[Peace-discuss] Lesser evilism

[C. G. Estabrook]

[Black Agenda Report continues to present cogent critiques of the  
Obama administration. --CGE]

Barack Obama VS Those Craaaazy Republicans: Is He the Lesser Evil, or  
the More Effective Evil?
By Bruce A. Dixon
Created 09/21/2011

The last refuge of Obamaphiles is that no matter how many times the  
First Black President double-crosses us by cutting Medicare and  
Medicaid, no matter how completely be betrays his voters us by  
ignoring black unemployment, by deporting one million Latinos, by  
protecting the banksters responsible for the foreclosure crisis and by  
invading, bombing, occupying and subverting even more countries than  
the Cheney-Bush regime, his white supremacist tea party opponents are  
far worse. But what if Democrat Barack and the Republican tea partyers  
are just playing different positions on the same team?

The corporate moguls who run the US empire and its political processes  
are not fools. So when the Republican party deliberately pushes  
forward certifiable clowns like Michelle Bachman, Richard Perry,  
Herman Cain and Rick Santorum as its presidential contenders, we can  
be certain that matters are not quite what they seem. These pandering  
lunatics are only inmates of the asylum, which is run by the corporate  
entities that fund the careers of Democratic and Republic politicians  
alike --- the energy and insurance industries, corporate media and  
real estate, military contractors, and of course, Wall Street.
	
In the words of economist and financial historian Michael Hudson [6],  
the job of corporate American politicians is not to enact the policies  
their voters want. The corporate politician's job is to deliver those  
voters, those constituencies to their campaign contributors, so they  
can enact the policies their financiers desire. The fact therefore,  
that Democrats compared to Republicans, and sometimes even Democrats  
compared to other Democrats appeal to varied groups of voters accounts  
for why they sound different from each other. But the fact that they  
all depend on the same class of wealthy corporations and individuals  
to finance their political careers means that no matter what they tell  
their voters, the policies they enact once in office are pretty much  
the same.

This accounts for the fact that although the Democratic presidential  
candidate won his nomination by telling voters he opposed the war in  
Iraq, by the time he sewed up that nomination, he was appearing on the  
Bill O'Reilly show topraise the war in Iraq and endorse the Cheney- 
Bush “surge” [7]. It explains why candidate Obama, after promising  
(but mostly only before labor audiences) to renegotiate NAFTA, walk a  
picket line and pass legislation that would make more unionization  
possible, president Obama pushed to extend “free trade” agreements  
everywhere, cracked down on federal workers, demonized teacher unions  
and more. It explains why Obama literally claims to walk in Martin  
Luther King's footsteps when it suits him --- on the campaign trail he  
declared himself “Joshua” [8] to Dr. King's “Moses” --- but manages to  
ignore black unemployment and mass incarceration, the wave of  
foreclosures which are inordinately concentrated among nonwhite  
households, and maintains the US position as in King's words “...the  
number one purveyor of violence in the world today.”

The 2012 Republican presidential candidates are indeed different from  
most (but not all) Democrats. They are intolerant religious zealots  
and Dominionists. They are anti-Muslim and anti-gay bigots, and open  
white supremacists. Their debate audiences raucously cheer the  
prospect of more executions and the undeserving poor dying for lack of  
medical care. But these are all about cultural, not policy  
differences. What Republicans call “Obamacare” is the same insurance  
company boondoggle governor Mitt Romney imposed on Massachusetts in  
the 1990s, and the poor are indeed still dying for lack of care in  
Massachusetts. The rhetoric Republican candidates use to round up and  
corral their base voters should not be confused with Republican policy  
objectives.

Since the forces financing Republicans are the same as those financing  
Democrats the directors of US political theater have the power to play  
games with us. For them, Obama is the preferable alternative. Only the  
First Black President could have disbanded the peace movement and  
rolled into town promising to “cut entitlements” without provoking a  
firestorm of protest. Only the First Black President could have  
accepted a Nobel Peace Prize with a war speech, and invaded an African  
country without millions of protesters in the street worldwide. Only  
the First Black President with a strong Democratic majority in  
Congress could have resumed offshore drilling after the Gulf BP  
disaster, and blocked any new regulation on the oil industry. Only the  
First Black President could have given GM back to its managers after  
sticking the unions with its underfunded health care and pension load.  
Only candidate Obama could have come in off the campaign trail in  
September 2008 to whip Democratic votes in the Democrat-dominated  
congress for the $3 trillion Bush bailout, and only the First black  
President could have quintupled down on that bailout, giving the  
banksters $15 trillion more once in office.

 From their standpoint, Obama needed, and continues to need two  
things. First, Obama needs running room to his right. In order for  
Obama to enact the neoliberal policies of his militarist and bankster  
sponsors, the policy demands of Republicans had to move further and  
still further rightward. In other words, he needs Republicans to play  
crazy and crazier, so that wherever he lands can credibly be claimed  
to be a little better than what might have been under a Republican  
regime, even when Obama's position is actually to the right of Bush or  
Reagan. Secondly, the bankster favorite Obama needs to distract the  
attention of his voter base with a loud and persistent clamor over  
cultural issues and sustained furor over instances of personal [9]  
(but not institutional) racism among Republican candidates and  
supporters. Like in any production, every actor has a job to do, and  
everybody does their job.
“Having the same class of shot-calling big money contributors means  
that Republicans and Democrats alike tend to enact the same policies...”

With these elements in place, our Black Misleadership Class [10] and  
others responsible for marshalling support for the president's re- 
election effort can, and are already claiming that no matter how bad  
Obama's policies have been for black people, that we still owe him our  
unquestioned support because he's running against a pack of fanatical  
white supremacists. Obama may not be much good, but opposing the  
right, they will tell us, is fighting the far greater evil. Americans,  
and especially black Americans, are long accustomed to choosing  
between greater and lesser political evils.

But does that choice apply in 2012? Probably not. Having the same  
class of shot-calling big money contributors means that Republicans  
and Democrats alike tend to enact the same policies, justifying them  
with different sorts of rhetoric. While we're looking for lesser and  
greater evils, the real choice is between the less effective and the  
more effective evil.

When Republicans invade new countries, global public opinion can put  
millions worldwide in protest demonstrations in the street. When  
Democrats invade, there are no demonstrations. When Republicans  
propose social security, Medicare and Medicaid cuts, and try to  
regulate unions out of existence, public outcries and near general- 
strike situations loom. When Democrats do the same, all is quiet.  
Republicans could not even pass their own bailout bills with a  
Republican in the White House. So between bigoted, bumbling tea party  
Republicans, and level-headed, competent corporate Democrats, which is  
the greater evil? And which is the more effective evil?

Bruce Dixon is managing editor at Black Agenda Report and based in  
Marietta GA, were he is one of the principals in an internet  
technology partnership and a state committee member in the Georgia  
Green Party. He can be reached at bruce.dixon at blackagendareport.com.