Forum Post: Something I really do not understand
Posted 12 years ago on Nov. 5, 2011, 4:46 p.m. EST by moolah
(1)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
Something I do not understand is how most of you were the one bashing and blaming bush for every problem under the sun, and now there is no accountability for the current president.
When Obama was sworn into office democrats had held both the house and senate since 2006, they held it up until fall 2010. In (coming up on) four years under Obama's watch we have spent more than bush did in eight years. Was nearly two years not enough time to do something? To at least slow down spending? Or making this economy more conducive for businesses to conduct business? Or how about the transparency he promised upon election?
One theory as to why people wont place blame on Obama is that the very people who labeled the tea party, "neocons", republicans and so on racist for calling out Obama on lies and faild policy, are scared of the label themselves.
Could someone maybe shed some light?
Who cares about Obama. Politicians are crooks, all of them.
That basically sums it up.
I think I can help you. OWS is not the democratic party's version of the Tea party. Not only do we not support Obama, his administration is PART OF WHAT WE ARE PROTESTING. As Glenn greenwald and others have been pointing out very early on "The very idea that one can effectively battle Wall Street’s corruption and control by working for the Democratic Party is absurd on its face: Wall Street’s favorite candidate in 2008 was Barack Obama, whose administration — led by a Wall Street White House Chief of Staff and Wall-Street-subservient Treasury Secretary and filled to the brim with Goldman Sachs officials — is now working hard to protect bankers from meaningful accountability (and though he’s behind Wall Street’s own Mitt Romney in the Wall Street cash sweepstakes this year, Obama is still doing well); one of Wall Street’s most faithful servants is Chuck Schumer, the money man of the Democratic Party; and the second-ranking Senate Democrat acknowledged — when Democrats controlled the Congress — that the owners of Congress are bankers. " http://www.salon.com/2011/09/28/protests_21/
I can see where your confusion arises though. Since mocking/dismissing us has failed The Democratic Party Establishment is trying desperately to hijack OWS in the same way that the Republicans hijacked the Tea Party. They'll offer up some populist sounding rhetoric, but work against us on the substance. (for instance, you'll note that OWS has called out Obama today over backroom deals with bankers to shield them from prosecution after they illegally evicted people from their homes)
MSNBC (the corporate mouthpiece for the democrats) is trying to divert all this energy back into electoral politics---where it meaningless can do no harm to the status quo. That is not to say they haven't given us some good lip service, but ultimately they are just trying to capitalize on OWS to further the Democrats. Also they aren't shy about chiding us for "lacking leadership", "organization" (i.e. our organizational model is resistant to being co-opted by their Party) and "clear realistic goals" (in their worldview, the status quo is an inevitable reality that cannot be challenged, and we ought to restrict our selves to supporting meaningless reformist rhetoric and empty gestures from democrats)
FoxNews (corporate mouthpiece for the republicans) recognizes this strategy on the part of MSNBC, and responds by trying to demonize us with all kinds of propaganda.
OWS is not a movement about electoral politics. Rather, it is simply one part of a shift in consciousness taking place across the world--- one that transcends the notion that change will come from electing leaders in a rigged and fake democracy bought-out by plutocrats.
If your interested, George Carlin articulates the message (the CLEAR and well founded message we have been repeating since day one) very well: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYIC0eZYEtI&feature=related
Anyone?