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Barack Obama is Gutting the Core Principles of the Democratic Party
The president's attacks on America's social safety net are destroying the soul of the Democratic party's platform
In 2005, American liberals achieved one of their most significant political victories of the last decade. It occurred with the resounding rejection of George W Bush's campaign to privatise social security.
Barack Obama. The President, writes Greenwald, "In many crucial areas, has done more to subvert and weaken the left's political agenda than a GOP president could have dreamed of achieving. So potent, so overarching, are tribal loyalties in American politics that partisans will support, or at least tolerate, any and all policies their party's leader endorses – even if those policies are ones they long claimed to loathe." (Photograph: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images)
Bush's scheme would have gutted the crux of that entitlement programme by converting it from what it has been since the 1940s – a universal guarantor of minimally decent living conditions for America's elderly – into a Wall Street casino and bonanza.
Progressive activists and bloggers relentlessly attacked both the plan and underlying premises (the myth that social security faces a "crisis"), spawning nationwide opposition. Only a few months after he unveiled his scheme to great fanfare, Bush was forced to sheepishly withdraw it, a defeat he described as his biggest failure.
That victory established an important political fact. While there are very few unifying principles for the Democratic party, one (arguably the primary one) is a steadfast defence of basic entitlement programs for the poor and elderly – social security, Medicare and Medicaid – from the wealthy, corporatised factions that have long targeted them for cuts.
But in 2009, clear signs emerged that President Obama was eager to achieve what his right-predecessor could not: cut social security. Before he was even inaugurated, Obama echoed the right's manipulative rhetorical tactic: that (along with Medicare) the programme was in crisis and producing "red ink as far as the eye can see." President-elect Obama thus vowed that these crown jewels of his party since the New Deal would be, as Politico reported, a "central part" of his efforts to reduce the deficit.
The next month, his top economic adviser, the Wall Street-friendly Larry Summers, also vowed specific benefit cuts to Time magazine. He then stacked his "deficit commission" with long-time advocates of social security cuts.
Many progressives, ebullient over the election of a Democratic president, chose to ignore these preliminary signs, unwilling to believe that their own party's leader was as devoted as he claimed to attacking the social safety net. But some were more realistic. The popular liberal blogger and economist Duncan "Atrios" Black, who was one of the leaders of the campaign against Bush's privatisation scheme, vowed in response to these early reports:
The left ... will create an epic 360-degree shitstorm if Obama and the Dems decide that cutting social security benefits is a good idea.
Fast forward to 2011: it is now beyond dispute that President Obama not only favours, but is the leading force in Washington pushing for, serious benefit cuts to both social security and Medicare.
This week, even as GOP leaders offered schemes to raise the debt ceiling with no cuts, the White House expressed support for the Senate's so-called "gang of six" plan that includes substantial cuts in those programmes.
The same Democratic president who supported the transfer of $700bn to bail out Wall Street banks, who earlier this year signed an extension of Bush's massive tax cuts for the wealthy, and who has escalated America's bankruptcy-inducing posture of Endless War, is now trying to reduce the debt by cutting benefits for America's most vulnerable – at the exact time that economic insecurity and income inequality are at all-time highs.
Where is the "epic shitstorm" from the left which Black predicted? With a few exceptions – the liberal blog FiredogLake has assembled 50,000 Obama supporters vowing to withhold re-election support if he follows through, and a few other groups have begun organising as well – it's nowhere to be found.
Therein lies one of the most enduring attributes of Obama's legacy: in many crucial areas, he has done more to subvert and weaken the left's political agenda than a GOP president could have dreamed of achieving. So potent, so overarching, are tribal loyalties in American politics that partisans will support, or at least tolerate, any and all policies their party's leader endorses – even if those policies are ones they long claimed to loathe.
This dynamic has repeatedly emerged in numerous contexts. Obama has continued Bush/Cheney terrorism policies – once viciously denounced by Democrats – of indefinite detention, renditions, secret prisons by proxy, and sweeping secrecy doctrines.
He has gone further than his predecessor by waging an unprecedented war on whistleblowers, seizing the power to assassinate U.S. citizens without due process far from any battlefield, massively escalating drone attacks in multiple nations, and asserting the authority to unilaterally prosecute a war (in Libya) even in defiance of a Congressional vote against authorising the war.
And now he is devoting all of his presidential power to cutting the entitlement programmes that have been the defining hallmark of the Democratic party since Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal. The silence from progressive partisans is defeaning – and depressing, though sadly predictable.
The nature of American politics is that once a policy is removed from the partisan wars – once it is adopted by the leadership of both parties – it is removed from mainstream debate and fortified as bipartisan consensus. That is why false claims in the run-up to the Iraq war, endorsed by both parties, received so little mainstream journalistic scrutiny. And it's why the former Bush lawyer and right-wing ideologue Jack Goldsmith – back in May 2009 – celebrated in The New Republic the fact that Obama was doing more to strengthen Bush/Cheney terrorism policies than his former bosses could have ever achieved: by embracing the very terrorism approach he once denounced, Obama was converting it from rightwing radicalism into into the official dogma of both parties, and forcing his supporters to defend what were, until 2009, the symbols of rightwing evil.
Identically, Obama is now on the verge of injecting what until recently was the politically toxic and unattainable dream of Wall Street and the American right – attacks on the nation's social safety net – into the heart and soul of the Democratic party's platform. Those progressives who are guided more by party loyalty than actual belief will seamlessly transform from virulent opponents of such cuts into their primary defenders.
And thus will Obama succeed – yet again – in gutting not only core Democratic policies, but also the identity and power of the American Left.
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191 Comments so far
Show AllGiven what you say, and given the fact that Obama has put the last nail in the coffin of whatever power "progressives" had left tucked far away inside the current Democratic party power structure, I believe that Obama is more dangerous than George W. Bush.
"if Bush had been a Democrat, his own party would have balked at some of the things he did -- and probably called for his impeachment."
should have read "if Bush had been a Democrat, Republicans would have balked at some of the things he did -- and probably called for his impeachment."
I always find reading these comment threads very dispiriting. I can clearly accept both Greenwald's thesis (BHO betrays/destroys what the left stands for) and the gist of the response I find here (BHO is manufactured by the powers that be for this purpose) without bothering about the distinction/contradiction. But the bigger, heavy-lifting question—what is there to do in the face of this?—is not receiving the light it deserves here. Put energy into a third party campaign in 2012? Join and try to give backbone to initiatives like the Van Jones thing? Help get Norman Solomon into Lynn Woolsey's seat? Work on overturning Citizens United? Mount a serious effort to take over Dem party institutions at the local level? Withdraw energy from nat'l-level electoral politics? Let GOP take the WH so left can grow again like the good ol' Bush/Cheney days? This is the real discussion—don't all of these basically suck?—if we want to do more than blow off steam.
Any of the above, but otherwise just calling it like it is Is a good start considering the deafening silence on the subject. Aside from the Olberman rant and the tenacious Bernie Sanders, it is mums on the subject of what is essentially the shock doctrine. I once saw it referred to as a code of omerta among the Democrats.
Add to that, the fact that most "progressives" and "leftists" in my circle of friends, acquaintances, family, and co-workers, never have a clue as to what's going on when I bring something up, regarding all of these things that have been happening. They, as are most Americans in general, are completely oblivious to anything 5 cm outside of their narrow scope.
"Oblivious" indeed. And that's not the half of it. Many of the posters right here at CD are actively working to destroy Medicare and SS. If progressives (the tiny minority that we truly are) all vote 3rd party, we may well see a tea bagger landslide. If this bunch gets a Pres. and filibuster-proof Congress, then Medicare and SS are GONE. Have a nice fuckin' day.
The reality is it is the Democrats who are raming through the plan to dismantle the New Deal. It is astounding to me how many are clueless about that fact--they assume it is the Republicans pushing Social Security cuts, but it is Obama even though even a majority of polled Republicans oppose cuts to Social Security as well.. And if the Democrats lose after imposing said cuts, the usual suspects will point the finger of blame at those who didn't support the Democrats for what they would never support a Republican for doing. Why is anyone obligated to vote for them? You can't claim the Right is worse, when it is a Democrat making the cuts.
-Obama is anxious to ram this through before the word spreads and so many are off guard. That partisan hack, Lawrence O'Donnell actually tried to sell it as Obama strategy to court Moderates and Independents, that he really had no intention of imposing cuts, he was just 'pretending'--except polled independents oppose cuts as well. It stinks of desperation.
Greg...we know how crazy the Republicans are. Certifiable! But that is not the problem. It's what the Dems do with that insanity. They keep ever so slightly to the left of the Repubs and thus, by comparison, appear "sane"
Meanwhile, the political center of gravity just keeps moving to the right. Over the years the Dems have given us LBJ who gave us Viet Nam and made the world safe for Nixon. Carter gave us Reagan, Clinton gave us Bush II and now Obama is making the world safe for, God Help Us, Bachman.
Fifty years of "lesser evilism" has made serious contenders of right wing loons who once would have been laughed off the stage.
Sadly, the Democratic Party as you envision it is dead. It's time to build a new one.
Please see Dave Lindorff's latest at "This Can't be Happenning." Don't let the title scare you off. It's called To Hell with the Democrats.
How does "mr. o" shave in the morning with so much blood dripping from his hands?
Obama's re-election treasury FAR surpasses all 2012 candidates.
If you donated in 2008 or volunteered, NOW would be a good time to say you're done with him. I emailed my negativity to his campaign 5 months ago. Natch, nobody read it and they still send me shit.
I guess I will have to stop by the local office and tell them in person. Maybe you will too.
Obama sure acts like he is full of tea potty.
Ian Welsh shines a light on why this is happening to us:
"...recently Russia been minting billionaires faster than US. It’s really hard to state how startling that is. America’s rich have done everything they can to rig the game so they will get richer, they have a bigger base economy to work off of, and they’re still losing the Red Queen’s race. No matter how much they repress their own population, they can’t keep up with the folks who have the real gold of the modern economy: black gold."
Folks, they're going to take every last drop of blood until we fight back.
Do NOT vote for Democrats in the national elections. Not one Democrat. Ian Welsh is also right when he wrote:
"...as stupid, venal and brutal as our enemies are (and if they aren’t your enemies you’re a fool or getting a pay check, or I hope you are), our leadership is even more stupid, venal and cowardly. This entire generation of leadership on what passes for the left is beyond contemptible. If they are not outright sell outs of the interests of those they claim to champion, then they are willing to betray anyone but their members, and if with rare exceptions (in the US, basically, the gay leadership) they are cowards, unwilling to risk themselves in any way, unwilling to actually fight."
http://www.ianwelsh.net/thank-god-for-our-enemies/
Obama is showing that he is the consummate 'honest' politician....just like Bush.
Once bought he stays bought..you can't ask for anything more.
Remember - the same folks that supported Bush Jr. in primaries & election, were Obama's main supporters in the primary and election (they supported no GOP candidates). Check it out.
Why do you think he replaced his strategists and campaigners with Clinton's and then brought Bush White House members (his 'minders') aboard as well.
Why is anything he does a surprise then?
I don't expect you to be perfect Mr. Obama but there are just two or three things you have to get right. You don't take money from the rich in return for making the poor destitute. It makes no difference whether the bribe is called campaign donations or fund raisers.
You don't wear the presidency like an ermine gown. You are a servant.
Actually if you will just remember these two and keep your campaign promises I'll support you
A little reminder that America began without any political parties at all.
The founding fathers considered "factions" to be unscrupulous gangs hell-bent on picking the public pocket and James Madison, who arranged majorities for the advancement of certain issues, assumed that these majorities should dissolve after the issue was resolved. Also, George Washington the first unanimous and unopposed elected president was above party loyalty.
There is no requirement to be registered as a member of any particular family to be abused and furthermore, if the majority of the american people would be registered as "No Party" then the issue would pervail over the agenda.
In other words,do like all the lost people of the past cultures who did not mysteriously disapper but chose to leave.
Remind me: Why is Obama a "Democrat, anyway?"
I mean, isn't he doing all the things that have been the "Republicans'" wet dream?
Come to think of it, what exactly IS the difference between "Democrat" and "Republican," now? They both want warfare, corporate welfare, and no questions asked. They both pitch the phoney war on drugs and the equally phoney war on terror, the latter based on a theory of the 911 crime that the brothers Grimm would think to silly to commit to print.
Let's stop pretending and call ALL these clowns by their true name: fascist.
sj
Absolutely right! Chomsky talked about "Friendly Fascism" many years ago, in referring to the military-industrial-academic complex that had evolved in the US following WWII. One can now officially drop the "friendly" part...
Spot on.
Just as Michael Moore stated:
We have two political parties in America representing only 2% of the people, and folks are running around yelling "We're free, We're free!!!
Thank you again, Mr Greenwald. You have eloquently summed it all up.
Fear not Obamabots, your man will be reelected mainly because all his previous base will either stay home or vote for third party candidates who have no chance as long as we are saddled with the antiquated electoral college. Until we have a direct popular vote for president, the same as every other office, the will of the people will never matter; it will still be up to enormous masses of money directed at "swing states" while everyone else is left out of the entire process.
The second repercussion of his reelection by a small percentage of voters will be the usual blatting by the talking heads claiming they lost independents because policies were not far enough to the right. So the move will continue rightward with O at the helm grinning his way to a healthy, wealthy retirement attained by destroying every vaguely decent social program this country has ever had. There is your lesser of two evils.
Good grief, I see idiot posts like this all the time around here. Look at the first damn sentence and tell me how anyone can make some kind of goofy ass convoluted sense out of it. I'd go screaming into the night, but it's still daylight.
It's not my fault that you have failed to progress past first-grade reading skills. Perhaps that accounts for your loyalty to O.
This article is very disappointing because it doesn't go far enough beyond Obama as its target.
To focus on Obama is a mistake. Yes, his actions are disgusting and criminal, but he is where he is and he is doing what he is doing because he has the backing of anyone who still clings to the false notion that the democrats are something other than a corporate-owned project.
This fact is hinted at in this article, but it needs to be clearly front and center.
Obama is merely following the pattern outlined by both the republicans and the democrats for, at least, the past thirty years (and in some aspects, especially the militarization, the past 60 years).
Step back, take a wider look. The destruction of both the constitution and humane responsibility is omnipresent in this so-called Free Market Capitalistic State.
The rejection of Obama and Bush means very little without also rejecting this beastly system and the vast majority of both arms of this beast.
Until the majority of democrats and republicans are dismissed as complicit enablers of each other and of the rise of a fascist state, we will remain victims of imbalance and predation.
Both parties are unacceptable.
You got it! Reject the two-party duopoly and work to build an organic movement.
Well; then Glenn, there's always Anonymous
In the 1967 movie "The Flim-Flam Man", George C Scott plays Barrack Obama in a different time and place. In the movie, Scott plays Barrack Obama (known as Mordecai C. Jones in the flick) who, as stated at Wikipedia "is a self-styled "M.B.S., C.S., D.D. — Master of Back-Stabbing, Cork-Screwing and Dirty-Dealing!", a drifting confidence trickster who makes his living defrauding people in the southern United States."
Today, the Flim Flam Man in the White House makes his living defrauding progressives and Democrats throughout the United States.
The entire movie is on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ue0vqeQSG5w
Part seven has the Flim Flam Man summarizing his life calling and personality.
Please don't embarrass yourself with a comment about how a post like this indirectly supports Republicans. Anyone with half a brain realizes that most and arguably all Republicans are characters out of horror movies. That's part of the point, actually. When they voted for Obama people just traded being victimized by a horror movie character for being tricked and victimized by a con man (a flim-flam man).
Who could have believed this two years ago? But Obama will go down in history as a far more damaging President than was G.W. Bush. They do the same things, support the same policies, but when Bush did them, millions hit the streets in protest and the worst excesses at times were blocked. But when Obama does them hardly a peep and he succeeds, whether it's the matter of war, lowering taxes for the rich, shutting down educational and health opportunities for the poor and middle class, Obama is far worse than Bush in terms of what actually gets done. Anyone supporting Obama in any way is a collaborator in crimes.
"And thus will Obama succeed – yet again – in gutting not only core Democratic policies, but also the identity and power of the American Left."
Glenn, the Democratic Party does not have any core policies that favor the left. And a true left? They're pretty much now an extinct species, never had much power, and now they have practically none. Obama's only the latest in a long list of societal leaders over several decades that have done their part to gut the left. The problems with the left are deep, pervasive, and cultural. It doesn't have much to do with one person, even if he's a president.
The memes that are the foundation of US politics are mostly myths. GG is simply stating that the illusion of the Democratic Party as the "party of the people" no longer has even the thinnest credibility.
If that is in fact at the heart of what GG is saying, which I don't doubt, he probably wasted a bit of valuable time on a long article that simply states the obvious. People who don't already understand that "the Democratic Party as the "party of the people" no longer has even the thinnest credibility" are probably not going to be swayed by this article.
_________________________________________
The quoted excerpt from the concluding paragraph of GG's article was what I was specifically responding to. This excerpt clearly suggests that GG still thinks that Obama still might have something meaningful to do with ".....gutting not only core Democratic policies, but also the identity and power of the American Left." I don't agree. I think the left has fallen by the wayside over many decades, and that Obama has only a trivial amount to do with that. And I don't know what "core Democratic policies" GG is referring to, but again, whatever they are, they've become eviscerated over many decades. The last 2 1/2 years have really only continued this trend.
"And thus will Obama succeed – yet again – in gutting not only core Democratic policies, but also the identity and power of the American Left."
The core principles of the Democratic Party is capitalism.
Obama is not "gutting"--he is revealing Democrats, progressives, liberals etc. for who and what they truly are: politically demoralized. And always have been. It's just that these days it's more obvious. Thank-you Obama.
"The core principles of the Democratic Party is capitalism." Well, of course! That is the system we have, basically worldwide (exclude a couple of jungle tribes). A lot of the posters here reject capitalism. Like Churchill said, It's the worst, except for all the rest.
Churchill said that about Democracy, not Capitalism.
I suspect he knew more about both subjects than you seem to know about either. ;)
I too was a supporter and gave money to elect Obama. Now I very much regret my contributions. Not in 2012 will he or the Democratic party get a dime or any support from this supposed leader of Change. He's changed the very nature of Democratic Principles in favor of Corporate bucks and influence. This next go round I'm now an Independent not a member of the Democratic Party and I will cast my vote for a third Party candidate rather than any Republican or Democrat running for President.
Third party voter? Great to have you aboard my friend!
Everyone knows or should know about what Obummer is about now so if they choose to vote for him again and he gets elected-well, when they read one of the daily horror stories about how some war in another country has taken more innocent lives or how the corporations keeping screwing the people and the environment, then WTF are they going to say? Anyone who is planning on voting for a democrat or republican simply doesn't realize how the system works! They are both the same beast!
Great news reporting and commentary, Glenn. I'm pleased to be able to access your writing via Common Dreams.True, and depressing, for someone who grew up in the 60s admiring our first Irish-American Catholic President, JFK, and his brother, RFK, and Governor and later Senator Harold Hughes, Barbara Jordan, Shirley Chisholm, Senator Gene McCarthy, and a few others.Like the names I just mentioned, that Democratic Party is dead.The tiny Iowa Green Party is my political choice now, God bless 'em! Bill in Dubuque
PS. Funny that I installed paragraph breaks in my text, and it still appeared as one mass paragraph. This system is dysfunctional as the Democrats!
Thanks Glenn,
I voted for this guy, and since the appointment of Summers-Geitner, boy howdy have I been disappointed!!
2012 is coming, and who do we progressives have to replace him??
Gonna be a long haul....
Glenn...'While there are very few unifying principles for the Democratic party, one (arguably the primary one) is a steadfast defence of basic entitlement programs for the poor and elderly – social security, Medicare and Medicaid – from the wealthy, corporatised factions that have long targeted them for cuts.'
Oh Stupid Me! I thought that the primary unifying principle of the Democratic Party was ALWAYS simply to manage US society for the big corporate interests that pays to have these guys elected. I guess Mr.Greenwald thinks differently though from me? (I guess a poor peasant like me must be wrong though if a distinguished intellectual like Greenwald sees things so differently?)
The two parties are so alike in so many (bad) ways but there is however one real, concrete and stark difference between Repubs and Dems.
The Republican Party respects and fears its base. The Democratic Party loathes and dispises its base.
Often read here are the lines about "spineless Democrats" and "...if they would just show some backbone..."
Well, the Dems are not spineless. They are doing exactly what Dems do. They are coralling the outrage of the citizenry and keeping it "safely within the system." Its the liberals/progressives who are spineless and need to grow a backbone. How much ridicule and abuse and backstabbing will you take before it's enough?
Avoid the "O" word. When master lier "O" prayed at a prayer breakfast I thought to myself, now he has gone too far, God will get him.
"And thus will Obama succeed – yet again – in gutting not only core Democratic policies, but also the identity and power of the American Left." The hell with "Democratic policies" and "the identity . . . of the American Left" (I omit "power" because "the American Left" has never had any). It's the American people and the rest of the world I care about.
Hector, again may I remind you to rejoice, because your ilk have succeeded, and are running the show. Look around you, ah the sights to behold!
Soon, when you and your ilk succeed even more, children will once again be working in American sweat shops. Get ready for more success Hector, because soon, your ilk, will be busily dismantling completely, the New Deal programs, such that the elderly will be sick and dying in the streets! Celebrate Hector, your side is winning! And there is more Hector, for you and your ilk to look forward to, as you continue in your victory lap.
More nukes, more dead zones in the oceans, dirtier air to breathe and water to drink. And just think, in the not too distant future, you won't be that sure whether or not you should eat that packaged food or not, especially if it comes from meat packing plants. Dust off that dog eared copy of The Jungle, because it is time to whet your appetite again for the glory days of corporate assholes feeding unsuspecting families formaldehyde fortified meats, and for a hefty profit. There is food around the corner Hector!!! And there is more!!!!!
I mean, if you and your ilk keep succeeding, soon enough, everywhere you go, you'll have to pay a toll to travel! And get this Hector, National Parks will have corporate logos all over the visitor centers that have been transformed into Real Estate offices for the super wealthy!!!! Yes Hector YES!!! Is your chest swelling with pride yet Hector? Well it should be god damnit. because there is more, as you and your ilk continue to succeed!!
Debtor's prisons are just around the corner, The little people should expect no more mister nice guy from their corporate masters in your wet dream of a world that is already largely realized. That I'm sure you can't wait for. I mean, reality TV is great, but just think Hector, how great it will be when humiliation can be taken to the nth degree in showcasing the problems of the poor and powerless. You love COPS right? Well it's going to get even better!! America's streets are going to be like one big fucking really bad reality TV show, and you and your ilk can sell the tickets and the popcorn. Can it get any better Hector? Oh yes it can!!!
If you and your ilk continue to win, and shift our economy even more toward the Military Industrial Complex, and the Security Industrial Complex, and the Corporate Media Industrial Complex, then disaster capitalism will be eating babies and kittens for decades to come, and the god damn geniuses (true the left doesn't have SUCH geniuses) that spawned this dystopian disaster capitalist hell on earth, can look upon their wondrous creation and intellectually jack off at their newest shiny think tanks. And there is more Hector, if you and your ilk continue to succeed.
Public schools? Who needs em right? I mean, Hector, won't it be grand, when teenage girls from poor neighborhoods, will be tempted to sell their bodies, so they can afford next year's tuition, so they have a tiny chance of working, somewhere, anywhere, outside of the factories that will have returned to this country, after all of the labor unions have been abolished! And by god, those corporate titans won't have to pay those damn kids more than 2 dollars for a 14 hour day!! Feel the rush Hector, that's what's coming down the pike as your side continues to win! And there is more!!
Just think Hector, when the little poor people rise up finally, your side will have succeeded in having created such an unassailable police state, that any peep of a disturbance will be met by swift retribution, imprisonment, death and torture by you and your ilk, in your towers of power. It is coming!!!! Hector, I know you have probably done something naughty in your pants by now, so I'll stop. But you just let me know if you'd like to fantasize more about what is to come, as your side, and those of your ilk, continue to win EVERY SINGLE GOD DAMN BATTLE!!
So really, stop your complaining.
And by the way, just for clarification, you, and your ilk, are the emergent, hideous, oligarchy, comprised of money and power worshipping ghouls, regardless of party.
hue_sir_name,
You said it all and don't really need to add any more. I bet you must be boiling and took lot of energy to put it down in words. I wouldn't waste my energy on a clueless like Hector. Take care. :-)
self censored
Not sure Hector deserved all that, but your summation of the rightless right is dead on. And anyone who isn't steaming at their "victories" is sadly sitting in that pot that is about to boil.
I just realized I goofed big time. Damn. Damn. Apologies to the forum, and especially to Hector. I think you are right.
Seriously folks, I'm breaking a bit, under the stress of the times, and I did something that I really try not to do, and that is to make a rush judgement, or assumption, without really trying to consider someone's words.
I was thinking of Horace, not Hector.
After I reread Hector's comment, and his postings below, I realized I had made a big mistake.
Many apologies to Hector. I goofed, big time.
Hector, please see my apology below. I'm very sorry. Unfortunately, I'm unable to remove my comment, because Edit is not available to me now. I mistook you for Horace, and admittedly, didn't read your comment careful enough to begin with.
I apologize sir.
The founding fathers knew the dangerous intrigues insiders could bring. It is why harsh punishment for treason was put in the Constitution.
Obama is a traitor to the people who elected him, and a liar. Some of us here knew it, most thought him the second coming of Christ.