[Sosfbay-discuss] BARACK OBAMA

Mon Feb 12 18:33:04 PST 2007

My attitude: He hasn't done a damn thing in the Senate (neither has
Sen. Clinton), so that is a big blank for me.  I will say that I think
it is a positive thing that he brought up some fairly Green points of
view in his announcement.  Just gettin the idea out there that we need
to withdraw from our invasion/occupation of Iraq and that we need to
break our oil addiction is a positive.  The more people talk about it
the more they'll recognize when they here us that we've been the ones
talking common sense all along. :-)

Green solidarity!

Drew

--- Duende <egroups at duendevision.com> wrote:

> Amen and Amen Alex. When I heard about Barack I wanted so hard to be 
> 
> a believer but those little nuances gave him away as a sentimental  
> imperialist. At least he did admit that some of what the US has done 
> 
> isn't ALL good :-)
> 
> 
> Peace
> 
> 
> 
> On Feb 10, 2007, at 2:08 PM, alexcathy at aol.com wrote:
> 
> > Dear Green Friends,
> >
> > I watched Sen. Barack Obama on C-Span today.
> >
> > I haven't said too much about him.  I am sort of in the "wait and  
> > see" camp.  Most of my wife's family still lives in Illinois and  
> > so, I think the first time I ever heard about him was from my  
> > brother-in-law, Martin Deppe, who told me about a bright young  
> > state senator from Southside Chicago that was starting to make a  
> > big splash.  He gave a fiery anti-war speech at one of the first  
> > big demonstrations in Chicago before the war back in 2002 and his  
> > candidacy for the U.S. Senate in 2004 partly came out of that.
> >
> > Santa Claus brought me his book The Audacity of Hope over the  
> > holidays.  I've read most of it, but I haven't finished it, because
>  
> > frankly, it's a campaign book full of "on-the-one-hand" and
> "on-the- 
> > other-hand" stuff.
> >
> > I've seen a lot of politicians.  Obama is good.  Make no mistake.  
> 
> > He’s good.
> >
> > He's young.  He's good-looking.  He's sharp.  He can rap.  He WILL 
> 
> > inspire a new generation of activists.  No doubt about it.  There  
> > was a time (when I was still young and naive), when I would have  
> > signed up for this campaign right away.
> >
> > Let's just say he represents the best... of mainstream...  
> > Democratic Party neoliberalism.   Let me just say that with all the
>  
> > good and bad that this implies.  Right in the prologue to his book 
> 
> > -- page 10 -- he writes:
> >
> >
> > I am a Democrat, after all; my views on most topics correspond more
>  
> > closely to the editorial pages of The New York Times than those of 
> 
> > The Wall Street Journal.  I am angry about politics that  
> > consistently favor the wealthy and powerful over average Americans,
>  
> > and insist that government has an important role in opening up  
> > opportunity for all

> >
> > From there Barack goes into a little catechism of “I Believe”  
> > statements:
> >
> > I believe in evolution, scientific inquiry, and global warming; I  
> > believe in free speech, whether politically correct or politically 
> 
> > incorrect, and I am suspicious of using government to impose  
> > anybody’s religious beliefs – including my own – on nonbelievers.  
> 
> > Furthermore, I am a prisoner of my own biography; I can’t help but 
> 
> > view the American experience through the lens of a black man of  
> > mixed heritage, forever mindful of how generations of people who  
> > looked like me were subjugated and stigmatized, and the subtle and 
> 
> > not so subtle ways that race and class continue to shape our lives.
> >
> > But that is not all that I am 

> >
> >
> > So far, so good.  He’s a nice liberal.
> >
> > Now comes the other shoe:
> >
> >
> > But that is not all that I am.  I also think my party can be smug, 
> 
> > detached, and dogmatic at times.  I believe in the free market,  
> > competition, and entrepreneurship, and think no small number of  
> > government programs don’t work as advertised.  I wish the country  
> > had fewer lawyers and more engineers.  I think America has more  
> > often been a force for good than for ill in the world; I carry few 
> 
> > illusions about our enemies, and revere the courage and competence 
> 
> > of our military.  I reject a politics that is based solely on  
> > racial identify, gender identity, sexual orientation, or victimhood
>  
> > generally.  I think much of what ails the inner city involves a  
> > breakdown in culture that will not be cured by money alone, and  
> > that our values and spiritual life matter at least as much as our
> GDP.
> >
> >
> > People who know me well can guess which parts of this that Alex  
> > Walker doesn’t like.
> >
> > “I believe in free speech, whether politically correct or  
> > politically incorrect
”
> >
> > What “political correctness?”  When are people going to drop this  
> > silly cliché that was funny for about fifteen minutes back in 1991?
> >
> > “I believe in the free market, competition, and entrepreneurship
”
> >
> > Why do “good liberals” always have to genuflect to the hegemony of 
> 
> > corporate capitalism?  When I read stuff like this (and I read it  
> > everyday), I realize that, philosophically, I’m still socialist and
>  
> > Green.
> >
> > “I wish the country had fewer lawyers and more engineers
”
> >
> > Nice touch -- when both you and your wife are Harvard lawyers.
> >
> > “I think much of what ails the inner city involves a breakdown in  
> > culture
 our values and spiritual life matter at least as much as  
> > our GDP
”
> >
> > Blame the victim!  Blame for the victim for her terrible  “Culture 
> 
> > of Poverty.”
> >
> > Remember, this section is about ways in which being a Democrat and 
> 
> > being Black is “not all that I am.”  In other words, this section  
> > is implicitly about how he is not about Democrat “liberal  
> > permissiveness” and the “black pathology” which "everybody" knows  
> > is about all you need to know about "being Black” in America.
> >
> > He just said “I believe in the free market” but here he says “our  
> > values and spiritual life matter at least as much as our GDP.”  Let
>  
> > him tell that to the boys at the Wall Street Journal and the New  
> > York Times.  This "breakdown" occurs all over the world wherever  
> > the “free market” religion takes hold.  It is one of the central  
> > contradictions of capitalism (but alas, the fact that I even use a 
> 
> > phrase like “contradictions of capitalism” shows how “smug,  
> > detached, and dogmatic” I am).
> >
> > Last, but certainly not least, comes this:
> >
> > “I think America has more often been a force for good than for ill 
> 
> > in the world
  and revere the courage and competence of our
> military
”
> >
> > Ah! The age-old myth of “American Exceptionalism.”  When I was  
> > still young and naive (that is, before I was forty), I used to  
> > genuflect at this altar.  As late as the 1991 Gulf War I was one of
>  
> > those suckers who insisted on displaying an American flag at all  
> > our antiwar events.  When I ran for office, my original design for 
> 
> > a campaign flyer included a little American flag in the corner.   
> > Thank goodness Carole Hanisch, my graphics expert, convinced me to 
> 
> > drop that bullshit.  The end result was much more attractive and  
> > effective.  Today, I agree 100% with Howard Zinn, who recently  
> > wrote a powerful essay on this matter.
> >
> >
> > The notion of American exceptionalism—that the United States alone 
> 
> > has the right, whether by divine sanction or moral obligation, to  
> > bring civilization, or democracy, or liberty to the rest of the  
> > world, by violence if necessary—is not new. It started as early as 
> 
> > 1630 in the Massachusetts Bay Colony when Governor John Winthrop  
> > uttered the words that centuries later would be quoted by Ronald  
> > Reagan. Winthrop called the Massachusetts Bay Colony a “city upon a
>  
> > hill.” Reagan embellished a little, calling it a “shining city on a
>  
> > hill.”
> > The idea of a city on a hill is heartwarming. It suggests what  
> > George Bush has spoken of: that the United States is a beacon of  
> > liberty and democracy. People can look to us and learn from and  
> > emulate us.
> > In reality, we have never been just a city on a hill. A few years  
> > after Governor Winthrop uttered his famous words, the people in the
>  
> > city on a hill moved out to massacre the Pequot Indians. Here’s a  
> > description by William Bradford, an early settler, of Captain John 
> 
> > Mason’s attack on a Pequot village.
> > . . .
> > Some liberals in this country, opposed to Bush, nevertheless are  
> > closer to his principles on foreign affairs than they want to  
> > acknowledge.
> > . . .
> > The major newspapers, television news shows, and radio talk shows  
> > appear not to know history, or prefer to forget it. There was an  
> > outpouring of praise for Bush’s second inaugural speech in the  
> > press, including the so-called liberal press (The Washington Post, 
> 
> > The New York Times). The editorial writers eagerly embraced Bush’s 
> 
> > words about spreading liberty in the world, as if they were  
> > ignorant of the history of such claims, as if the past two years’  
> > worth of news from Iraq were meaningless.
> > Only a couple of days before Bush uttered those words about  
> > spreading liberty in the world, The New York Times published a  
> > photo of a crouching, bleeding Iraqi girl. She was screaming. Her  
> > parents, taking her somewhere in their car, had just been shot to  
> > death by nervous American soldiers.
> > .  .  .
> > The true heroes of our history are those Americans who refused to  
> > accept that we have a special claim to morality and the right to  
> > exert our force on the rest of the world. I think of William Lloyd 
> 
> > Garrison, the abolitionist. On the masthead of his antislavery  
> > newspaper, The Liberator, were the words, “My country is the world.
>  
> > My countrymen are mankind.”
> >
> >
> >
> > Dennis Kucinich is the best progressive (The Black Commentator has 
> 
> > said Dennis is “the blackest” candidate), but Dennis probably  
> > cannot be nominated.
> >
> > Edwards may be stronger on domestic policy.  Edwards is sharp but  
> > Obama is sharper.  Some naïve souls may think the white guy from  
> > North Carolina will do well Dixie like Carter and Bill Clinton.   
> > Carter and Clinton did what they did then.  This is now.  I agree  
> > 100% with Thomas Schaller who flatly says that it’s high time for  
> > Democrats to forget about the South because the Republican “own”  
> > the South today.
> >
> > Finally, as I have already said publicly many times, Hillary Rodham
>  
> > Clinton, with her ethically-challenged Clintonesque wishy-washiness
>  
> > is a disaster.
> >
> > In conclusion, Barack Obama is a good guy.  He may be the best and 
> 
> > the brightest that the Democratic Party  has to offer.
> >
> > I leave it to you to interpret my meaning.
> >
> >
> > Alex Walker
> >
> > Check out the new AOL. Most comprehensive set of free safety and  
> > security tools, free access to millions of high-quality videos from
>  
> > across the web, free AOL Mail and more.
> > _______________________________________________
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> 
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___________________

JamBoi
Jammy The Sacred Cow Slayer

"Live humbly, laugh often and love unconditionally" (anon)
http://dailyJam.blogspot.com

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