A Political Warning from November 25, 2009: "Get Ready for the Obama/GOP Alliance"

[Better Believe It]

Get Ready for the Obama/GOP Alliance
by Jeff Cohen
Jeff Cohen is an associate professor of journalism and the director of the Park Center for Independent Media at Ithaca College, founder of the media watch group FAIR, and former board member of Progressive Democrats of America.
November 25, 2009

Obama seems to be following in the footsteps of Bill Clinton, who accomplished perhaps his single biggest legislative "triumph" - NAFTA - thanks to an alliance with Republicans that overcame strong Democratic and grassroots opposition.

It was 16 years ago this month when Clinton assembled his coalition with the GOP to bulldoze public skepticism about the trade treaty and overpower a stop-NAFTA movement led by unions, environmentalists and consumer rights groups. How did Clinton win his majority in Congress? With the votes of almost 80 percent of GOP senators and nearly 70 percent of House Republicans. Democrats in the House voted against NAFTA by more than 3 to 2, with fierce opponents including the Democratic majority leader and majority whip.

Today, it's crucial to ask where Obama is heading. From the stimulus to healthcare, he's shown a Clinton-like willingness to roll over progressives in Congress on his way to corrupt legislation and frantic efforts to compromise for the votes of corporate Democrats or "moderate" Republicans. Meanwhile, the incredible shrinking "public option" has become a sick joke.

As he glides from retreats on civil liberties to health reform that appeases corporate interests to his Bush-like pledge this week to "finish the job" in Afghanistan, an Obama reliance on Congressional Republicans to fund his troop escalation could be the final straw in disorienting and demobilizing the progressive activists who elected him a year ago.

Read the full article at:

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/11/25-0

[somone]

1. How prophetic

Thanks for posting it

[tex-wyo-dem]

2. Prophetic indeed...

the sad fact is that, in our current corrupt corporate owned political system, no true progressive will be able to even sniff the WH. Any president that might have some progressive leanings will be forced to turn rightward; otherwise they will be politically destroyed by the PTB.

[jaxx]

3. This is the same jerk who wrote:

"Instead, with Obama, we seem to be getting the best Republican president since . . . well . . . since Clinton."

What a load.

[leftstreet]

10. There's truth in it. Republicans couldn't have pulled off what Clinton did

NAFTA
Welfare to Wage Slavery
Telecom Monopoly Bill
Wall Street Derivatives FreeForAll Act

[The Backlash Cometh]

4. I'm going to say it again. If Social Security is going to be dismantled,

it's best done under a Republican president. To allow a Democratic president to make that move will only confuse the voters and make it more difficult for the next Democrat to convince Independents that they are an option to the Republicans.

[blindpig]

7. Clarity rather than confusion

It ain't confusing, it shows that both parties serve the ruling class. That's a good thing, good to know where one stands.

[The Backlash Cometh]

8. So what does that mean to us?

We're going to be rooting for Assange-types for the rest of our lives? When does the world makes sense again--to everyone?

[undergroundpanther]

14. It never made sense

As long as we refuse to limit how much wealth one can have,and keep believing promises of politicians and let them fail to KEEP promises..it will never make sense.

The rich ruined everything and the rich HATE us ,and now that they can live without us being"free".They will pull back the fig leaf of"democracy" covering their ambitions,revealing the cold wall of a fascist state,that was always there, they will reveal their evil wet dream of a untouchable kakistocracy supported a feudal slave/war based economy..and for anyone that refuses their demands,or cannot endure living in a torture police state, have any 'weakness' like poverty,mental illness,disabilities,age,etc..If you can't cope life in a sociopathic bully culture.. they want you to die and not make any noise as you die.Hence shredding of the social safety net,cutting the internet, forcing angry people to the streets where they wait for us with non-lethal torture devices used as crowd control,to shut us up and through fear and pain, force the stronger people among us to submit,accept slavery pay to exist or die off.They will let toadies and the compliant survive if they can get some free labor out of them. The rebels,the aged,disabled, non christian,gblt, mentally ill,traumatized & poor they'll kill us off one way or another we are the undesirables ,bad stock,and abnormals..

I'd rather die than live in the society they want..

[The Backlash Cometh]

18. I have a more humble goal.

To show that American principles have changed, and prove to every citizen in this country that we can't possibly talk about being a country of high ideals, when we continually take the low road.

It just means, that when someone like Assange comes around, we'll secretly be rooting for him to win.

You know, this is the stuff that made military coups in Latin America possible. The poor became so disenfranchised that they didn't take sides when someone stepped in to challenge the power elite. Of course, the military was also smart enough to provide for the poor to protect their own survival. I guess, when you think about it, excessive, abusive capitalism brings on its own demise by encouraging socialism.

Maybe, just maybe, there's a lesson here to be learned.

[sce56]

9. BINGO! We have a winner

[Skink]

5. In two years I'm sure we'll end the Obama tax cuts.

He'll be remembered for blowing a hole in Social security that led to it's privatization.

[Scurrilous]

6. K & R

:yourock:

[maryf]

11. K&R nt

[Faryn Balyncd]

12. K&R

:kick:

[undergroundpanther]

13. Why did Clinton

Hang out with the very enemies that impeached him?


No wonder the Bushes, who play for the deepest of keeps, love having Clinton around. The former president has become the family’s favorite hunting trophy, a symbol of their (and the GOP’s) successful, decades-long rise to power.
Bush can also use the proximity of Clinton to raise doubts about whether the angry and leftward-drifting Democratic leadership really speaks for the party. Clinton, after all, rose to power as leader of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council. While the Democrats debate their future, and their ideological orientation, Bush is allying himself with the DLC faction. Indeed, he has cited DLC positions (the group at one point expressed interest in privately financed Social Security accounts, for example) as justification for his own proposals.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7138526/ns/politics-howard_fineman/


My emotions aren't all that mixed. Obama's ties to the Democratic Leadership Council have been very disturbing for years. So has his close friendship with DLC Leading Light Emanuel and his approval if not active involvement in Emanuel's campaign to recruit harsher and harsher conservatives as local Democratic candidates. Commenter Mark Gisleson recently dismissed Obama's ties to the DLC on the specious grounds that Obama had demanded the DLC stop using his name. But Emanuel is still his best bud and his voting record still shows all those embarrassing alliances with Rahm's corporate agenda. Not to mention that little meeting with Wall Street honchos weeks before the election to assure them that they had nothing to worry about from an Obama presidency. Next to those actions, Mark, a PR move like removing his name from a politically unpopular list (the Dem base hates the DLC) doesn't have a lot of weight.

http://dlcwatch.blogspot.com/
Maybe because there is really no difference between parties anymore? They are all wingnuts now.

Blue Dog conservative code for "do what the corporations want you to do and don't scare them with any lefty-liberal nonsense about fair wages and lots of spending on those lazy welfare bums".

http://casadelogo.typepad.com/factesque/2008/11/dlc-to-obama-be-cautious-obama-listens.html

[Major Hogwash]

15. I'll bet Cohen hates me now. I'm going to vote for Obama again in 2012!!

Then, he can write more funny articles about Clinton and Obama.

[Better Believe It]

17. Not if decides to not run and goes to "work" with his friends on Wall Street

[myrna minx]

16. K&R n/t