The writing below appeared in the Marin Independent Journal on Tuesday, February 2, 2010 in the Opinion Page under “Marin Voice” Norman Solomon, author of this writing, is so far to the LEFT, he thinks Obama is a CENTRIST. Mr. Solomon, Obama is a Marxist, Socialist / Communist. Where were you educated? Where did you learn these ideas? I think your future is in Cuba,Venezuela or Russia. . Castro, Chavez and Putin would love your input to help their countries prosper.
Our Comments to this writing appear at the end of the article.
Marin Voice: Is the progressive base eroding?
By Norman Solomon
Posted: 02/02/2010 09:37:06 AM PST
WHEN A LARGE crowd gathered at the Sausalito Cruising Club to watch the inauguration of Barack Obama, euphoria was in the air. Many of us there had worked hard to make the historic moment possible. On that bright winter morning, we were proud, excited and hopeful. Fifty-four weeks later, the mood is very different.
Last week’s State of the Union speech added to growing worries about a grim pattern: White House concessions go to hard-right Republican leaders who rarely give the slightest ground. I want to remind progressives that Barack Obama never promised us a rose garden. While his oratory could soar, his inclinations as a politician have always been centrist.
Years ago, Obama gave us ample warning in his book “The Audacity of Hope,” which included this blunt caveat: “I serve as a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views.”
A week before he won the presidential election, I noted: “Progressives are mostly on board with the Obama campaign, even though – on paper, with his name removed – few of his positions deserve the ‘progressive’ label. We shouldn’t deceive ourselves into seeing Obama as someone he’s not. ”Yet an Obama presidency offers the possibilities that persistent organizing and coalition-building at the grassroots could be effective at moving national policy in a progressive direction.”
Those possibilities remain. There’s little point in blaming President Obama. It’s up to progressive-minded people to push back against ominous trends of the administration’s first year.
White House policies are nowhere near what’s needed to overcome corporate power, drastically reduce carbon emissions, lower unemployment through federal jobs programs, massively repair the nation’s crumbling infrastructure, fully support public education – preschool through college – and devote major resources to ensuring health care as a human right.
Such programs would require a reduction in military spending. Yet the Obama administration – while proposing a freeze on the discretionary domestic budget – has gone on a Pentagon shopping spree and is swiftly escalating U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan.
This approach is exactly what Martin Luther King Jr. challenged in his speeches about “the madness of militarism.” He warned: “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.”
Close to home, such skewed priorities are hitting us hard. Since 2001, the latest figures show, taxpayers in Marin County have sent the IRS a total of $1.5 billion to directly pay for war in Iraq and Afghanistan – enough money to provide complete health care to more than half a million people for an entire year.
If progressives in Marin and around the country sometimes erred in placing candidate Obama on an overly elevated pedestal, a few are now going to the opposite extreme. In reality, he is not now – nor has he ever been – a savior or a demon. It’s up to those of us who have a progressive vision to move it forward.
Erosion of the Democratic Party’s progressive base could lead to electoral catastrophe in November and beyond. We can’t let that happen. Along with vocal pressure from grassroots progressives, what’s needed is bold Democratic leadership – now in short supply from Washington to Sacramento. Democrats in elected positions should be willing and able to challenge the party’s hierarchy over its tepid appease-the-right policies.
Unless that happens, many activists who propelled Obama into the Oval Office will become demoralized instead of energized. ____________________________________________________
Our comments to this writing are as follows:
Mr. Solomon, you will always have your Democratic Party progressive base; and yes, the Democratic Party is facing, and will experience “electorial catastrophe in November and beyond”, and there is very little you or anyone else can do about it. Thank God the majority of Americans have realized that Obama and the progressive policies are not in the best interests of America & are taking measures to get rid of him and his followers, beginning with the democratic Governors of Virginia & New Jersey and the Senator from Massachusetts. The reasons for the demise of Obama and the ‘progressive left statists’ are many and some are described below:
1. Obama has asked us to: “Judge him by the people he surrounds himself with.” Obama’s mentors and those he surrounds himself with are Marxists. Thus, Obama is a Marxist. The majority of Americas are not in favor of Marxist principles
A. Tax the Producers and Re-Distribute the Cash to the Non Producers = Re-distribution of wealth = (“social justice”)
B. Massive Government Growth to promote “social justice”
C. Government Run Health Care System = “social justice”
D. Community Organization promoting Revolution for change (Acorn) = “social justice”
E. Radical Change in the Structure of our Society and Institutions to promote “social justice”.
F. Whatever Will Achieve the Desired “social justice” Results is Acceptable
G. Foment a Complete Collapse followed by Installation of a Completely New System that promotes “social justice”
H. Government Ownership of Private Enterprise Companies
I. Massive Government regulation (in process)
J. Take over US Energy Companies (Obama’s next agenda)
K. Open-Door Immigration Policy, especially illegal immigrants which Obama now calls “undocumented immigrants”
L. For documentation & proof of the above click on the link below
2. Obama and the left do not understand economics 101. They think profits are evil
3. Obama & the statists fail to see that when you spread the wealth around, you destroy the incentive to create wealth, employment and jobs.
4. Every President & congress person takes an oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. Obama and a majority of congress violate this oath on a daily basis.
5. Failure to understand that “Muslim terrorists want us all “dead” and think that, when captured, they should be given their “Miranda Rights” on the battlefield and tried in civilian courts.
6. Obama has put down most of us; financiers, energy producers, banks, insurance companies, police officers, doctors, nurses, hospitals, post office workers and just about everyone else who has a non green job including “AMERICA” itself to foreign & domesic audiences.
7. Promotion of national health care which is opposed by 60% of the US population
8. Openly “bribing” healthcare votes of congress in January 2010
9. Open lack of support for the US military and Israel
10. Complete lack of concern for Iranian efforts to obtain nuclear weapons & a delivery system
11. Department of Justice potential prosecution of CIA agents (who interrogate terrorists) & Navy Seals (who capture them) while reading Muslim terrorists their Miranda rights and providing them with an attorney.
12. Total Lack of Character, common sense & ability to determine what is right & wrong
13. Proposal to reduce senior medicare benefits by $500 billion over 10 years
14. No energy policy to eliminate need for foreign imports (no drilling, no nuclear)
15. Blaming corporate greed for the meltdown when the real cause was federal government law that forced banks to make loans to those who could not afford to repay the loans
16. Massive government spending – on course to further bankrupt the country . (no, this was not caused by Bush – in 12 months the budget deficit went from $800 billion under Bush in 2008 to $1.4 trillion in 2009 and a projected $1.6 trillion in 2010 under Obama)
17. Absolutely NO TRANSPARENCY on health care legislation or any thing else. (total secrecy)
18. Absolutely no bi-partisan attempt to work with republicans for the last 12 months. (we control everything here – go away)
