I Can Believe in Obama No More

Dear Friends,


I owe the title of today's blog to a commentary by Myles Spicer that was published in the Minneapolis Star Tribune today (here). In the commentary he explains with great clarity why he no longer admires President Obama.  You should read it.

As we all watch with horror the events that have unfolded and are unfolding in Japan, the list of reasons why I can no longer believe in President Obama continues to grow virtually daily.  There are too many items to describe each in detail, but here is a list with a short summary.

In light of the nuclear disaster that is taking place in Japan, we need to recall that President Obama after accepting lots of money from the nuclear power industry, proposed $8 billion in subsidies to begin to build more nuclear power plants.  In addition, today in his testimony in Congress, Secretary of Energy Chu continued to claim that the nuclear power plants in the United States are safe and so well planned that they can withstand any assault from nature.  What arrogance!!  How can we possibly think that we are smarter or more cautious than the Japanese especially when it comes to the dangers of nuclear disasters?  It is time for President Obama to forget about the money and get on with the business of establishing a sane energy policy for the United States that doesn't rely on fossil fuels or nuclear reactions.

Governor Walker of Wisconsin held a fundraiser on Saturday in Washburn, Wisconsin last Saturday.  I was in the area and joined the protest.  Here is the report from the Duluth News Tribune.  One of the many wonderful signs at the protest simply said "Where is Obama?"  What a great question.  As you saw from my last post, candidate Obama promised that if anybody tried to take away workers' rights to collective bargain, he would join them on the picket line.  Well, not only has he not joined the picket lines, he has stayed above the fray while his base has been mobilized in a way unseen for many years.  He is on the wrong side of history on this issue, and it is severely damaging our democracy.  The anti-union movement is not just about getting rid of collective bargaining.  It is about eliminating any group with money that has any chance of competing with the huge amounts of money being spent by corporations and billionaires like the Koch brothers. 

There are many other states that are doing what Wisconsin did and even worse, and President Obama is watching from the sidelines.  While there is reporting on the activities in some states there is virtually no reporting on what is happening in Michigan.  The legislature is about to finalize a bill that would permit the Governor to appoint an emergency financial manager for local units of government and school boards who could abrogate contracts, including collective bargaining agreements, sell off assets, dissolve the unit of government, determine which laws should be enforced and essentially displace the elected officials.  President Obama should argue vehemently against this assault on democracy, but not a word is spoken.

President Obama has also abandoned any pretense of supporting human rights.  You may recall that Bradley Manning is the soldier accused of leaking documents to WikiLeaks.  Private Manning has been subjected to forced nudity.  Even the military has admitted that they force Private Manning to sleep nude.  By any measure this treatment is a violation of Private Manning's human rights.  Unfortunately, not only is President Obama condoning this violation of human rights, he is supporting it.  Here is the report from The New York Times.  To make matters even worse, Phillip Crowley, a State Department spokesman was forced to resign because he had the courage to call the treatment "ridiculous, counterproductive and stupid" which of course it is.

President Obama has also essentially abandoned his goal of closing the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay and has ordered the resumption of military tribunals.  President Obama continues to violate human rights and argue that he has the authority to imprison people forever simply on the basis of his designation of that person as an enemy combatant, a term made up by President George W. Bush.  Other than his statements as a candidate, I cannot see any practical difference between President Obama's actions with respect to these prisoners and those of President George W. Bush.

President Obama's reaction to the struggle for democracy and freedom in Middle East has ranged from lukewarm to hostile.  He was slow to support the demonstrators in Egypt, he is now letting Gaddafi brutally murder the protesters in Libya by his inaction.  He has condoned if not agreed to the influx of Saudi troops into Bahrain to violently quell the protests there.  What a surprise!!  Oil will trump United States core values every time.  I guess that means that oil supplies are our one true core value.  Once again the United States, lead by President Obama, is on the wrong side of history.  His actions do not just violate our values, they make us less safe.

President Obama has also adopted the narrative that the United States is in a financial crisis.  We certainly were in a financial crisis and government spending and other government actions help mitigate that crisis and get us on the road to recovery.  Now we are being placed in a financial crisis by the Republicans who will shut off federal government aid to the states and other spending.  The Republicans will use this manufactured financial crisis to destroy government and secure all the power for the very rich and the corporate interests.  Instead of standing up for the principles on which the Democratic Party was founded, President Obama meekly accepts the Republican narrative and offers to cut heating fuel aid to the poor and elderly while agreeing to extend the tax cuts for the rich.  Those are only two examples.  He has lost the right to call himself a Democrat.

President Obama thinks he needs $1 billion for his re-election campaign.  The only people with that much money are big corporations and billionaires, so he is adopting policies that will permit him to get money from them.  He has abandoned any pretext of being an agent of change and hope and has therefor abandoned all of us that supported him because he professed to be an agent of change and hope.

Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal