I find it mind boggling that
the National Priorities Project would front for Obama in such a
dishonest way by claiming Obama intends to reduce the military budget by
2% in 2013 after we have seen increase after increase with no real
accounting for what his wars are presently costing much less how much
the prolonged occupations of these countries will cost and then they
even have the nerve to point out that the military budget will increase
after that using cute words to make it sound not so bad.
As far
as I am concerned peace is the major issue of this campaign and for the
Priorities Project to be used to front for a warmonger like Obama is a
disgrace.
We are now seeing a "coalition" develop claiming to
represent liberals and progressives supporting Obama all who are saying
the exact same thing they told us in 2007--- elect Obama and we will
hold his feet to the fire.
No movement to coerce Obama ever
came about as a result of initiatives from these organizations to do
this and they have no intent of doing it this time around though they
tell us the same thing--- elect Obama and after the election we will
take up these issues.
Any one with basic common sense and even
the most limited and under-developed reasoning skills understands that
the best time to get politicians to act is when they are facing
re-election by threatening to withhold votes until you get what you want
out of the politician/s.
Have any of these organizations
brought our concerns about peace, social and economic justice into the
Democratic Party through resolutions at precinct caucuses, county, state
or the national convention? The obvious answer in "NO."
Their
actions have been to sabotage any attempt to bring issues forward that
would prove to go against Obama's neo-liberal Wall Street agenda.
In fact, ironically, there is no bigger booster for Wall Street's
neo-liberal warmongering agenda than that of the AFL-CIO whose
President, Richard Trumka, speaks in glowing terms about the Israeli
killing machine at, of all places, AIPAC national conventions.
Other than insert two short sentences into a position paper that it
didn't even try to circulate, the AFL-CIO has had no comment on Obama's
wars and increased militarism.
Let's have an outline from these Obama supporters as to what kind of initiatives they intend to initiate AFTER the Election.
We saw what happened with the "One Nation Working Together." It drew in
workers seeking to fight-back and struggle to advance their rights and
standard of living by insisting on cashing in on "peace dividends"
derived from ending these wars.
What was the response from the
AFL-CIO and its coalition partners who have engaged in struggle by
holding press conferences that get no media coverage? The AFL-CIO shut
down the "One nation Working Together" which could have, and would have,
been the catalyst needed to "hold Obama's feet to the fire."
These people are all talk, no action. They even call themselves
"pragmatic progressives" which means they would rather cozy up to Obama
and his neo-liberal Wall Street entourage instead of fighting for what
is right and just.
Think about it: Obama will have to be fought
if workers want to protect and gain their rights and defend and better
their livelihoods because as we have seen, Obama is no friend of labor
he couldn't even get something as simple and basic as the Employee Free
Choice Act through a House and Senate dominated by Democrats.
And none of these Obama supporters want us to remember that it was none
other than Barack Obama himself who resurrected Joe Lieberman's
reactionary worthless political career with the full support of the
AFL-CIO. It was bringing Lieberman back into Congress that gave the
Republican Party new life as Obama's goal was "bi-partisanship." Obama
used the Republicans to push politics and legislation towards Wall
Street's interests at every turn... Obamacare or the "Health Insurance
and Pharmaceutical Industry Bailout of 2010" being the best example of
this.
And what did the AFL-CIO and all of these "new" coalition
partners--- the leaders of these organizations who don't give a rat's
ass about what their memberships want and expect from them do who are
coming together under an umbrella to push Obama's re-election do? Did
they continue the struggle for single-payer when we were so close to
winning? No. They sabotaged the single-payer universal health care
movement claiming they would fight for it another day. Ya, sure; you
betcha.
These Obama supporters aren't even willing to
participate in public forums and discussions with fellow liberals,
progressives and activists about what kind of movement building is
required with those who don't support Obama.
So, as a
precondition for taking action, they eschew their own allies who more
often than not turn out to be their organizations' own memberships.
Democrats had every chance to dump Obama during the Primary season.
They knew full well the American people have had it with this Wall
Street flim-flam man and con-artist. Yet they went right ahead and
forced this vile warmonger on us again and now they tell us we are
supposed to take responsibility to re-elect Obama so this terrible evil
man Romney won't get in office where he would do what? The exact same
thing Obama did--- follow the bush agenda because it was Wall Street's
agenda and Romney if elected will follow the Obama agenda because
Obama's agenda is the same Wall Street agenda.
Should we fear
evil? Damn right we should fear evil--- Wall Street's evil. And we
should fear any politician carrying out Wall Street's thoroughly
reactionary agenda of wars abroad in pursuit of profits paid for through
austerity measures shoved down our throats.
Richard Trumka
isn't even as smart as my dog Fred. At least Fred knows to keep barking
for his bone while a simple pat on his back from Obama stops Trumka from
yapping and snarling discontent in the form of a few profanities at his
press conferences.
Here in the Red River Valley over 1,300
workers employed by American Crystal Sugar have been locked out of their
jobs for over a year... Trumka just got around to holding one of his
famous press conferences voicing militancy but doing nothing.
"Doing nothing" is just what we can expect from these Obama supporters
after the election no matter who wins--- this has been their pattern
ever since 1948 why would they deviate now?