[Peace-discuss] Obama, who will be there when…?

[Brussel Morton K.]

This conclusion of a piece from David Michael Green…

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/02/20-4

…If this was just another president doing what presidents do, these  
developments would merely be disappointing.  In fact, they are nearly  
devastating when considered in context.  This is the president who  
follows the one sure to be known as The Great Trampler, and this is  
the president who heartily criticized his predecessor’s constitutional  
calamities just months ago on the campaign trail, and this is the  
president only weeks in office, finally revealing his policies, not  
just his promises.  If you care about equality, justice and freedom,  
there is good reason here, one month into the Obama reign, to be  
heartbroken already.

Look, I don’t expect any president to be one hundred percent in  
agreement with my positions, brilliant as they universally are on all  
issues.  And least of all did I expect that Barack Obama would be a  
full-blown lefty, though I still think events might push him in that  
direction, as they did Franklin Roosevelt.  But here’s the thing I’m  
wondering right now, strictly from the perspective of Obama’s own self- 
interest:  Who’s gonna be there for him when the floor drops out, as  
it inevitably will at some point?  Just who does he think will rally  
to his support if, for example, a year from now unemployment is up to  
15 percent and he has shown no sign of abating this devastating  
depression?

Will it be the centrist middle class?  At some point, they may run  
well out of patience, their jobs gone, their homes foreclosed upon,  
their health deteriorating, their hope sagging, and right-wing freaks  
incessantly screaming in their ears the pounding drumbeat of failed  
‘liberal’ policies.

Does he think it will be those very regressives, who one might have  
expected to be somewhat chastened by their trouncing in two  
consecutive election cycles?  Because when I look at how John McCain  
and Lindsay Graham and Rush Limbaugh are reacting to the bipartisan  
olive branch that Obama extended to them, I kinda don’t think so.   
When I see how many Republicans (three) in both houses of the entire  
Congress voted for his stimulus bill, I kinda don’t think so.

Does he think it will be progressives?  Well, I can only speak for  
myself, but one month in and I’m already feeling burned by this guy.   
If he continues to cater to the predatory rich in this country,  
leaving the rest of us holding the bag, and if he continues to shred  
the Constitution as if he were George Bush’s kid brother, and if he is  
nearly as militaristic as the Strangeloves he just ejected from  
office, then I really won’t care a bit if he gets smashed halfway  
through his first term.  In fact, I might even be happy to see it  
happen.

So, if it ain’t the right and it ain’t the center and it ain’t the  
left,  just who does Obama think will be there standing with him  
should his presidency hits the rocks?

When you take away all those folks, just who does he think will have  
his back in tough times?

The Aryan Nation?

David Michael Green is a professor of political science at Hofstra  
University in New York. 
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