At every stop on my mini-book-tour... someone asks a variation on the question of what’s gone wrong with Obama. Usually it’s asked in a tone of bewilderment verging on panic, as if the aircraft’s engines were shutting down one after another at thirty-five thousand feet. I don’t have a pithy answer because I don’t think there’s a simple explanation, and, what’s more, I don’t completely accept the premise. But if the President is looking less commanding than he did ten months ago, these might be a few of the reasons:
And he proceeds to hazard a few guesses.
I usually get called a vulgar Marxist for what I'm about to write. It's a harsh characterization, even or even especially because there's some truth to it, but could the disillusionment be rooted in things President Obama has actually done? Not his failure to deliver magic job-creating ponies, eco-sensitive unicorns, peace on earth with good will towards all except the banksters, but in the very real, very harmful and often lethal things he's done? Is there something depressingly and inescapably factual about those things?!
Comments (17)
Three years ago this month, Harper’s did an expose on how Obama sold his soul to Wall Street in order to advance his ambitious political career. One year ago this month, Ralph Nader—Obama’s former employer—remarked in no uncertain terms that Obama was an opportunist, plain and simple. The fact that America’s number one public interest advocate recognized this flaw in the rising star of the Democratic Party gave some of us pause, but for others it required a year of multiple betrayals before they understood he was Goldman’s golden boy.
Posted by Jay Taber | December 1, 2009 12:59 AM
Posted on December 1, 2009 00:59
I was going to say something hopeful about the disillusionment coming late, but at least coming at all. However my hope is that the bewilderment verging on panic people kill themselves, without killing me and my comrades in the process. The next phase of their disillusionment is usually a morbidly grandiose self-flagellation, followed by a headlong flight into the welcoming arms of the certified futurists.
Posted by Al Schumann | December 1, 2009 6:51 AM
Posted on December 1, 2009 06:51
"a headlong flight into the welcoming arms of the certified futurists"
that sugar- Al
is reposing hope
where it belongs at least
in the march of history
okay so that march begins today
not next blue moon
hey
even if the placebo
" vision products "
the pwog mind helots
are free to consume
turn out to be as benighted
as conjuring up a magic potus
so !!!
i mean " who cares " anyway on donut street ??
tomorrow's possibilty
may be the enemy
of todays dog eared class action
but who wants them pwogs on the barracades anyway ???
they tend to ham and hem
when they need to slam and haw
and slam and haw when they need to ham and hem
unless they send errr....like ..donations
their useless in packs
better they stay on the bike trails
and yoga meet ups
and just send class indulgence payments
every quarter
to commandante taber's frisco foco
okay
for the few well positioned spirits
able to make a decent show of it
there's belt bombing
the soul's ambition to blazes
by public acts of Systemic repudiation
like chalmers Q johnson
that may not
speed the low orders
self liberation
but at least
like a burning monk
it gives pause to mandarin hubris
but then as pwogs ...all of them
(and many of us)
who believe or don't believe
in institutional change
thru institutional improvement
hear " direct resistence now "
as in some way ...well
.......hopeless ... anyway
no ??
if you can't conceive
of a more forceful powerhouse
then your own system's lordly bunch.....
Posted by op | December 1, 2009 7:54 AM
Posted on December 1, 2009 07:54
Owen, to be clear I am adamantly not recommending direct resistance, direct action, joining this or that, mugwumpery, donating or any other course of nominally progressive action to the lumpen meritoriat. They've done enough already, bless their hearts. And they are, as you say, the kiss of death everlasting. They can't help themselves and they badly need to stop "helping" everyone else. My remit here is limited to the prescription of inaction.
Progressives of the world, stop!
Perhaps after a few dozen years of quiet contemplation, they could start with something simple, wholesome and resistant to high SAT scores. But not now.
Posted by Al Schumann | December 1, 2009 8:32 AM
Posted on December 1, 2009 08:32
How long will it take the pwoggle true believers to join the late St. Ronnie and proclaim that "facts are stupid things?"
Posted by LA Confidential Pantload | December 1, 2009 9:18 AM
Posted on December 1, 2009 09:18
I think the pwoggie true believers are a sad object lesson in the potency of the Lump of Bat Shit Fallacy.
According to its Progressive exponents, there is a fixed amount of bat shit craziness. Any use of it operates on a zero sum basis. If the teabagging conservatives use several tons, there is that much less left for everyone else. And because the conservatives use so much of it, in all their works, there's an infinitesimal chance any progressive folks will fall under its spell.
But the great American economist, Bull Lee, demonstrated that the amount of bat shit crazy is infinite, that any use of it acts as a multiplier and such use is, intrinsically, an inducement to use more. Much more.
Posted by Al Schumann | December 1, 2009 11:26 AM
Posted on December 1, 2009 11:26
All I know is that I'm gonna' smack the next clown who whines about Pailin and Beck. Like they could do without the sideshow. If it vanished tomorrow, they'd be all alone with their pain, and I don't really believe that a single one of them wants that.
Posted by ms_xeno | December 1, 2009 11:31 AM
Posted on December 1, 2009 11:31
awwww... c'mon ms xeno -- you know that bashing Beck and impaling Palin are sure to make Obama change his ways!
Posted by charles f. oxtrot | December 1, 2009 11:55 AM
Posted on December 1, 2009 11:55
Indeed, Ms. X. Be very sure that when the next election cycle roars around, as Oblahma begins to enter the final phases of his moment in the sun, that no matter how heinous his crimes are at that time, the true believer contingent will be loudly braying for a vote for the poor overworked house slave who never met a corporate donor he couldn't honor. A Palin presidency will be the bogey of the moment. God forbid anybody should learn anything from yet another round of "democratic" party nothingness.
Posted by Michael Hureaux | December 1, 2009 12:02 PM
Posted on December 1, 2009 12:02
Ms. X, I recommend a modified ping-pong paddle for the smacking. I've been working on a prototype. It has a slightly longer handle and a stiff spring between the disciplinary end and the grip. I use thicker padding, in the belief that the beneficiary is potentially salvageable, and cover that with an eco-friendly, washable paddle cozy.
People have approached me ideas for marketing them, but I refuse to listen. If they want them for what I think they want, they must learn to take personal responsibility and initiative.
Posted by Al Schumann | December 1, 2009 12:33 PM
Posted on December 1, 2009 12:33
Thank You, Gentlemen. I realize that we don't always see eye to eye on every issue, but you've still helped make the painful morning hours when it's too early to get drunk (the temp agency could call and I'd hate being unable to find the phone) more bearable. :/
Posted by ms_xeno | December 1, 2009 1:07 PM
Posted on December 1, 2009 13:07
I should add that my refusal to listen, though principled, is also informed by pragmatism. And while I'm in confessional mode, I'll reveal that my best customers work for The Nation. They like the Chastiser® model best, the one with the "Yes We Can" logo stitched into the cozy.
Posted by Al Schumann | December 1, 2009 1:50 PM
Posted on December 1, 2009 13:50
Could it be that Teabaggers and Hope-a-Dopes will yet form a more perfect union? A progressive/fascist alliance, as it were? Change only they can believe in?
Posted by Jay Taber | December 1, 2009 3:07 PM
Posted on December 1, 2009 15:07
sugar Al
i think u have provided father S
with a real candidate for the rebranding
he needs to goose up this site
today : smbiva => tomorrow :
pwogies of the world.... STOP !!!!
---step away from the struggle ---
Posted by op | December 1, 2009 3:17 PM
Posted on December 1, 2009 15:17
Given my new position as senior consiglieri and poodle au pair, subcomandante might be a more fitting title.
Posted by Jay Taber | December 1, 2009 6:58 PM
Posted on December 1, 2009 18:58
All the poodles I've met and known have been remarkable animals. Adaptable, expressive and very smart. They can be a bit eccentric, but who isn't?
Posted by Al Schumann | December 1, 2009 8:29 PM
Posted on December 1, 2009 20:29
As babe magnets, they are unsurpassed.
Posted by Jay Taber | December 1, 2009 8:42 PM
Posted on December 1, 2009 20:42