Changing Obama's Mindset by Howard Zinn

[Better Believe It]

Changing Obama's Mindset
By Howard Zinn
The Progressive May 2009 Issue
Thanks to Alex Read and Matt Korn for transcribing Zinn’s talk on February 2 at the Busboys and Poets restaurant in Washington, D.C., from which this is adapted.


We are citizens, and Obama is a politician. You might not like that word. But the fact is he’s a politician. He’s other things, too—he’s a very sensitive and intelligent and thoughtful and promising person. But he’s a politician.

If you’re a citizen, you have to know the difference between them and you—the difference between what they have to do and what you have to do. And there are things they don’t have to do, if you make it clear to them they don’t have to do it.

.... So we must not be swept away into an unthinking and unquestioning acceptance of what Obama does.

Our job is not to give him a blank check or simply be cheerleaders. It was good that we were cheerleaders while he was running for office, but it’s not good to be cheerleaders now. Because we want the country to go beyond where it has been in the past. We want to make a clean break from what it has been in the past.

We are citizens. We must not put ourselves in the position of looking at the world from their eyes and say, “Well, we have to compromise, we have to do this for political reasons.” No, we have to speak our minds.

This is the position that the abolitionists were in before the Civil War, and people said, “Well, you have to look at it from Lincoln’s point of view.” Lincoln didn’t believe that his first priority was abolishing slavery. But the anti-slavery movement did, and the abolitionists said, “We’re not going to put ourselves in Lincoln’s position. We are going to express our own position, and we are going to express it so powerfully that Lincoln will have to listen to us.”

And the anti-slavery movement grew large enough and powerful enough that Lincoln had to listen. That’s how we got the Emancipation Proclamation and the Thirteenth and Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments.

That’s been the story of this country. Where progress has been made, wherever any kind of injustice has been overturned, it’s been because people acted as citizens, and not as politicians. They didn’t just moan. They worked, they acted, they organized, they rioted if necessary to bring their situation to the attention of people in power. And that’s what we have to do today.


Please read the complete talk at:

http://www.progressive.org/zinn0509.html

[John Q. Citizen]

1. Spot on! It's up to us to act as citizens. I couldn't agree more.

[lunatica]

2. The people in power will never just hand the citizens anything

The citizens must demand it. Like civil rights. Every advance has been a struggle AGAINST the status quo of the government. Women got the vote after decades of struggle and they got it state by state before it became their Constitutionally given right. The same for all minorities. The same is happening for the GLBT community. Even the original white men of the country had to fight a war to get their rights.

We can voice our concerns and we can demand what we know is right. Every day in some way we can and do make a difference.

[Senator]

3. K&R

[Gregorian]

4. So how do we get a nation of comfortable people off of their asses?

This has been my concern from the very beginning. It is why I was incredibly shocked that Bush ever got another stint in the White House!

And it's why I am so angry about the automobile. Yes, you probably think I'm nuts now. But think about it. We've got the world by a steering wheel. Life is easy. And primarily because of petroleum, and what it does for us. We're comfortable.

And I'm worried. I saw a few moments of a show on grizzly bears in Yellowstone park. They decided that the human/bear relationship was causing too many problems with the bears. So they decided to make their lives difficult, and remove the garbage dumps they were feeding on. And after a period of increased problems with bears raiding campers, the bears eventually went back to their natural feeding habits. I see a parallel. The citizens of this country, on average, are living like kings. Better than most kings ever had it, in fact. How can one expect the average citizen to care when they're so comfortable? Hungry masses make demands. And pay attention.

We need information. We need a media. More Howard Zinns. Because we're going to remain comfortable. So we need something else to kick us into gear. And by comfortable, I don't mean healthy and happy. Nor even financially well.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

15. Well people are much less comfortable right now. They are deep in debt

many have negative equity in their houses, their 401Ks have dropped in value, their healthcare costs are rising exponentially, their jobs may be in jeopardy, college grads are not getting job offers, etc.etc. It's at a time like this that a persona can have the greatest hope for some kind of lasting change to occur.

[stillcool]

16. we need a people campaign..

like the Obama campaign. And we need to by-pass the media completely.

[starroute]

5. We need a two-tier approach

This seems so obvious to me -- it's what I learned from my parents when I was a child about the meaning of being a Democrat -- and I frankly don't understand why so many people here feel they have to be either/or.

As Zinn says -- Obama is a good and decent man, but he's also a politician. And no politician -- especially in America, where the corporations run the system and their cheerleaders on the right will crucify you if you don't fall into line -- is going to do everything that we would like them to do.

So you accept that as the conditions what prevails and you figure out how to maximize your gains. This means that when you have the rare president who supports a good percentage of what you believe in, you give them your own support in return. You shore them up and defend them against the sharks out there who want nothing more than to tear them down.

It also means that when they're not living up to your best expectations, you press them as firmly as you can -- but without withdrawing that basic support, without announcing loudly that you've been betrayed and are in favor of a primary challenge in 2012, without trying to destroy what you should be building up.

And if that pressure doesn't work, you try alternate routes -- not direct opposition, but routing around. Working through the states, say -- as in the case of gay marriage. Or supporting the unions or the ACLU or anybody else who seems to be going about their job in a steady and useful manner.

In the specific case of Obama, I suspect he's suffering at the moment from a bad case of Bay of Pigs syndrome. That is, he came into the presidency without having previously had access to sensitive information and was suddenly surrounded by a lot of presumed experts all hitting him at once with the most apocalyptic covert files they have and telling him how he would endanger national security if he doesn't buff up in Afghanistan, or keep those photos hidden, or make sure the relative handful of real terrorists at Gitmo never get loose.

I think once he gets his feet under him he'll start making decisions on the basis of his conscience and his best instincts again and not on the basis of what the generals tell him -- but for now, he's overly inclined to listen to the experts and err on the side of caution. Same thing with the economy. And, as even the best Democratic presidents do, he may always lean a bit too far towards conventional wisdom for our liking, especially on issues of national security.

So -- we do what we can *with* him. And what we can't do with him, we do *without* him. But why on earth would we ever want to do anything *against* him?

[FrenchieCat]

6. K&R!

Good post, finalement!!

[immoderate]

7. "We are not cheerleaders!"

This was discussed during the election here on DU. Obama is smart and capable, but it's up to us to push him in the right direction. I'm glad he made it to the White House, but it's not his government; it's our government.

--imm

[Wednesdays]

8. K&R

:kick:

[Zynx]

9. I will caution that if the left proves too critical and too difficult to deal with, you may shift

Obama actually to the right. That is a possibility I wish some people would consider when they start stamping their feet and saying no to everything.

[Bluenorthwest]

10. Well that would be politically crazed

His support from 'the left' was over 90%. From 'the right' 20%. So gee, I guess he could assume that by moving right he could get some of those folks who are currently teabagging and protesting him as a babykiller.
If he thinks they will vote for him, he is welcome to move in that direction, toward the dozens of Teabagging righties, and away from the throngs of tens of thousands who actually elected him at great cost in time and money and personal energies. I really think he is far smarter than that.

[tomp]

11. that's ridiculous.

please explain how we who wish to criticize obama should know we have gone "too far" and are abetting the right (obama's inner rightist).

and please stop with the insults referring to childlike behavior. you do realize it is insulting, don't you?

[mix]

12. you're confused n/t

[brentspeak]

17. Obama doesn't even have any contact or communication with "the left"

So how could he find them "too difficult to deal with"? He's never in the same room with anyone other than fellow politicians, mainstream media journalists, corporate backers, and his administration staff.

[stillcool]

20. So none of the people he meets..

at town halls, or the various venues where he speaks are from your 'left'? You know all of his friends and family and are certain that they're ..what?. either DLC'ers or corporatists? No wonder you're always so upset.

[eleny]

13. Warmest thanks to Zinn

[inthebrain]

14. That's very ironic that you say that......

I think the sentement in this article is that the people need to get off their asses and not expect those in authority to speak for them. In other words, as a collective, speak for yourselves.

Here on this thread there is a lot, how would you say, "Ball Polishing" of Howard Zinn (Don't get me wrong I absolutely adore this guys writing. It's completely changed my world view). I don't say that to be mean, cruel or with the intent of trolling. It's just very funny in a satirical way.

[Better Believe It]

18. Zinn's always had balls of steel and they don't need any polishing

[eleny]

19. I'm not offended...

I'm not sure I get the satire you're seeing. There are many activists here at DU who can relate to Zinn.

Maybe you're just in a silly, funny bone mood today.

[Jakes Progress]

21. Kick. Words to thrive by.nt