Clinton II

Commentary By Ron Beasley

With apologies to Pastor Niem�r:

First they came for the banksters, and showered them with money and put them in the Administration in a way that was not change we could believe in.

Then they came for the military industrial complex, and sent more and more of our children to die in faraway lands that had never attacked us in a way that was not change we could believe in.

And now they�ve sold out our hope for a national health care system not run by millionaire gangsters in suits. And who is left to speak for us?

~Thom Hartmann

In the comments of this post our own Ken Anderson took exception to the idea that Obama is a liberal.  In this must read post Thom Hartmann explains that Clinton ran as a progressive but governed as a continuation of the Reagan administration.  That also seems to be the direction of the Obama administration.  Up to this point Obama has been quick to look out for the banks, insurance companies, the military industrial complex and Wall Street but there has been little for main street. 

We slept while Clinton�s boys Robert Rubin and Larry Summers and the
whole gang, Republicans and Democrats together, signed us up for NAFTA
and GATT; created the WTO; moved our jobs to China; sold off our
airwaves; and �financialized� our economy (fully a quarter of all
corporate profits in 2007 were from the �financial services industry� �
an �industry� that creates nothing whatever that can be used or eaten
or has any other real-wealth value). We slept through the explosion of
the private prison industry and the wars in the Balkans (who knows
where Kosovo is, anyway?). Seinfeld was far more interesting.

But now both the Vietnam oldsters and the Hip Hop
youngsters are awake. Even the Reagan generation is awakening, but
confused, as they�ve grown up on Limbaugh and Fox, and didn�t learn
much in school about politics after Reagan�s guys stripped most classes
of in-depth civics requirements. (It�s interesting � when Michael
Medved and I debated in Chicago last year in front of 1000 people, 500
tickets sold by each of our radio stations, my side of the room was
mostly people over 50 or under 30. His side of the room was almost
entirely 30- and 40-somethings.)


And that�s why Obama is heading for a disaster.



He�s betting that he can do like Bill Clinton did to us with NAFTA and
the World Trade Organization � hand us a turd and tell us it�s gonna
blossom beautifully if we�ll just wait a year or three or five. Rahm�s
betting that if he can �deliver health care reform� � even if the
fundamental system of gangster corporations standing between us and our
doctors while skimming 40 percent off the top for their mansions and
private jets is intact � we�ll be all excited at his �victory� and
elect more Democrats in 2010 and reelect Obama in 2012.

Ditto for cosmetic repairs of the banks, which is really
just trickle-down Reaganomics on steroids. Rahm and his DLC buddies
truly believe that this �change� brought to us by Bush�s man Tim
Geithner or Clinton�s man Larry Summers is something we�ll �believe
in.� 

The voters went to sleep during Reagan but the teabaggers are a sign that they are waking up again.  They may often be misinformed by FOX news but deep down they are upset about many of the same things we are. 

We�re awake, we�re mad as hell, and we�re not going to take it any
more. Natalie Portman to Matt Taibbi to Arianna Huffington to Bill
Moyers represent the span of our four awakened generations; generations
who have figured out how the game is played. And don�t like it.



First Obama continued Bush�s policy of giving the banksters money, and we protested feebly.



Then he expanded Bush�s wars, and we protested more loudly.



Now he�s going to force us to give trillions to the gangsters who run
the �health insurance� companies (while they promise to behave nicely
in return) and thinks we�re going to go along with it and it�ll get him
re-elected.


He�s wrong.


Please, President
Obama, step up and lead. We�d like some that �change we can believe in�
that�s actually the real thing.


Kill the bill.