Here is a quote that has been floating around on the internet. I am not sure if Lincoln actually said this (I can't find a citation) even though I enjoy it quite a bit:
"The money powers prey upon the nation in times of peace and conspire against it in times of adversity. The banking powers are more despotic than a monarchy, more insolent than autocracy, more selfish than bureaucracy. They denounce as public enemies all who question their methods or throw light upon their crimes. I have two great enemies, the Southern Army in front of me and the bankers in the rear. Of the two, the one at my rear is my greatest foe. [As a most undesirable consequence of the war...] Corporations have been enthroned, and an era of corruption in high places will follow. The money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in the hands of a few, and the Republic is destroyed."
Anyone who has been concerned with income inequality in this country knows that, even if Lincoln never said this, that the quote is remarkably prescient. In the news this week there have been a lot of stories about illegal foreclosures. Evidently people that don't even have a mortgage are finding themselves in court battling banks who are trying to evict them. Both Democrats and Republicans have done nothing to stop this. In fact, the Obama administration's new National Security Adviser used to be a lobbyist for the same firms that caused the housing crisis. (Also: Larry Summers, economic adviser to the administration and one of the architects of the stimulus pacakage, helped draft and pass the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act in1999, which removed the limitations on the part of Glass-Steagall that would have protected the public from something as corrupt and convoluted as the derivatives scandal; how is this not big news?)
If anyone reading this is going to only look at one political article this week, it should be this one. For some background: I spent the better part of 2008 obsessed with the Obama campaign. I bought into the energy of the campaign. I volunteered. I advocated. I voted. The main reason why I voted for him in the primary instead of Hillary Clinton was that I thought his administration would finally severe the Democratic Party from its corporate donors. That we, as a country, would focus on alternative energy, infrastructure, transparent government and disentangling ourselves from the Middle East occupations. That it was an evolution of where we were going as a country, that we would finally grow up and accept the real problems that are facing the planet rather than exist in this tiny bubble of constant cynicism and corruption.
It's a humbling lesson in naivety that I thought that he would change, really change, the way the government operates. In his campaign, Obama promised a moratorium on foreclosures. Where are they? During the campaign he promised a transparent government. He promised reform on lobbyist's influence on government. Remember? End the war (he expanded it), stop domestic spying (he hasn't), reform NAFTA and GATT (he hasn't).
Obama extended the Patriot Act earlier this year. With no reforms. It's the same bill that Bush passed.
He has deported more undocumented workers than Bush. He has not reinstated habeas corpus. Extraordinary rendition has not ended. Neither have secret prisons and, I'm assuming, state sponsored torture. He has isolated labor (he supported Blanche Lincoln, an anti-Labor Democrat, during the primary) and he has isolated the teacher's unions. "Race to the Top" will fail, despite whatever trendy documentary comes out about school competition and charter schools (that take public money but have no accountability).
Finally, and all things considered (Republican obstructionism, the lack of a strong liberal presence with the Democratic Party), Obama increased troop levels in Afghanistan. We have been there for almost a decade. There is no victory because no one knows why we are there. That is the kicker.
What happened to protecting worker's rights? What happened to the war on poverty? What happened to the Humphrey-Hawkins Act that strives for full employment? How is privatizing social security even up for discussion? France is having riots right now because they want to lower the retirement age by two years! And yet we are letting these corporate interests infect electoral politics where reinstating financial regulation is considered a major Democratic accomplishment. Seriously?!
How is this possible? Obama, you are a Democrat! How can an administration go so far off base? How is it that there is practically no one challenging this? Harry Reid is a disgrace. The majority of them keep voting for giving the military a blank check. All of the centre-right stuff that Obama keeps going for? They vote on these policies. They support them. There are two members of Congress I really respect. Poor Dennis Kucinich, who is marginalized in his own party and poor Russ Feingold, who is doing horrible in the polls. All the media can talk about is how the Tea Party thinks that Obama is a covert communist when, here in Reality, he is barely a progressive. Nixon was more liberal.
There is a great Bill Maher quote when he was on Wolf Blitzer's show last year:
"Barack Obama is not a socialist -- he’s not even a liberal....this country needs a left wing. It doesn’t have it, and part of the reason is the media.”
For people that actually belief in and want social justice the Democratic Party is not a good home. The sad part is that there is no where else to go, honestly. There is no Left or Right. There is only Up and Down. People that have power and wealth and the rest of us. We don't live in a Republic (with representatives who work for the public) and we sure as hell don't have a Democracy. We live in an oligarchy. We are approaching a new, modern feudalism.
Democrats today are more conservative than Eisenhower Republicans. If liberals are going to support any group it should be the DSA or the Green Party. Even though it may seem impractical, at least we get to keep our ethics. Lately, I feel slightly ill supporting Democrats that have gone so far right it is hard to tell where they end and the Republicans begin. There are more then enough groups out there that more accurately encompass what we believe yet we are faced with only two options. We have a centre-right party that expands wars, protects Wall Street and takes corporate money. And then we have the Republicans.
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