"This is a great country. You can say anything you want -- except Change The System" -- Dick Gregory
It's easy to see why so much hope has invested in Obama. People are desperate for a change from the last 30 years of progressive greed and the deterioration of their economic and psychological well being. The progressive community is, as usual, dropping the ball.
Candidates of the two dominant political parties are not allowed in that position unless they are committed to maintaining the economic order. Thus we see that Obama's appointees are architects of, or products of, the status quo. The solutions to our problems are not solutions at all. Thus we have:
A discussion not of universal health care but universal access to health insurance.
Mr Geithner wants to maintain a private banking system that protects the current stock and bond holders and is taking an approach that further bleeds the tax payer and doesn't solve the problems of bank insolvency, derivatives as gambling instruments, the lack of lending, usurious credit card interest rates, and etc.
Obama announces we are leaving Iraq except for the 50,000 or more troops that will remain.
Obama's commitment to veterans to take care of their medical issues arising from their service is now becoming a problem that the veterans will need to deal with through their private insurance.
There is no effective legislation put forward to regulate wall street and hedge funds, all significant contributors to Obama's campaign.
The list of issues of change with no change goes on.
Mr. Obama is a very bright and articulate man. But unless the progressive community, labor, and other constituencies that help get him elected actively oppose his approach and pose realistic alternatives to restructuring and building a balanced sustainable economy this country is headed off the cliff into chronic deep unemployment and third world status.
Groups such as Move On need to spend their resources and talents not on blindly supporting Obama but developing mass communication tools to reframe the public discussion so that people who are not political activists get the information they need to understand when they are being fed nonsense about "socialized medicine" or "too big to fail" or any of the other establishment talking points.
This is a great "teaching moment" in history. If the left wants to be successful it needs to stop talking to itself and reach out with a 50 state approach of its own.