Right? Isn't that what you heard? Lots of people seem to be validating that these days.
...or was it "Yes WE Can!"
Please tell me, I'm confused.
The most likely scenario I've arrived at is Obama isn't a particularly progressive President. Of course, a lot of us knew that going in, and given the choices open to us, I'm damn glad to have him on board.
Truth is, I really like Obama. He's a great father, very smart, rational, controlled, and he really doesn't take shit he doesn't have to. He understands the issues, and I believe completely that he wants to improve things, leave it better then he found it, and get some change done.
I hear "betrayal", "anger", "he sucks" (and those clowns saying that really should be saying that what he's doing sucks, but I digress...) and all sorts of other rather futile commentary.
Back to that scenario.
What does the man have to work with? Really. Think it over. We've got all of the GOP hell bent on making damn sure he doesn't really get shit. Gotta respect those guys on a low level. They even made it perfectly clear, and are unabashedly getting after his failure. There is absolutely no question on this. So, they really aren't a positive force Obama can work with.
Then we've got the Democrats. A whole bunch of them are really only different from the GOP in how much backbone they have, whether or not they will lie about it (most of them won't preferring to manipulate), and their social issue positions. Coin Operated Democrats.
That leaves the Progressives, and a few solid standouts, like Bernie Sanders.
Doesn't look like a "change" tool box to me. Looks more like a futile cluster fuck.
In the House, it's not so bad. There are enough differences there to see some things happen, and we've got numbers --even progressive numbers. The House is actually fairly healthy, if annoying. They passed most of what Obama needed to get done, and even tossed in some progressive like elements, being fairly true to their composition. The only bitch we've really got there is just a lack of real dominance, but we've got influence. Nice.
The Senate? Hopeless. It's filled with Coin Operated stalwarts, more interested in their pocket book, and seeing the "institution", er... "Proud Institution" endure, more than they are actually getting anything done. And there aren't many of them, making all the back room deals all that much easier to do. Where is Obama's change?
Look right square at the Senate. It's there, on the floor, currently being used to keep the shit from staining the hallowed floors, not that it's ever going to pass. Deffo not a "change we can believe in" culture there.
And then we come to the media. Well, I think they've been "nicer" to Obama, but the core framing and positioning that happens day in and day out is all done from the big-business slant. It's a Reagan wet dream, where seeing something positioned in a way that ordinary people can identify with, without also being forced to identify with those "great corporations", is the de-facto rule, not the exception.
Sure, there are some standouts. Know why they are there? Plausible deniability. There is just enough media talking from the people's point of view to cast doubt on just how poorly aligned our traditional media coverage is. World events? Fuck 'em. Small business? Doesn't exist! Progressives? Yeah, we got MSNBC for that, not that anybody really buys that shit, right?
Endless stock reports, all laced with regular hints about how we are doing well, if "they", you know, the "real" people in this world are doing well. I'm talking about most wealthy people, who own enough to act through the proxy of their corporations, nicely insulating themselves from any real accountability. Limited liability, the status of people, and no back talk! What's not to like? Hell, I want one, doesn't everybody?
Of course you do! And that's the catch! Nobody wants to knock down those people that "earned it", thinking that maybe, some day, they might be one of those people, envious as hell over it, and "just to be fair", not wanting to be biased or anything. Good for them! They should get to do what they want, because they actually have the means to do so, and the rest of us should be so lucky they tolerate us here, being those expensive, poor, whiny, sick, second class people. All we really do is cost money, that and shit cash when told to.
The war has been long, and we've taken a lot of hits. Each one of them not so bad, but they do tend to add up, don't they? Our schools are failing to teach real civics, omitting the New Deal, reframing anything good as something the corporations did for us, because, you know, they are good, and stand for everything American!
Forget all the people that built the tech that is now dangled in front of us, at low prices to make the loss of those jobs overseas make sense. Who needs a family wage, when two or three shit jobs, plus a handy WAL*MART are there?
And it's gone on and on and on. First came the big win. They got Ronnie in there, and he closed the deal. Transformative, and we need to give credit where credit is due folks. Ronnie got it done. Instead of government doing the business of the people, it's an obstacle in the way of business, who is responsible for all that is good in this world. Your HDTV, nice car, computers, and all the rest wouldn't exist, if it were not for these corporations, who spend a ton to make sure you and me have a good life, and all they ask is for us to pay our fair share.
The movers and shakers in the world want control and they want dominance, and they never, ever did buy the idea that we are equal. Fuck that! There are the haves and the have nots, and if you aren't smart about that, you are damn sure to be a have not, so get with the program, suck it up, and work hard, hoping the haves will appreciate it and toss you a bone. One dollar one vote is the best way to run things, because we all know those people who are wealthy, operating big companies know how to run it right, because they are so wealthy we can't even imagine.
Might as well just fire up a religion and be done with it. Kiss the dollar on the way in, bow to the corporate overlords, and be sure and tell your friends how great we have it here, or it's gonna get ugly, because they could always not be those friendly benefactors that make our lives possible every day, right?
They won the war folks. It took a lot of years, think tanks, corporate messaging, dollars, buying elections, media, education, and churches all working every front to bend the norms away from we the people who self govern so that we may better enjoy the fruits of our labor, and our freedom. Now it's the corporations who create jobs, provide for everything, only needing cops and prisons, because those things are losers, and besides, that's all government is for right?
Our values of self-sufficiency, get it done, innovation, freedom, the melting pot, and such have been transformed into corporate freedom, worship of the dollar, war, and god knows what else.
"Free markets!" We are so bad ass that we can stay at the top, live above our means, while flogging the rest of the world into making the shit that we need to get through it all every day.
Where did we forget that, if we don't do the work to take care of and provide for our own, that we will end up owned by those that do? It's happening you know. Everything and everyone is being owned, one dollar at a time, leaving us as mere serfs, naked, uneducated (can't have that, or the people might actually figure it out and rebel), forced to work a month to month lifestyle, always a pay-day away from total hell.
I could go on and on, but I've a point here
; namely,
this is the shit that Obama has to work in, and with! Is there any wonder progress has been tepid? Hell no there isn't, and if there is, you really need to look around and take a good, honest, hard, look at the state of things, and the state of things just sucks complete ass.
Why?
Because we got lazy, got sucked in, sold a raw deal. We the people have somehow decided that "others" will get it done for us, and all we have to do is work at the job, play, live modestly, and don't rock the boat, and all will be fine. Who has time for civics? Isn't that what old people do, or something we used to have to do, before the world became "modern?"
If we want the change people, we have got to do the work to bring better tools to the table, and that's a fact. Obama is getting the little things. Lots of those. And he's making deals too. Why? Because there really aren't a lot of other options!
Obama is constrained right now, under a lot of conflicting pressures, with few outs. Corporate America, helped along by bigots, racists, theocrats, dumbasses, who gladly helped big business get it done, hoping to see their character issues relieved by legislation, instead of socialization.
There is a WE in "Yes WE Can!", and until a sufficient number of us get that, and decide to commit to some regular and consistent action, we are left with "Yes HE Can!", and know what?
Given all the shit in play right now, I think that man is superhuman. No joke. Obama is probably the hardest working, smartest, and toughest politician we've had in a long time, but he can't do it alone. Not in this climate. Somebody needs to have his back.
You know, I would prefer that be progressives, but it doesn't have to be! All that really needs to happen is more unified action from the people on the few specific issues that are really dogging us. Persuade to action, progressive or not, just get the votes done, the mind share aligned, to bring tools to Obama's grasp, and we will see better than tepid results.
Most people I know could give two shits about their civics, yet they bitch and bitch and bitch about how fucked up it is. Is there any wonder?
Do we think they were just shining us on in school?
No.
The task is simple. The people need to organize and have Obama's back, do the civics, take some seats, and show their elected President that they really want that change, or the truth is, they don't, and I'm done now.