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The Obama/GOP Consensus
As far as President Obama
is concerned, the state of the Union is now in harmony, with the merging
of Republican politics and his own. The new consensus is an austere one
for most Americans, as Obama joins the GOP "to prevent the domestic
arms of government from coming to the people's aid, by freezing
finances" for five years. But have no fear: corporate tax rates will
plummet, allowing the long-awaited trickle down to begin.
Jan 26, 2011
As far as President Obama
is concerned, the state of the Union is now in harmony, with the merging
of Republican politics and his own. The new consensus is an austere one
for most Americans, as Obama joins the GOP "to prevent the domestic
arms of government from coming to the people's aid, by freezing
finances" for five years. But have no fear: corporate tax rates will
plummet, allowing the long-awaited trickle down to begin.
On the eve of President Obama's State of the Union address, Cynthia Gordy, writer for the Blogging the Beltway column in TheRoot.com, asked the question: "Will Obama talk about black unemployment?"
Of course, Gordy already knew the answer - "Hell no!" - but proceeded
to discuss the horrific state of Black jobless America with someone who
actually cared, Christian Weller, from the Center for American Progress.
Ms. Gordy ended the piece on a plaintive note. "Here's hoping Obama will at least have a more elaborate plan to truly lift up all communities," she wrote. What
a strange and deeply sad relationship exists between many Black
Americans and the brown-skinned corporate politician in the White House.
After two years, there is no longer any expectation of reciprocity,
only a muted hope and prayer that Obama would behave decently.
He didn't. In announcing a
five-year freeze on domestic spending, Obama enters a new phase of
aggressive - rather than furtive - collaboration with the GOP. To ensure
that catastrophe cannot be avoided for the tens of millions battered
and set adrift by the two (lesser and greater) recessions of the 21st
century, Obama will join with Republicans to prevent the domestic arms
of government from coming to the people's aid, by freezing finances.
With whole communities in a state of economic dislocation, Obama burns
the rescue boats and poisons the water, all the while promising that the
necessary budgetary savings will not be achieved "on the backs of our
most vulnerable citizens" - as if Wall Street's bankers will shield the
helpless with their well-bonused bodies.
The First Black President
had nothing new or promising of substance to offer anyone who is not
rich, just repackaged items from his dismally disappointing past. No
dollar signs to give meaning to the president's mystical and misleading
rhetoric on jobs, which will somehow be made to appear through a
uniquely American process of "innovation" and "self-invention"
inaccessible to lesser peoples. This aspect of exceptionalism will
out-"green" China and overtake South Korean Internet speeds, without
costing the Treasury an extra dime. "Thousands" of jobs will result, to
take the place of the hundreds of thousands that will be lost in the
public sector, alone, as government implodes at all levels.
Remember Sputnik! says
Obama. Of course, the shocking 1957 Russian leap into space prompted the
United States to embark on the greatest educational spending spree in
history. There will be none of that
under the Obama/GOP austerity regime. Instead, Obama's "Race to the
Top" program will force ever larger slices of the public education
infrastructure into the privately-managed but publicly financed
alternative national charter school system - a multi-billion dollar
"market" for hedge funds and other speculators.
By bringing down the
corporate tax rate - a substantive promise from Obama that only the
wealthy can truly appreciate - additional profits will accrue to
companies that have already hoarded over two trillion dollars, but who
were doubtless awaiting Obama's coded signal, "Sputnik," before
investing in productive, job-producing enterprises. These investments
might also be delayed until Obama has, as promised on Tuesday night,
reorganized the federal government to the Republicans' satisfaction, and
purged offensive regulations from the public sphere.
Funny, how Obama seems so
much more in his element in the wake of the November defeat than when
Democrats controlled both Houses of Congress. Half of Obama's Blue Dog
friends have been replaced by Republicans, but the president seems even
happier among the new guys, as if he's finally within reach of the
grand, "bi-partisan consensus" that is the ideal state of being in a
post-everything America.
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Glen Ford
Glen Ford (1949-2021) was the co-Founder and Executive Editor of the Black Agenda Report. He was a socialist, a Vietnam War-era military veteran and a member of the Black Panther Party. He served in the news media over many years in his professional life. He was the Capitol Hill, State Department and White House correspondent for the Mutual Black Network, an American radio network. He co-launched, produced, and hosted the first nationally syndicated Black news interview program on commercial television, America's Black Forum, in 1977.
As far as President Obama
is concerned, the state of the Union is now in harmony, with the merging
of Republican politics and his own. The new consensus is an austere one
for most Americans, as Obama joins the GOP "to prevent the domestic
arms of government from coming to the people's aid, by freezing
finances" for five years. But have no fear: corporate tax rates will
plummet, allowing the long-awaited trickle down to begin.
On the eve of President Obama's State of the Union address, Cynthia Gordy, writer for the Blogging the Beltway column in TheRoot.com, asked the question: "Will Obama talk about black unemployment?"
Of course, Gordy already knew the answer - "Hell no!" - but proceeded
to discuss the horrific state of Black jobless America with someone who
actually cared, Christian Weller, from the Center for American Progress.
Ms. Gordy ended the piece on a plaintive note. "Here's hoping Obama will at least have a more elaborate plan to truly lift up all communities," she wrote. What
a strange and deeply sad relationship exists between many Black
Americans and the brown-skinned corporate politician in the White House.
After two years, there is no longer any expectation of reciprocity,
only a muted hope and prayer that Obama would behave decently.
He didn't. In announcing a
five-year freeze on domestic spending, Obama enters a new phase of
aggressive - rather than furtive - collaboration with the GOP. To ensure
that catastrophe cannot be avoided for the tens of millions battered
and set adrift by the two (lesser and greater) recessions of the 21st
century, Obama will join with Republicans to prevent the domestic arms
of government from coming to the people's aid, by freezing finances.
With whole communities in a state of economic dislocation, Obama burns
the rescue boats and poisons the water, all the while promising that the
necessary budgetary savings will not be achieved "on the backs of our
most vulnerable citizens" - as if Wall Street's bankers will shield the
helpless with their well-bonused bodies.
The First Black President
had nothing new or promising of substance to offer anyone who is not
rich, just repackaged items from his dismally disappointing past. No
dollar signs to give meaning to the president's mystical and misleading
rhetoric on jobs, which will somehow be made to appear through a
uniquely American process of "innovation" and "self-invention"
inaccessible to lesser peoples. This aspect of exceptionalism will
out-"green" China and overtake South Korean Internet speeds, without
costing the Treasury an extra dime. "Thousands" of jobs will result, to
take the place of the hundreds of thousands that will be lost in the
public sector, alone, as government implodes at all levels.
Remember Sputnik! says
Obama. Of course, the shocking 1957 Russian leap into space prompted the
United States to embark on the greatest educational spending spree in
history. There will be none of that
under the Obama/GOP austerity regime. Instead, Obama's "Race to the
Top" program will force ever larger slices of the public education
infrastructure into the privately-managed but publicly financed
alternative national charter school system - a multi-billion dollar
"market" for hedge funds and other speculators.
By bringing down the
corporate tax rate - a substantive promise from Obama that only the
wealthy can truly appreciate - additional profits will accrue to
companies that have already hoarded over two trillion dollars, but who
were doubtless awaiting Obama's coded signal, "Sputnik," before
investing in productive, job-producing enterprises. These investments
might also be delayed until Obama has, as promised on Tuesday night,
reorganized the federal government to the Republicans' satisfaction, and
purged offensive regulations from the public sphere.
Funny, how Obama seems so
much more in his element in the wake of the November defeat than when
Democrats controlled both Houses of Congress. Half of Obama's Blue Dog
friends have been replaced by Republicans, but the president seems even
happier among the new guys, as if he's finally within reach of the
grand, "bi-partisan consensus" that is the ideal state of being in a
post-everything America.
Glen Ford
Glen Ford (1949-2021) was the co-Founder and Executive Editor of the Black Agenda Report. He was a socialist, a Vietnam War-era military veteran and a member of the Black Panther Party. He served in the news media over many years in his professional life. He was the Capitol Hill, State Department and White House correspondent for the Mutual Black Network, an American radio network. He co-launched, produced, and hosted the first nationally syndicated Black news interview program on commercial television, America's Black Forum, in 1977.
As far as President Obama
is concerned, the state of the Union is now in harmony, with the merging
of Republican politics and his own. The new consensus is an austere one
for most Americans, as Obama joins the GOP "to prevent the domestic
arms of government from coming to the people's aid, by freezing
finances" for five years. But have no fear: corporate tax rates will
plummet, allowing the long-awaited trickle down to begin.
On the eve of President Obama's State of the Union address, Cynthia Gordy, writer for the Blogging the Beltway column in TheRoot.com, asked the question: "Will Obama talk about black unemployment?"
Of course, Gordy already knew the answer - "Hell no!" - but proceeded
to discuss the horrific state of Black jobless America with someone who
actually cared, Christian Weller, from the Center for American Progress.
Ms. Gordy ended the piece on a plaintive note. "Here's hoping Obama will at least have a more elaborate plan to truly lift up all communities," she wrote. What
a strange and deeply sad relationship exists between many Black
Americans and the brown-skinned corporate politician in the White House.
After two years, there is no longer any expectation of reciprocity,
only a muted hope and prayer that Obama would behave decently.
He didn't. In announcing a
five-year freeze on domestic spending, Obama enters a new phase of
aggressive - rather than furtive - collaboration with the GOP. To ensure
that catastrophe cannot be avoided for the tens of millions battered
and set adrift by the two (lesser and greater) recessions of the 21st
century, Obama will join with Republicans to prevent the domestic arms
of government from coming to the people's aid, by freezing finances.
With whole communities in a state of economic dislocation, Obama burns
the rescue boats and poisons the water, all the while promising that the
necessary budgetary savings will not be achieved "on the backs of our
most vulnerable citizens" - as if Wall Street's bankers will shield the
helpless with their well-bonused bodies.
The First Black President
had nothing new or promising of substance to offer anyone who is not
rich, just repackaged items from his dismally disappointing past. No
dollar signs to give meaning to the president's mystical and misleading
rhetoric on jobs, which will somehow be made to appear through a
uniquely American process of "innovation" and "self-invention"
inaccessible to lesser peoples. This aspect of exceptionalism will
out-"green" China and overtake South Korean Internet speeds, without
costing the Treasury an extra dime. "Thousands" of jobs will result, to
take the place of the hundreds of thousands that will be lost in the
public sector, alone, as government implodes at all levels.
Remember Sputnik! says
Obama. Of course, the shocking 1957 Russian leap into space prompted the
United States to embark on the greatest educational spending spree in
history. There will be none of that
under the Obama/GOP austerity regime. Instead, Obama's "Race to the
Top" program will force ever larger slices of the public education
infrastructure into the privately-managed but publicly financed
alternative national charter school system - a multi-billion dollar
"market" for hedge funds and other speculators.
By bringing down the
corporate tax rate - a substantive promise from Obama that only the
wealthy can truly appreciate - additional profits will accrue to
companies that have already hoarded over two trillion dollars, but who
were doubtless awaiting Obama's coded signal, "Sputnik," before
investing in productive, job-producing enterprises. These investments
might also be delayed until Obama has, as promised on Tuesday night,
reorganized the federal government to the Republicans' satisfaction, and
purged offensive regulations from the public sphere.
Funny, how Obama seems so
much more in his element in the wake of the November defeat than when
Democrats controlled both Houses of Congress. Half of Obama's Blue Dog
friends have been replaced by Republicans, but the president seems even
happier among the new guys, as if he's finally within reach of the
grand, "bi-partisan consensus" that is the ideal state of being in a
post-everything America.
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