Courageous, Fierce, Brazen: 3 Words You'll Never Hear Applied to the Democrats in D.C.
MARK KARLIN FOR BUZZFLASH, EDITOR'S BLOG
We've been selling the collector's edition of the classic "Wizard of Oz" in the BuzzFlash Progressive Marketplace and it made us think how much the Democrats in D.C. are like Bert Lahr's cowardly lion: They need a massive infusion of courage. In fact, as a BuzzFlash columnist pointed out the other day, "fierce" is not an adjective that you are likely to see in front of 99.5% of the Democrats on Capitol Hill or the leadership in the White House.
As BuzzFlash has noted over 10 years, form often supercedes content in American politics, and many Americans will respect courageous and bold political leadership, even if they are somewhat in disagreement about the politician's politics. Oddly enough, the fiercest Democrat near the top of power may by Rahm Emanuel, and he is a "made man" of the ruling elite and corporate governance crowd. In short, our one fierce Democrat at the highest levels is working for the status quo of Big Money government.
As for President Obama, much was made of how many small donors contributed to his campaign and that would allow him to "change" the environment in D.C., toss the lobbyists out, and rein in corporate governance. But the Obama campaign also got a whole lot of dollars from the standard Wall Street/Corporate donors. With Rahm Emanuel's urging, Obama chose to tilt deferentially toward the lattter, rather than the former, thus basically abandoning Main Street. A government of "change" on behalf of the 99% percent of Americans who are not grossly wealthy was, for President Obama, the road not taken.
Much punditry is spent on whether or not America is "centrist" or even "center right," with the conventional wisdom of the corporate mainstream media -- and most of the Democrats on Capitol Hill and in the White House -- believing that the nation is "center right." This is hogwash. America is a nation of evolution, and it is leadership that moves it forward, instead of the current lack of leadership which is contributing to moving it backwards.
Leadership requires those adjectives that the Democrats in D.C. scurry away from: courage, boldness, conviction. It also requires a vision that can be easily communicated; it necessitates a transformative leader; it needs a message that gets Americans to see their interests in a new future-oriented and personal light; it needs to clarify and understand the emotional motivations of people. Little, if any of this, has been forthcoming from the White House, although it was evident in abundance during the campaign.
If anything shows how "conventional wisdom" can be transformed, it's the strategic, well-funded, PR job that the right wing has done on America over the past several decades. Change the thinking of the people and the politicians will follow.
But that takes courage, fierceness, and conviction. It takes the ability to believe that one can transform through leadership, not bow to the status quo of Big Money while giving little but barely heard lip service to reform.
Would that there were a Wizard of Oz who could bestow upon the Democrats what they need most to get America back on track, but that sort of fantasy courage only occurs on a Hollywood movie set.
But then again, it was all just Dorothy's tornado-induced dream, wasn't it?
There is no Wizard of Oz. If the Dems want to speak with conviction and fearlessnes, they will have to summon the courage themselves -- and there's been little indication that they have the inherent capacity to do so.
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We're in Extremis
Forget all of th bullshit - the why's & wherefor's. They are irrelevant. The fact is that we - our Supreme Court, our Congress, our President, our press and ourselves are all controlled by the massive military-industrial-financial (MIF) axis that President Eisenhower alluded to . . . his omission of the "financial" leg of trifecta was not an accident.
Two brief examples of the MIF's power are:
1. Health care reform: The battle had nothing to do with health care, per se. That was only the vehicle by which Obama and the American public were brought to heel. We The People elected Obama to affect change, and health care reform was one of the changes that we demanded. Granted, there were some changes enacted, but thanks to political guerillas such as Senators Liberman & Bachus the final bill was an abortion that will further enrich Big Health Care. The will of We The People be damned!
2. Afghanistan: Obama has turned a full 180 and is now a Bush-Cheney-on-steroids vis-á-vis Afghanistan. The rationale is that we "must win", but what the fuck are we going to win? Unocal's (only-whispered-about) Kazakhstan - Indian Ocean oil pipeline through Uzbekistan, Turkistan, Afghanistan & Pakistan may someday be built, but who is going to defend the God-damned thing? Did we learn nothing from Bora Bora?
Add to this our cumulative consumer credit debt of - what? - seven? eight? ten trillion dollars? - and growing. And thirty-to-sixty home foreclosures listed in the newspaper per day? And the inordinate number of (middle class?) working couples in their 40's & fifty's who have saved nothing for retirement and are currently living month-to-month . . . 0ne payment - maybe two - away from living in their SUV, which is also two payments behind. And then there are working wages that have been essentially flat (in real dollars) for the past forty years . . . all accented by an unabashed explosion of executive "compensation".
(Big laugh of the day: the CEO making $100 million/year blaming the Unions' greed for the corporations failure to turn a profit.)
Here is the one that bothers me the most: The sons-of-bitches from both parties deliberately keep feeding us toxic, meth-like issues to argue over - to literally fight about among ourselves . . . all of which keep our attention diverted while our elected officials busy themselves with their primary goal of, first, pumping cash from the lower socioeconomic crowd up into corporate boardrooms and second, looting the U S Treasury through tax breaks, tax credits and defense contracts directed to campaign donors.
The inventory of cancers affecting our culture is almost endless, but it is not so long that we cannot ignore it.
What about the financial reform that 65 % of Americans consider to be vital to our stability? Look and see what the Goldman Sachs goalkeepers (appointed by a change-mandated Obama) and Congress gave you. It's all going to happen again, folks.
And here is what else is is going to happen: We may be the most powerful country in the Universe, but - like Germany in the late 20's & early 30's - we are digging our political grave! This whole country is crazy as hell; run by a super-elite (don’t see it, but it's there) and headed for a political upheaval, the magnitude and direction of which remain to be seen . . . eventually - & certainly - a (fascist) strong-man will emerge with the support of our military-industrial-financial axis, and at his behest our Constitution will be "temporarily suspended". (You do recall that both Hitler & Mussolini were elected "democratically", right?) And, just as in the Third Reich, those individuals and small businesses who are compatible with the MIF axis - and who can keep their mouthes shut - will thrive (relative to the times). Increasingly virulent xenophobia-in-one-form-or-another will unite the country's majority (white, Christian, anglo's) who will all understand and agree that "minorities are a serious problem. Consequently & necessarily, individuals & groups labeled as deadwood, liberals, counter-revolutionaries or otherwise objectionable won’t have it so easy.
Where else can all this end? We, as a nation, are split so badly - and probably intentionally so - that reconciliation and bipartisan patriotism, though still remotely possible, are not likely!
Can't happen here, huh? Yeah. Sure.
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It's all about social class
You know what's "wrong" with the Democrats. They are all suburban coordinator class kids who were raised just on the cusp of real Investor Class wealth. Same holds true for the Repugs. About the only difference is kids who grew up to be Democrats when into law school and Republicans went for MBAs.
Even our president fits the mold. He's only black on the outside. He's all white on the inside. In the parlance of Seventies black-power activism Barack Obama is an Oreo!
Looket all these Democratic Losership Council fucks! They're more comfortable at the country club hobnobbing with the richest real estate mogul in town than the boys down at the AFL-CIO unionhall.
Besides being lawyers instead of suck-ass businessmen the only other thing that distinguishes an establishment Democrat from a Republican is the degree of noblesse oblige they possess. Most Democrats, with the exception of Nebraska asshole Ben Nelson, have a sliver of noblesse oblige. Republicans can give a flying-fuck about their constituents until its voting time; then they drag home the bacon and start holloring about how the (ethnic minority of your choice)is out to ruin the nation and how we gotta security the borders!
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