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<H2>Gridlock (Once Again) Rescues Social Security from Obama and the GOP</H2>
<H3>A Black Agenda Radio commentary by executive editor Glen Ford</H3>
<P class=pull>What saved Social Security – for the moment, at least – was the
Republicans continued refusal to join the First Black President in a Grand
Bargain.”</P>President Obama now says that he won’t include <U><A href="">cuts
in Social Security</A></U> as part of his upcoming budget request to Congress.
His apologists on the left, like MoveOn.org, quickly “<U><A
href="">thanked</A></U>” Obama for the gesture, grateful that they wouldn’t have
to eat another Satan’s Sandwich from the White House kitchen. But the Democratic
loyalists should not be allowed to take credit for changing their hero’s mind
about Social Security. Obama hasn’t paid them a bit of attention in the past
five years, knowing that, every time an election rolls around, they will return
to the Democratic Party fold like hungry puppies, or wayward children.<BR>What
saved Social Security – for the moment, at least – was the Republicans continued
refusal to join the First Black President in a Grand Bargain in which the two
business parties would work hand in hand, in the spirit of bipartisanship, to
dismantle what’s left of the social safety net. Barack Obama fervently hoped
that he would go down in history as the man who finally unraveled Franklin
Roosevelt’s New Deal and Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society, through a consensus of
the two major parties. He repeatedly stuck out his hand to his corporate
colleagues on the other side of the aisle. Luckily for the rest of us, however,
the Republicans always slapped his hand away, preferring gridlock to a shared
victory.<BR>And so begins Year Six of the Obama presidency, with another White
House assault on entitlements frustrated, not so much by progressives, but by
the intransigent, racist Right. Gridlock, once again, to the rescue.<BR>
<P class=pull>Barack Obama fervently hoped that he would go down in history as
the man who finally unraveled Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal and Lyndon Johnson’s
Great Society.”</P>We at Black Agenda Report take some pleasure in saying, We
told you so. Specifically, back in <U><A href="">November of 2010</A></U>, when
the Democrats lost control of the House of Representatives, we concluded that,
given the relationship of forces, gridlock was the best we could hope for. “Let
us pray for gridlock,” I wrote, “because all else is disaster.”<BR>Obama had
already handpicked a deficit cutting commission whose job was to create an
austerity model that the Republicans and the right wing of the Democrats could
agree upon. The more liberal Democrats would be cast into the dustbin of
history, along with their favorite social programs. White House spokesman Robert
Gibbs said those Democrats who balked at Obama’s steady rightward course were
“crazy” and “ought to be drug-tested.” The liberals’ feelings were hurt, but of
course, they kept coming home like little puppies. They suffered through 2011,
when Obama put all entitlement programs on the grand bargaining table – only for
the Republicans to ultimately reject the collaboration in favor of overreach and
games of chicken.<BR>Essentially, gridlock – and its associated drama – has
prevailed on Capitol Hill ever since, preventing Obama and the Republicans from
coordinating their strategies on behalf of the One Percent. Race plays a
definite role in this – and, for once, it has worked in the people’s favor, by
keeping natural corporate allies, who share very similar agendas, at each
other’s throats much of the time.<BR>But, this gridlock on the Right will end
sooner rather than later. The people’s domestic programs, international peace,
and the viability of the planet, must ultimately be saved by a people movement,
or it will not be saved, at all.<BR>For Black Agenda Radio, I’m Glen Ford. On
the web, go to BlackAgendaReport.com.<BR>
<P class=foot>BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at
Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.</P></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>