Policy 11/07/2011

• Obama -Dems Waste of a vote

  tags: policy

  • Points of discussion: Obama didn’t simply not get around to restoring habeas corpus – this is a policy of his administr…ation. 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.

    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.

  • We thought the hour had produced the man, and this was a plausible belief but it won’t help this country or this world if we insist blindly on believing in Obama, when a serious study will show that he is not the answer. If we had a hundred… years or two, I believe we could continue to evolve past these current political logjams. But climate change says we have no time at all – so it’s up to us. What matters is, what next?

    Gretchen the candidates are not completely visible to me yet but that’s not the real point. The real point is that we can no longer choose from the sorry assortment presented, as if we have no other choice. We have another choice. We will organize into voting blocs and run our own candidates, on platforms of campaign reform, political accountability and climate justice. With a responsive political machinery, actually we don’t need platforms, the right things to do are quite obvious to anyone not vested in the wrong things.

    And it doesn’t matter if we get results in 2012 – this can take 10 years if it has to, and whatever authentic shift occurs in 2012 will scare the shit out of the established parties, setting them on the defensive, and forcing them into multiple mistakes. Eventually we win.

  • Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont shows how powerful a single independent representative can be. We’ll run independents, or whatever the party comes to be called. Consider the forces in play right now.

    Bill McKibben will circle the White House with people in November, exactly one year from the election. Van Jones and his group plan to run 2,012 candidates in 2012. Occupy “Everything” is everywhere. The Coffee Party is organizing. Avaaz has ten million petitioners and is now aiming for 20 million. Everyone is mobilizing, and the only way this can come to nothing is if we think we need to give away this power to an established political party, by voting blindly for the Democrats or Obama.

    Power comes from organizing. That’s all that’s needed to get power. Power is the one thing you can’t fake, you either have it or you don’t. In politics the vote is one piece of power and when we throw it away on liars we hurt ourselves and the world.

  • Finally, for the moment – sorry no links for all the above references, but do listen to Annabel Park for 4.5 minutes explaining what’s actually happening in this country today. As she says, massive engagement is the answer. And it’s what’s happening. We’re making our own hope, our own change:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXclZz0RbSk

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.