Howard Zinn: Changing Obama's Mindset

[Truth2Tell]

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

The Progressive

By Howard Zinn, May 2009 Issue

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.

From the beginning, I liked Obama. But the first time it suddenly struck me that he was a politician was early on, when Joe Lieberman was running for the Democratic nomination for his Senate seat in 2006.

Lieberman—who, as you know, was and is a war lover—was running for the Democratic nomination, and his opponent was a man named Ned Lamont, who was the peace candidate. And Obama went to Connecticut to support Lieberman against Lamont.

http://www.progressive.org/zinn0509.html">Continued...

[tblue]

1. Howard Zinn is so gifted and wise.

I'm in the middle of his People's History book right now. He makes a very good point about Obama. Helps explain why the President I worked so hard to elect has me wanting to bang my head against a wall every other day. (With Bush, it was every single day.)

[Kitty Herder]

2. K&R

[KoKo]

3. What a wonderful read! It puts so much into perspective...K&R!

[G_j]

4. Zinn always has an insightful, even enlightened overview

it is always worth listening to what Howard has to say. He intersects compassion with knowledge. as a lefty, he is a stalwart.

[latebloomer]

5. Everything he says makes perfect sense.

So simple, and yet so wise.

K&R

[Truth2Tell]

6. This article now seems to be password protected.

It was not thus when I posted it. Sorry, and WTF?

[bananas]

15. Worked for me, no password. nt

[hfojvt]

7. dang it, I was gonna post this

Of course I have not read it yet, The magazine sits on my desk as I surf the internets.

[Truth2Tell]

8. U have good taste.

:toast:

[hfojvt]

9. Well, it is the Zinn-master

and I was hoping he'd have some practical advice for how to move a progressive agenda forward. But there's not much there except a call to arms, concluding "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."

Well, there is the healthcare rally at the end of the month. We'll see how that goes. And I need to see what PFAW is suggesting about SCOTUS judges since they, in my view, sorta lead the charge against Alito. I think we should get ahead on lobbying for that before Obama picks one and the weeping and gnashing of teeth begins over that pick.

[Truth2Tell]

10. If nothing else, a reminder

that there are no easy answers. But if Howard can keep the faith after all this time then maybe we can glean a little perspective from his words.

[ConsAreLiars]

11. Excellent commentary by Zinn (no surprise there!). Everyone should read it.

From the ending:

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.

[Truth2Tell]

12. He incorporates this same theme

in most of his books. It's a very solid fundamental perspective to take into personal involvement in politics, IMO.

[Captain Hilts]

13. Obama is a politician who said a lot of things to get elected. It's what all candidates do.

He's no different and it was naive for folks here to think otherwise.

[Echo In Light]

14. Thanks for posting. I've seen others source Zinn here only to have it ignored

Perhaps much rests with the popularity of whoever sources it...

K&R

[FKA MNChimpH8R]

16. There is a lot of wisdom in that.

Zinn never fails to get and make the right points.