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The progressive Green Party would welcome the thousands (or
millions?} of disgruntled Left Wing Democrats.<br>
<br>
Fred Duperrault, Mountain View, CA<br>
<br>
On 12/29/10 12:37 AM, Melvin Rothenberg wrote:
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Although Obama has made some tactical mistakes-particularly in his
timing of his health care bill- I consider him far from
politically incompetent. I think he has basically accomplished his
legislative agenda. The trouble is that his agenda was not our
agenda. <br>
<br>
It still seems difficult for progressives to grasp that Obama is
a centrist, which means that his politics are sharply different
from ours. He is very aware of the contradictions and acts very
consciously and skillfully to marginalize us politically while
minimizing the alienation of his electoral base. On every
important issue, whether it be the Afghan/ Pakistan invasion,
immigration, the prison-industrial complex, job creation, schools,
the housing crises, tax policy we differ profoundly. <br>
<br>
If we look at Obama's legislative accomplishments there are only
two that progressives can endorse. The Start Initiative is on
balance positive but but of minimal, almost trivial, content in
controlling nuclear weapons, and in any case badly motivated. To
Obama it is mainly a gesture to Russia, in his attempt to line up
Russian endorsement of sanctions on Iran- sanctions which in
themselves are retrograde. The DADT repeal is a genuine step
forward on Gay rights but has its downside in beefing up and
legitimatizing the military. The other legislative achievements
are either window dressing, like the financial reform act, which
has no real substance, or so profoundly flawed that their
negatives out weigh the positives such as the Health Reform bill,
or actually reactionary with no redeeming feature such as
extending the Bush tax cuts. The extension of unemployment
insurance included in the tax cut bill should have and could have
been done as a stand alone bill which would have certainly passed
if fought for despite Republican noise. <br>
<br>
The central point of Mark Stahl's commentary is certainly
correct. Our future as a political force does not lie either in
pushing Obama left or convincing progressives to " Save the
Dems". We only have a future if we can mobilize massively , in
the streets and in the community, around our program and
politics. We must take as models the Civil Rights and earlier
Anti-War movements however we must be able to mobilize around a
much broader set of issues. Such a campaign will involve
pressuring elected officials, not on the basis of gaining partisan
advantage, but positively in terms of social justice and
negatively out of fear of civil disorder and upheaval. In this
situation our focus cannot be on promoting or electing any
particular politician or party. This is how these earlier
movements accomplished what they did. In the process we might
change the character of US electoral politics but this will be the
result of our success not its precondition. <br>
<br>
Mel Rothenberg<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
On 12/29/10 1:18 AM, Mark Stahl wrote:
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<div>Phyllis Bennis and Kevin Martin, in a recent posting on
AlterNet, have written an excellent analysis of Obama's failed
policy in Afghanistan. However, I found their political
discussion at the end to be surprising and unsupportable, even
though presented as a potentiality rather than as a
prediction.</div>
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<p>"If the president and his political team are as savvy as
everyone thinks they are (or at least were in the 2008
campaign), they’d do well to get in front of that wave and
run on a genuine peace and green prosperity platform.
Imagine if that happened, and President Obama really did
start paying attention to his anti-war base, and began
carrying out the dramatic shift in policy necessary to
insure a real withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, a
genuine move to close Guantanamo, a final withdrawal of all
remaining troops in Iraq, a serious level of pressure on
Israel to end its occupation, as well as to launch a serious
New New Deal to create green jobs and rebuild the economy…
Then not only would the president likely coast to
re-election, but the Afghan and U.S. people would be the
real beneficiaries – instead of banks, war profiteers and
Wall Street – and THAT election would really be one for the
history books." <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.alternet.org/story/149321/">http://www.alternet.org/story/149321/</a></p>
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<p>I realize that this is not a prediction, but since we are
dealing with politics and not fantasy, we have to assume that
they believe that this scenario is at least a remote
possibility. However, such a scenario is totally
unimaginable, and there is no point in even presenting it
within a serious analysis of future possibilities.</p>
<p>First, despite the media punditocracy, the recent successes
on DADT and START were not the result of Obama's "savvy"
political team, but of the utter collapse of the Republican
strategy in the Senate on these two issues. If Obama had a
competent political team, his approval rating wouldn't be so
low, nor would his party have faced a recent electoral defeat
of historic proportions. </p>
<p>Second, the history of the last two years is a total failure
by Obama and his administration on virtually every key issue,
with a greatly expanded war in Afghanistan, expanded secret
wars in Pakistan and Yemen, expansion of US military power in
Latin America, harassment of Muslim-Americans and the antiwar
movement, indefinite detentions without judicial review,
inattention to the environment, bank bailouts, tax breaks for
billionaires, and an assault on the future of Social Security.</p>
<p>All the statements that Obama has made since the recent
elections indicate that he has not the slightest intention of
reversing course in any of these areas. In fact, all the
indications are that Obama will continue his militaristic
policies around the world, continue the assault on civil
liberties, and initiate the coming "austerity" in the US with
cutbacks on Social Security, Medicare and other services. In
this context, the scenario that Bennis and Martin are asking
us to imagine is unimaginable.</p>
<p>The US peace movement has been in a state of de-mobilization
for the last three years because of the influence of
Obama-mania. However, I believe that during the next two
years, "Save Obama" or "Save the Dems" is going to be a very
hard sell for the antiwar public in the US, in view of the
abject failure of Obama, his administration, and even
"progressive" Democrats on virtually every key issue facing us
today.</p>
<p>Mark Stahl, Providence RI</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
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