The Devil and Mr. Obama
December 10th, 2009My dismissive contempt for anyone who buys into the “political process” in the U.S. has drained my bile on this issue. I just can’t get worked up over it anymore. I try to huff and puff and grit my teeth, but then all that comes out is, “Forget it. Hell is dealing with true believers.”
In general, Americans represent a collective battered spouse who hopes that the batterer will change. Spitting teeth and squinting through two black eyes, they usually go back for more of the same.
This isn’t politics. It’s pathology.
—Update—
For whatever it’s worth, the one about the Goldman Sachs blood funnel goes well with this.
—End Update—
Via: Joe Bageant:
Well lookee here! An invite from my limey comrades to recap Barack Obama’s first year in office. Well comrades, I can do this thing two ways. I can simply state that the great mocha hope turned out to be a Trojan horse for Wall Street and the Pentagon. Or I can lay in an all-night stock of tequila, limes and reefer and puke up the entire miserable tale like some 5,000 word tequila purged Congolese stomach worm. I have chosen to do the latter.
As you may know, Obama’s public approval ratings are taking a beating. Millions of his former cult members have awakened with a splitting hangover to find their pockets turned inside out and eviction notices on the doors of their 4,000 square foot subprime mortgaged cardboard fuck boxes. Many who voted for Obama out of disgust for the Bush regime are now listening to the Republicans again on their car radios as they drive around looking for a suitable place to hide their vehicles from the repo man. Don’t construe this as support for the GOP. It’s just the standard ping ponging of disappointment and disgust that comes after the honeymoon is over with any administration. Most Americans’ party affiliations are the same as they were when Bush was elected. After all, Obama did not get elected on a landslide by any means; he got 51% of the vote.
Right now his approval ratings are in the 40th percentile and would be headed for the basement of the league were it not for the residual effect of the Kool-Aid love fest a year ago. However, millions of American liberals remain faithful, and believe Obama will arise from the dead in the third year and ascend to glory. You will find them at Huffington Post.
This frustrating ping pong game in which the margin of first time, disenchanted and undecided voters are batted back and forth has become the whole of American elections. That makes both the Republican and Democratic parties very happy, since it keeps the game down to fighting the enemy they know, each other, as opposed to being forced to deal with the real issues, or worse yet, an independent or third party candidate who might have a solution or two.
Thus, the game is limited to two players between two corporate parties. One is the Republican Party, which believes we should hand over our lives and resources directly to the local Chamber of Commerce, so the chamber can deliver them to the big corporations. The other, the Democratic Party, believes we should hand our lives and resources to a Democratic administration — so it alone can deliver our asses to the big dogs who own the country. In the big picture it’s always about who gets to deliver the money to the Wall Street hyena pack.
Essay of the year. Glad to see it here.
I very much agree with Mangrove; essay of the year.
(I also strongly agree with Kevin’s pathology comment and take the notion seriously. I recommend Robert D. Hare on the subject. http://hare.org)
There are two slightly different versions of Joe’s essay. The original as linked here by Kevin, and one on alternet, differing (mostly?) in the beginning:
To the Hope and Change Crowd — How’s It Working Out for You?
http://www.alternet.org/politics/144460/to_the_hope_and_change_crowd_–_how%27s_it_working_out_for_you?page=entire
(I prefer the alternet version as far as the writing composition goes, but the original is truer to the context of it’s origin.)