The Real Obama

Will you please stand up. Or maybe better not.

Sam Smith looks at his record and it's not pretty. He seems more conservative than Clinton, and at least as beholden to the corporations that have been calling the shots for the last thirty years. The first signs of his new administration seem to be on track with his previous record. Hope and change made for slogans and a very successful campaign. Neither they, nor the failed policies of the past, will serve to get the country and the world working to solve the immense problems that Bush exacerbated, but did not cause.

We can hope that he will use his opportunity to do the necessary, rather than continue to play to the crowd while the nation continues its slide into oblivion. Hopefully the crowd will speak up sooner rather than later if he continues to substitute platitudes for policies. Sam Smith:

Above are listed nearly three dozen things that Obama supports or opposes with which no good liberal or progressive would agree. Unfortunately, what's out there now, however, looks more like a rock concert crowd or evangelical tent meeting than a determined and directed political constituency. Which isn't so surprising given how successful our system have been at getting people to accept sights, sounds, symbols and semiotics as substitutes for reality. Once again, it looks like we'll have to learn the hard way.

(h/t Uncle $cam)