U.S. Political Establishment Lines Up Behind Barack Obama
February 13th, 2008I finally read something about the Obama religion that wasn’t a bunch of bullshit!
Via: World Socialist Web Site:
It is necessary to distinguish sharply between the political shift among working people and youth, a movement to the left which presages the outbreak of mass social and political struggles, and the efforts of the ruling elite to manipulate popular sentiments, manufacture illusions, and disarm the masses politically.
The Obama campaign is not the vehicle of a leftward movement in the United States—as proclaimed by liberal groups such as MoveOn.org and publications like The Nation. It is a preemptive attack by the ruling class against such a movement. Its function is to delude the American people and divert their growing opposition to war, economic crisis and attacks on democratic rights back into the dead-end of the Democratic Party.
While the American people will cast ballots on November 4, the real decisions are made long before then, in the selection of candidates and framing of the election by the media and the corporate bosses and billionaires who finance and politically screen the candidates.
It was millions in “startup money” from wealthy backers that made it possible for a very junior senator from Illinois, a man who four years ago was serving in the Illinois state legislature and unknown nationally, to become a viable presidential candidate.
The largely flattering treatment of the Obama campaign, not only in the liberal sections of the media but in the right-wing press as well—Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post endorsed him in the February 5 primary in that state—demonstrates a broader agreement in the ruling elite that some sort of new departure in US politics may be required. This, of course, will be a cosmetic and not a fundamental shift.
Virtually all sections of the US ruling elite have now drawn the conclusion that the Bush administration is a disastrous failure. The world standing of America has declined catastrophically, while the base for imperialist policies has eroded within the United States itself, as the vast majority of the American people rejects the war in Iraq and opposes its extension into Iran, Syria, Pakistan or other potential targets.
The president who enters the White House in January 2009 will face immense crises both at home and abroad. To address these crises from the standpoint of the needs of the financial aristocracy will require the imposition of unprecedented sacrifices on the American people. That in turn will require a new political approach—a turn to the Democratic Party, which has always been relied upon by big business to use its image as the “party of the people” to defend the profit system.
The huge swing to the Democratic Party in campaign contributions from big business reflects this emerging consensus. According to recent financial reports to the Federal Election Commission, investment bankers have tilted their financial support overwhelmingly to the Democratic Party, giving roughly equal amounts to Clinton and Obama. In total contributions, both Clinton and Obama collected more than $100 million apiece in 2007, more than twice the largest amount raised by any Republican, while Obama raised an additional $32.6 million in January 2008 alone.
Among those backing the Obama campaign are such pillars of the US political establishment as Zbigniew Brzezinski, national security adviser to President Jimmy Carter and an arch-Cold Warrior; retired Air Force General Merrill McPeak and a host of other retired military brass; billionaire Warren Buffett, the second-richest man in America; and an array of Wall Street and corporate executives, none of whom could be suspected of any sympathy for radical social change.
Related: Democrats in Oblivion
Related: The Education of Cindy Sheehan
Research Credit: Idleworm
As we (i.e. regulars at crytogon) have all long ago realized, the Democratic Party is simply ‘good cop’, and the Republicans are simply ‘bad cop’. Anyone who thinks the Democrats (at least, the “electable” ones) are going to change the fundamental problems of our country, (top of the list being the absolute domination of the military-industrial complex) is swimming in a sea of ignorance.
Bottom line: the Machine ain’t stopping until it breaks or runs out of fuel, period. Elections are little hood-ornaments at best.
The article states:
“The largely flattering treatment of the Obama campaign, not only in the liberal sections of the media but in the right-wing press as well—Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post endorsed him in the February 5 primary in that state—demonstrates a broader agreement in the ruling elite that some sort of new departure in US politics may be required. This, of course, will be a cosmetic and not a fundamental shift.”
Obama? Osama? Obama looks like another planned fall guy for elite’s war on the poor and middle class people during the upcoming depression. Bush will have safely passed Go and collected his $200.
“The only road to progressive social change in the United States is the road of the political independence of the working class, through a break with the Democratic Party and the whole structure of capitalist politics, and the building of a mass political movement based on a socialist and internationalist perspective.”
Apparently this guy is a PsyOp agent as well.
I talked with some nice Obama people the other day. I voiced more or less this sentiment, but they were convinced he was a breakout despite a lack of any means of vetting that hypothesis or even assigning a reasonable probability to it.
I for one lost interest in the whole political game years ago, but lost all interest in supporting a candidate in the 2008 horseshit race when John Edwards blew it off.I figured he knew that the powers that be were going to do something nasty to him if he even got close to it. Ditto for Paul and Kucinich.
The speech by Obama at the Democratic Convention years ago was inspiring. If your memory serves you, Hilary Clinton got Obama the podium at the convention. Years later, I think Carolyn Baker said – read this speech, and hmm? If a white man said it aloud it would be no biggee. And I agree.
I for one, with my very dark perception into US politics, believe that Obama is being set up by the elite establishment as a sacrifice by those who never cease to control the world to their own ends. And who knows what these creeps are thinkin?
But Obama. I think that the Establishment has picked him as their representative is VERY BAD NEWS FOR HIM.
For those of you who might want to get the back story here is something I read 2 years ago.
Has stuck with me since.
http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2006/12/lutin200612
Obama is being used a tool. Whatever his merits, he is just another tool.
Stir up the hope in the masses, A BLACK MAN AS PRESIDENT. Sure, but whatever hope that might give to the masses, there will be a Lee Harvey Oswald, or a John Hinkley, etc,etc.
Sorry for my dark thoughts but this is how I see it.
Zionist corporate chieftain knights Obama
http://mparent7777-2.blogspot.com/2008/02/zionist-corporate-chieftain-knights.html
The Crown family are hardcore Zionist/Mil-Industrial Complex. (General Dynamics)
This endorsement alone should ruin Obama in the eyes of anyone still with illusions.
While I have to agree with you “in principle” Kev, I think you already know quite well what’s happening “in practice” with this intriguing little “socialist” screed — being an RAW fan and all that jazz… =)
“…The World Socialist Web Site opposes all those who seek to bolster the shattered credibility of the Democratic Party. The only road to progressive social change in the United States is the road of the political independence of the working class, through a break with the Democratic Party and the whole structure of capitalist politics, and the building of a mass political movement based on a socialist and internationalist perspective.”
# # #
And just who exactly is funding these guys, I wonder?
@ Miraculix
wsws has been around forever (1998). They’re a bunch of Trotskyist numbnuts. You know, proletarian revolution, world socialism, and all of that bullshit. The site is funded by reader donations.
While it’s unfortunate that this piece was published on wsws, I don’t really care. Truth be known, I was trying to force myself to write a very similar piece about the Obama situation, but I just can’t take this nonsense (U.S. national elections) seriously anymore.
So, sure, the communists are still talking about a proletarian revolution… Look, if the Tooth Fairy (or capitalists or libertarians, etc) wrote a decent piece that saves me from having to pull what’s left of my hair out, I’d post that one too.
Mike Gravel is pretty good, except his sales tax plan. He was overlooked. http://www.gravel2008.us/issues