging for corporate money, it doesn't serve their interests to take an oppositional stance around controversial political positions and proposals. I totally agree with you to a point, but there are a great many enlightened not-for-profit orgs out there and they really are making a difference. I think you were wise to bring it up because it's something that is overlooked in our society. Some of these not-for-profit organizations like these charter schools that are popping up all over the country are feel-good operations, but if you scratch the surface, they're little more than front organizations for corporate or right-wing agendas. Anyway, I didn't mean to intrude. You seem like a nice person with a great deal of sound ideas. Keep up the good work!
Yes, this is exactly what I was saying. I try not to drag out my thought because I am not fond of reading long replies so I can read as many as I can. Thanks for understanding my reply and that guy RichM may be a heck of a nice guy, but I had him totally rip me in a non-sensical way (mostly spelling and gramatical stuff) which is really stupid. We are people here...just writing out our thoughts...I didn't sign up for an english class : )
We, on the left, must begin to see each issue in a multi-issue way if we are going to work together with each other to fight the morally-bankrupted "right" which understands VERY WELL how everything is connected and they work night and day hacking away at each public good which makes the entire society weak and vulnurable to collapse. If you ever get a chance to do some research on the collapse of the USSR....believe it or not the best source I found which helped me re-experience that period of time (I was in high school in the early 80's so nothing mattered to me except surfing, dating and getting wasted) was a series of films by (believe it or not) ABC news on the decade of the 80's (news headlines and snipits of stories both domestic and international stories) and each tape VHS was on each year beginning in 1980 and the news clips about Russia (long food lines, mass job layoffs and other dysfunction which aided in the collapse of their corrupt government. We are going the same way unless we stop the corporations and greedy rich people from stealing everything publicly owned! We can do it! peace!
Non-profits are not the problem. The for-profits are the culprits but Obama is still responsible for choosing who to listen to. Perhaps you are not an Obama apologist but your accusation of RichM harassing you was out of line.
Listen Ranjit,
You don't know about the last line of "thoughts" he shared on a posting I made the other day so stop telling me what I know to be true. His comments were a stupid criticism of my writing...NOT THE SUBJECT MATTER... You are partly right...non-profits aren't the problem...YOU ARE. What an idiot you are as well. I love all these non-educated experts on Common Dreams. I always become more and more aware that the "left" (what little of it there is in this country) seem to have a one-track mind. A person will know a topic of two (in deep study) and then will not bother to learn about direct or in-direct issues. It is all connected you bananna-head!
How much do you know about non-profits??? Anything??? Well, do yourself a favor and look up a couple things. A book by William Greider "Who Will Tell the People" and read the part early in the book about the experience Lois Gibbs (who was involved in the Love Canal disaster....you know about the history of the CERCLA or Superfund act right??) and her experience working on the legistlation w/ non-profit lobbyists in DC. Then check out a site preventcancer dot com where Dr. Samuel Epstein discusses the connection between the American Cancer Society and the huge profits being made from fundraising to find a "cure". Non-profits are sleezy and unless you are working for one (which might be the case) you wouldn't make a blanket statement like you made. Ugh!!!
Didn't your mother ever tell you to MYOB (mind your own business)? Let RichM stand up for himself...ok??
What the hell does this have to do with the article? You're airing some personal grievance that non-profits are raking in huge salaries, and taking money away from deserving corporate executives, and sounding like a complete Limbaugh ditto-head. Do you think anyone here is going to "agree" with you? Try at least to stick a little to the topic.
"We on the American left - in a dysfunctional marriage with a bought-and-paid-for Democratic party, tamed by leechlike dependence on "non-profit" liberal foundations themselves funded by corporations,"
THIS is the part of the article I was commenting on....what article were you reading??? What I was remarking about was part of the article dummy.
talk about an APOLOGIST. What a joke. OBOMBMAMA, has sold out many of his"base". Where shall I start?? Not enough time in my day.
Since a third party is somewhat of a "pipe dream", really calls into question the next presidential election and voting time.
Lying, traitorism, venal posturing playing for time while the upward draft of wealth sucks the intellect out of this article and takes your breath away.
Baraks's on his hands and knees in the Oval Office with a pig's snout strapped on and Rahm sells tickets for rides on the King.
I pledge allegience to GE
and the prezze's picked 4 me
I donate my daughter to Afghanistan
Let's kill the Arabs where they stand
This was a really well thought out article. Until now, I hadn't realized that the reason why Obama is a liar and a fraud is because he wasn't pressed by the left. Apparently it's our fault that he's a useless waste of space. Shame on us for letting the country down.