EDITOR'S NOTE: I originally posted this with a satirical intent. I thought the headline made that clear. But after 26 years of blogging, you'd think I'd have learned by now that satire does not come across well in plain text. After several people attacked the premise of the piece -- which was not my actual premise -- I realized my error. By then, the banning autobot of DailyKos had axed me from the site. I've now been reinstated and I will refrain from satirical posts in the future. I toyed with deleting this Diary but decided that would be dishonest. I posted it. It was a mistake. I should not be able to hide from that. So instead, I'm re-posting with this apology and explanation. The first paragraph is still correct and conveys the point I really wanted to make in the piece: Liberals may need to get over their trepidation about protesting in the streets with a sitting Democratic President because popular protest may be the only way to salvage our democracy.
I've been wondering for the past decade why we haven't seen masses of people taking to the streets in a populist uprising. After giving it a lot of thought, I've concluded that at least part of the reason might well be President Obama.
Why do I say that?
Because I suspect a lot of Lefties like me are reluctant to break into open opposition to a regime headed by a Democrat even when that Democrat seems to be far more of the pro-corporate persuasion than of the pro-worker persuasion in most if not all of his major policies. It's just not done. Even though he's pretty far to the right of anything that could be called Liberal, he's noticeably less conservative than what passes for a Republican mainstream these days.
So what if we Liberals stay home in 2016, let the GOP hang itself by electing an ultra-conservative President (any candidate you care to pick would fit the bill) and then see how fast the American peoples' native populism takes over and we can finally take back our democracy from the plutocrats?
I'm only sort of half kidding here. Sure, a conservative President could do a lot of damage in a fairly short period of time, particularly if he's backed by a conservative majority in the House and perhaps even in the Senate. There are few if any openly moderate Republicans left to stand against the insanity of the Right.
But, hey, I figure we survived eight years of W -- though not without much battering and bruising -- so we can probably survive a couple of years of an ultra-Right presidency before we stage enough of a national protest to force him (or her) to step aside.
It may also be time for those on the Left who really care about this country to begin observing the line between pro-corporate and pro-worker elected officials. It's not about Republicans and Democrats. It's only barely about conservatives and liberals. It's about which side of the Class War (which is part of our social reality, like or not and call it what you will) of inequality the politicians come down on.
I realize this is a radical idea and probably if closely analyzed one that falls apart. But the underlying question with which I began remains: how do the American people, who constantly show that they are more liberal than all but the most liberal of their elected officials -- get their agenda back on the front burner again if not by taking to the streets non-violently?