We Thought That We Were Electing a Prius, and Got a Tank Instead: The Last Gasps of Empire

[kpete]

We Thought That We Were Electing a Prius, and Got a Tank Instead: The Last Gasps of Empire

MARK KARLIN FOR BUZZFLASH, EDITOR'S BLOG

.....................

We thought President Obama would be leading us into the future of of a non-fossil fuel energy policy, of healing the earth, of economic and social justice.

We didn't think that he would be the last cheerleader for a dying empire, for multi-national corporate corruption, and for an economic system built on worthless paper rather than the work born of production and sweat equity which built America into a bustling nation and won WW II.

Rather than the President leading us into the future, President Obama has turned out to be perhaps the last President with the opportunity to cut us free from the past. And, instead, he holds onto that anchor is if it were a life jacket as it pulls us down, leaving us to look longingly at what might save us from afar. The promise of an evolving and sustainable America is within our reach, but thus far not within Obama's grasp.

more:
http://blog.buzzflash.com/contributors/3311

[Hell Hath No Fury]

1. Wow.

I like his headline.

WE NEED A DAMNED PRIUS!

BTW, you are very very brave. :D :hi:

[SunsetDreams]

2. This article is nothing but Propaganda BS Rhetoric

[paulk]

39. make an argument in support of your claim, then

I realize that single sentence putdowns have become the norm for DU, but this WAS supposed to be a discussion board.

Defend your point

[polichick]

3. Wish I could disagree with this article - but I can't. The opportunity this president...

...has been given is unique and critical - if he doesn't seize it, we all lose.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

6. "...unique and critical ..."

That is it in a nutshell. I cannot remember a time I thought the country was ready for/needed a massive change in direction.

[izquierdista]

11. Except 1984, 1988, 1992. 1996, 2000, 2004...

One term of Reagan should have been enough to sober people up to what right-wing wankers can do to a country. But to keep it up for 30 years, with just a little let up under Clinton, I never knew the road to ruin could be so long and bumpy. Any one of those elections would have been a good time for a sharp left turn.

[Robert DAH Bruce]

13. I'M FREAKIN' OUT HERE!!!

THREE POSTS IN A ROW BY DUers WITH THE PEACE SIGN!!!!!

[Autumn]

43. Just block it

and quit your whining. That's what ignore is for.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

15. Of course it would have been preferable ....

but we have now reached critical mass when this type of change becomes mandatory for our survival as a country and a species. We are the Titanic and we have one last chance to change course -- and it ain't happening.

[OKNancy]

4. I like Buzzflash and I like Mark Karlin

in fact reading his site brought me to DU 9 years ago. But did he really think Obama was a "Prius" and did he really think that he was going to make radical changes? It's great to have dreamers like the author, but practical and pragmatic politics can't be avoided.
Radical changes can not take place in the political environment we have now. There are too many Republicans and conservative Democrats in Congress. For the near future that is not going to change no matter how much progressives wish for it.
So even if Obama was inclined to do what the author wishes, it's just not going to happen at the pace he wants.

[WCGreen]

22. Well stated.

[ProSense]

5. "Rather than the President leading us into the future" So he's leading us into the past?

He reformed the health care system, the first President to ever succeed at doing so.

He is leading a green revolution for the first time.

He is moving on issues largely ignored for nearly four decades.

He is on the verge of reforming the financial system, putting in place reforms that no President since Roosevelt has even attempted.

The OP article is an attempt to pass off useless opinions as insight.

[arcadian]

12. He reformed the insurance industry.

In their favor, I might add.

[cornermouse]

27. You're linking to your own posts now?

:eyes:

[The Wielding Truth]

7. I think most of us knew him. How he dealt with things in his past.

There is a huge canyon of difference between McCain and his RW fools and Obama and us. Let's not forget the reality of another 4 or eight years of uncontested Republican rule.

We have an openness now that was not present during the Bush/Cheny years. There are options and discussion and some battles are being won. It is an open door. Not all have freed themselves and not all of them realize that they even can.

We didn't have the guts to elect Kucinich,and we fell from HIllary when she used some odd political
scenarios. So we have a conservative leader who is their to rule from what he sees as the established middle. He is rapidly tiring of the fight with the say anything to make him look bad crowd on the right and he is learning to make changes.

He is our leader for now and I support the changes he has made and I hope he remembers that the Corporate power that is running this country must be his battle foe. He must fight it ruthlessly and with all the weapons at his command.

[tranche]

8. I don't see one fact or a single piece of useful information in this.

I guess he had to get something in for Friday.

[zulchzulu]

9. This purile Purist Parlor Psychobabble brought to you by...

...nothing, really.

Too much acid can make you think the World can change completely in a year and a few months.

:crazy:

[lamp_shade]

10. Fodder. Enjoy.

[Nite Owl]

14. The article is depressing

but true. Things have been done but the corporate interests always come ahead of the needs of the people so we get halfway measures not real change. He's either afriad of them or part of them. We'll see as time goes on.

[mix]

16. k&r nt

[Yuugal]

17. K&R

[treestar]

18. I really don't think our 60+ years use of oil

Should fall entirely onto our current President.

[vaberella]

21. Most of the people posting here can't even function without oil.

Unless they're Amish.

[tledford]

48. What did gasoline automobiles run on from 1895 to 1950? eom

[girl gone mad]

19. k & r

[autorank]

20. Nice post kpete k*r

Imitation is the highest form of flattery;)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=8637178&mesg_id=8637178
:hi:

[DCBob]

23. I think he is trying but it will take more than electing one good man...

to change the world that dramatically in 18 months.

[pundaint]

24. No no, too much truthiness to discuss...

I can't hear you, nyah nyah

[Name removed]

25. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[ncteechur]

26. Absolutely!

[Forkboy]

29. Deal with it. Not your site.

[MissDeeds]

30. Yeah

I thought that kind of thing wasn't permitted under the new DU rules.

[jgraz]

34. Some people have reading impairments. Let's try to be tolerant.

[MissDeeds]

38. Ouch!

:toast:

[MissDeeds]

28. Thanks, kpete

K&R

:kick:

[inna]

31. kr (actually showed as +1)

[Douglas Carpenter]

32. I frankly NEVER for one single second imagined we were electing a Prius

Furthermore anyone who was not deaf, dumb and blind surely must have realized that any viable candidate who was not going to be utterly marginalized before they even got off the ground would have to be "a cheerleader for a dying empire, for multi-national corporate corruption, and for an economic system built on worthless paper rather than the work born of production and sweat equity which built America into a bustling nation and won WW II.

Any candidate who was not those things would most certainly have not been taken seriously by the political establishment and the media as a credible candidate.

Anyone who had their eyes and ears open at all, knew from the very beginning that candidate Obama, like every other "serious candidate" seeking the Democratic Party nomination - was a centrist, "DLC-lite" type candidate. What on earth did people think he meant way back in 1984 when running as a candidate for the U.S. Senate when in his national debut, he spoke of "no red states, no blue states"?

"Hope and Change" are hardly specific proposals like slashing the military budget and implementing single-payer health care for all. Except for some vague and nondescript rhetorical flourishes that career politician have always employed, candidate Obama never really pretended to be anything but a career, establishment Democratic Party career politician. This was always crystal clear to all but the willfully blind.

I supported Obama in 2008 - not because I thought for one single second that he was going bring social democracy to America or even reestablish the Great Society and the New Deal - or because I thought that he would bring a just and lasting peace to the Middle East or alter the fundamental nature of American Power or challenge the power of the corporations and the banks - Frankly, I find in awesome to imagine that anyone could possibly have been that naive. I supported Obama because the alternative was to have the country run by a party now dominated by people who think a lot like the crazies on Fox News and that was certainly far, far worse and apocalyptically dangerous

[Beacool]

33. Very well said.

"Hope and Change" are hardly specific proposals like slashing the military budget and implementing single-payer health care for all. Except for some vague and nondescript rhetorical flourishes that career politician have always employed, candidate Obama never really pretended to be anything but a career, establishment Democratic Party career politician. This was always crystal clear to all but the willfully blind.

The problem was that in the GE the alternative would have been much worse.

;(

[Douglas Carpenter]

46. oops - I meant 2004 - not 1984...my mistake

[LWolf]

35. +1

[jenmito]

36. Why don't you read this and LEARN something? Warning-it proves your post wrong:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=433&topic_id=355947&mesg_id=355947

[ProSense]

40. You don't understand,

we elected Barack Obama, overlooking someone else who possessed FDR-like traits among the other candidates.

How on earth didn't we notice that someone as great or greater than FDR, and definitely more superior to President Obama was right under our noses?

The only "tank" I see is Karlin's lame commentary.

[jenmito]

45. You're right...

I can't believe how DUPED we all were by the words "hope and change" which is all it took to get Obama elected! How STUPID we were!!! Now we're stuck with somebody who's the Dem. version of Bush.

[Greyhound]

37. Popular misconception leading to continued tragedy.

:kick: & R

[Lorien]

41. Sadly I doubt that he'll be the LAST cheerleader for our dying Empire

after Citizens United, the only people we'll ever be allowed to vote for are cheerleaders. :-(

[Douglas Carpenter]

42. you're right, being a cheerleader for a dying Empire will continue to be a prerequisite

for being taken seriously as a candidate or even a mainstream commentator for some time to come - most likely until the cost in blood and wealth is just so dear - that the political class simply doesn't want to bare it anymore. Until such a time, only cheerleaders need apply.

[K8-EEE]

44. The truth is the American people are too childish to accept we lost

From the early days of this misadventure, it kids were always in charge. "Kaboom hey Saddam delivery for you, you want mushrooms on that pizza?" and etc....

Personally I think it's worth it for Obama to admit we lost and take our troops out, but if we do, we are in for Republican leadership in 2012. The support to do the right thing isn't there. Most Americans want to believe we are in invincible, "exceptional" and all that. And so we all bear some of the blame for not forcing the issue.

[Joe Chi Minh]

47. It is a wonderful thing to have a leader concerned enough to micromanage in areas

which have sorely failed people (and that is not a glib, rhetorical blandishment), but tragic that the gates held closed by the multinationals, the effective macromanagers of the country, are out of bounds to the President.

[volvoblue]

49. I just love those with magical thinking

we are going to switch to all green overnight. presto chango.
So many live in unreality world where they think things just change in a snap because they want it to.
they have no clue about how long a transition takes.

[elana i am]

50. i didn't think i was getting a prius

i thought i was getting a centerist DLC dem.

really, if any article is going to rail against obama for his shortcomings they need to at least start from a position of intellectual honesty. he's not doing things any different than he said he would while campaigning.

obama did not campaign on being a liberal or a progressive. "hope and change" was never the slogan for a new style of progressive governing and we progressive types were never the market being targeted with that slogan.

considering he's NOT a liberal or a progressive i think he's doing pretty damn good. he's gone beyond my expectations of a centerist DLC dem.

[Odin2005]

51. K&R