Watching the debates last night reminded me of how personalized everything is in the US, especially politics. Do we "like" the person? Does it appear that we can "trust" them etc. etc. Of course, millions of workers are not fooled by this anymore and have withdrawn from politics altogether, drawing the incorrect conclusion that all politics is bad as are all politicians.
The lack of a mass worker's party on a national scale and the failure of the Labor leaders to offer this alternative gives the capitalist parties a monopoly in the political arena and allows their ideology to dominate society also. (read the latest FFWP by clicking the link on this page; it will be up shortly)
This desperate hope that people put in to an individual. I remember the folks swooning over Clinton, he played the sax and hung out with black folks. Now there is Obama, he's the one we should all trust. But trust has nothing to do with it. Even if Obama means what he says, which is not the case, he cannot do what he says.
Barak Obama has this to say about McCain according to Yahoo News:
“Suddenly, he’s the change agent,” Obama said of McCain. “He says, ‘I’m going to tell those lobbyists that their days in Washington are over.’ Who’s he going to tell? Is he going to tell his campaign chairman who’s one of the biggest corporate lobbyists in Washington? Is he going to tell all the folks who are running his campaign who are the biggest corporate lobbyists in Washington?" “Who is it that he’s going to tell that change is coming?” Obama asked. “I mean, come on, they must think you’re stupid!”
But the Democratic Party convention was 80% funded by private donations to the tune of $112 million (why on earth should a political event cost so much?) Attending the convention and mingling with the legislators were the very lobbyists that Obama says he will get rid of. JP Morgan threw a big party as did the recording industry lobbyists. Big pharma was there and organized a brunch hosted by Billy Tauzin, former congressman who is now head of the pharma's lobbying group. AT&T, a major sponsor of the event threw a big party attended by house majority leader, Steny Hoyer. He helped write the legislation that protected AT&T from lawsuits related to its alleged participation in the Bush administration's warrantless eavesdropping program.
How come Obama didn't attack this from the podium; didn't point it out? After all, he had the ear of millions of Americans. He could have gone after them, called for them to be thrown out of "our house". But he said nothing. The big donors were also given special access to Obama's speech. Perhaps he just forgot.
This should be obvious to anyone that no matter what he or any other Wall Street politician says, the same group still makes policy and one of the parties it does this through is the Democrats. A political party does not exist in a vacuum; it represents the economic interests of classes and the Dems and Republicans represent the capitalist class. That is why they have both united to borrow another $820 billion (maybe $2 trillion with interest), money US workers will have to pay back in the form of cuts in social services and higher taxes, in order to bail out the people whose interests they represent.
No comments:
Post a Comment