Interesting how, whenever you look at the news, it’s the Democratic Party that’s bitching the loudest about the influence of big money in politics — even as Barack Obama’s latest re-election fundraising efforts set all-time records, with $86 million raised in the second quarter of this year alone. In fact, Obama’s campaign manager, Jim Messina, reports that the Obamabots are “back, they’re energized” — although his Wall Street masters don’t seem quite as energized as last time. They’re apparently still feeling all butthurt from Obama calling them “fat cats”.
Word has it that the Obama campaign could end up raising at least a billion dollars before the campaign is over. That’s right, ONE BILLION DOLLARS. Who the hell ever thought that one day someone would spend a billion dollars to have himself elected President? No wonder hardly anybody bothers to vote in this country anymore.
Just the other day, I was rummaging around in the Blogozone in search of inspiration — as per usual, when I found this juicy quote from an Al Schumann article at Stop Me Before I Vote Again:
…it seems far more likely that the Democrats are paying the price, an expected and even welcome price, for demobilizing and demoralizing their base. The Great Liberal Bus is teetering on top of a pile of the people pushed under it. From the very start, the Democrats have fought their activists harder than they’ve fought the Republicans. They’ve had them arrested!
Now, the article itself is about a year and a half old, written during the depths of the healthcare “debate”, but is still amazingly prescient in the context of the intervening two years of inaction, abuse and betrayal by the Democratic Party of its Left/Progressive constituencies, culminating in the recent budget compromise which gave the Rightists in Congress pretty much everything they wanted.
Teetering on top of a pile of the people pushed under it. Jeezus, what an image. Thanks, Schumann.
You’ve got to hand it to Obummer, his timing’s impeccable. On the anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King — and one day before capitulating to the Rightists and allowing military commission trials of Guantanamo detainees — Obummer rolls out his 2012 re-election campaign, complete with a smarmy, grassrootsy video, and asks, “Are You In?”
“Are You In?” Jeezus, what the hell kind of slogan is that? It sounds like the wrapup for a venture capital pitch, like a question asked by some newly-minted Stanford MBA trying to schmooze a few million for his crappy-assed Internet start-up.
The “official” unemployment rate is nailed at around 10%, the foreclosure rate is climbing, bankers are getting fatter than ever, Bush’s tax cuts for the rich are still in place, the healthcare system is still in the hands of corporations, we’re up to our asses in three wars, the concentration camp at Guantanamo Bay is still open, our civil liberties are in worse shape than ever, Obummer’s just rolled over for John Boehner on the budget deal — and now Obummer’s got the sheer gall to ask me if I’m “in”.
So, I was taking a break from being glued to Al Jazeera’s coverage of the revolution in Libya to check out the action in Wisconsin, and found out to my horror that the Democratic Party “leadership” had declared their support for the resurgent workers’ movement there. After two years of ignoring the Left which had helped put him in office, giving us a corporate giveaway thinly disguised as healthcare “reform”, propping up the banks and Wall Street, failing to close the Guantanamo concentration camp, escalating a bloody imperialist war in Afghanistan, insulting us to our faces on TV during the recent mid-term “elections” and appeasing the right, Barack Obummer has finally rediscovered the Left just in time to start pandering to us again in preparation for the 2012 freak circus — after two years of pandering to corporate and banking interests.
This was topped by Smarm Queen and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi hopping aboard the bandwagon, declaring the Wisconsin workers’ rebellion to be “an extraordinary show of democracy in action” — which, of course, the Democratic Party will make every effort to bleed dry of energy and crush like a grape.
In case you need a reminder of what Queen Nancy is really all about, give a listen to her sucking right-wing cock, in her own words — in 2002, following her election as House Minority Leader during the run-up to Iraq War v2.0, and in 2006, when asked about the impeachment of George W. Bush for his crimes against humanity and the Constitution:
Wisconsin, take a look at the past twenty years of the Democratic Party’s record. Remember NAFTA? Bill Clinton said he opposed it, until he supported it. Remember how the supposedly “liberal” and “progressive” Democrats fought each other to be first in line to support George W. Bush’s wars of genocide and aggression in Afghanistan and Iraq — wars based on lies? Remember how the Democrats rolled over and refused to impeach Bush, despite his having a record of impeachable offenses as long as his goddamn’ arm? Remember how John Kerry opposed the war in Iraq, until he voted to fund it? Remember how Barack Obama supported single-payer healthcare, until he opposed it? Remember last year’s mid-term campaign, when Obama and Biden publicly blew you off and called you “whiners” when you complained about the lame excuse for healthcare “reform” and Obama’s appeasement of Wall Street, the bankers and the Rightists?
Remember the antiglobalization movements? Remember Seattle and A16? This, too, was “an extraordinary show of democracy in action” — until it was co-opted by the Democratic Party and its energy diverted to a wasted effort to elect Plastic Al Gore and Holy Joe Lieberman in 2000. Remember the antiwar movement? They, too, were “an extraordinary show of democracy in action” until they were guilt-tripped into silence by the Democratic Party in their effort to elect first John Kerry in 2004, and then Barack Obama in ’08. Now, at last, a new movement is rising up for justice for the working class, and once again the Democratic Party is readying itself to suck the life’s blood from that movement to prop up the likes of Pelosi, Reid and Obama. In a struggle like this, the last thing you want is support from the craven, opportunist, corporate cock-gobbling Democratic Party.
Remember this history, Wisconsin, and remember that your real enemy isn’t the Teabaggers getting in your faces at the demonstrations — it’s the Democratic Party, who claims to be “behind” you. For crissakes, Wisconsin — look out behind you.
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