Policy 10/21/2011
Posted by rosshunter on October 20, 2011
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Points of discussion: Obama didn’t simply not get around to restoring habeas corpus – this is a policy of his administration. He didn’t fix the economy, not because the republicans wouldn’t let him but because his campaign donors wouldn’t let him. Check his cabinet, compare those people (the enemy) with economists who call bullshit on this economic collapse. Even Krugman shows Obama to be less an accidental disappointment, rather more a politician who was exceptionally gifted on the campaign trail (where did the oratory go now? Answer, he can’t make those promises now in office where he would have to fulfill them).
It goes much deeper than this, to 1 crucial point: that the Democrats historically have acted to co-opt grass-roots movements into themselves, where they go to die, to become placid and toothless. The Dems play the good cop side of a two-headed monster, and we buy into it because the scare of the Repubs is so awful. The reason then that a Democratic majority doesn’t achieve anything is that most of the Dems would rather keep their jobs safely in a minority and not be called to fulfill their legacy platform.
The answer to all this lies in the activism happening at the grass roots and not yet co-opted into the Dem party. The millions of voters in environmental groups are testing Obama right now with the Tar Sands actions – he alone can stop the pipeline, without being able to blame any other forces. So by January 1, expect to see the results of this.
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Watch also all the movements happening, from the Occupy actions to the Coffe Party actions, to the November 6 action – on and on great forces are shaping themselves that at any point you and I and others can join with
If you vote for the Dems because the Repubs are terrible then you’ve been fooled for another four years. I expect plenty of pressure to be applied on me in 2012 to vote Dem, to stave off the Republican alternative – but you know what, most of the people applying that pressure step up to politics once every four years and they think that’s enough. I’m actively involved in politics, starting right here with our city council, every day of every year. Can your commenters here say the same?
The answer to all this is to stop being lazy and voting every few years, and instead to become actively involved in politics all the time – this is the eternal vigilance we were warned was necessary, this is the answer being manifested at the grass roots right now, this is the only solution that exists, and anything less than this is beneath discussion if solution is what we’re discussing.
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Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
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