"The media-fed progressive confusion is mainly about Obama"

[Bluebear]

by Paul Street
12/28/07

The main reason I haven’t criticized Hillary as much as Obama is simple. My audience at Z-Net and other outlets (Z Magazine, Black Agenda Report, Dissident Voice among other outlets) is disproportionately Left and left-liberal (more left than liberal in my case) and that readership is not particularly beholden to progressive illusions about Mrs. Clinton. My basic perspective on Hillary – that she represents the corporate and imperial wing of the Democratic Party (so does Obama) – is already widely shared by the people who read the outlets in which my work appears. I don’t have a lot of “anti-Hillary” work to do in the circles my essays tend to inhabit. And I don’t run into a lot of liberal-lefties who think (absurdly) that Hillary Clinton is one of them. For what it’s worth, Hillary signs are relatively sparse in my particularly “progressive” Iowa City precinct.

Things are different with Obama, whose signs (“HOPE – Obama ’08”) are highly visible in my supposedly left-leaning neighborhood. For whatever reasons – and race is part of the equation - the corporate “player” Barack Obama has been able to convince a large number of leftish sorts that he’s on their side. This is sadly ironic since Obama is now running closer to the G.O.P. than Hillary. You don’t see Hillary inveighing against the supposed menace of “partisanship” or taking up right-wing talking points on Social Security by joining Barack in claiming that the system is in “crisis” and therefore in need of drastic reform. You don’t see her reaching out to the evangelical right and making fundraising appearances with gay-bashing fundamentalist preachers like Obama’s good campaign friend Donnie McClurkin.

Recently we have witnessed the sorry spectacle of “progressive” Obama sounding like Rudy Guliani in denouncing Hillary and Edwards’ health care plans for imposing the terrible “government mandate” of actually universal coverage. Obama’s plan would let young adults who feel strong and healthy stay outside the risk pool until they require significant medical attention.

And now Obama has sharpened the starboard tack of his campaign by criticizing Edwards for getting support from independent labor groups. According to Barack, (whose message of non-partisan harmony and getting things done with Republicans and corporations does not sit very well with union workers), this support shows that Edwards is beholden to the kind of “special interests” that “have too much influence in Washington”. Never mind that unions’ fading power rests upon the small contributions of working-class individuals with relatively little wealth and influence compared to that of the truly rich and powerful investor class that exercises the lion’s share of “special interest” control over U.S. government and politics. According to liberal New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, Obama has moved to Clinton’s right on domestic policy (something hard to do and still call oneself a “Democrat”)at least.


Krugman has done his readers and the progressive community a great service by documenting and critically analyzing Obama’s rightward drift but I think he is too kind to Obama when he chalks the BaRockstar’s reactionary tilt up to the senator’s “naïve” desire to seem nonpartisan. There’s nothing naïve about Obama: he’s a cold-blooded, Chicago-based and Daley-schooled corporate opportunist who does not believe much of his own campaign drivel and imagery. He is receiving many millions of election dollars from the real “special interests” that most significantly control U.S. society, culture, politics, and policy: leading global investment firms and other powerful corporate interests like Exelon (the secret to his pro-nuclear stance). Those who pay the piper call the tune.

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=90&ItemID=14612

[VarnettaTuckpocket]

1. Step away from the kool-aid Obamites, you've had enough n/t

[Lucinda]

2. Interesting stuff. Thanks!

[Beacool]

3. Wow, nice to know that not everyone is drinking the Obama Kool-Aid!!!

I particularly agree with this sentence:

There’s nothing naïve about Obama: he’s a cold-blooded, Chicago-based and Daley-schooled corporate opportunist who does not believe much of his own campaign drivel and imagery.

He has the audacity, not of hope, but of arrogance to think that with his minimal time in the senate he's remotely qualified to be president.

[Seabiscuit]

4. Thanks, Bluebear. K&R

[Bluebear]

7. I love your sig line :)

[denem]

5. Yes - Thankyou

Follow the Money, http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=14448

Wow.

Obama IS running to the right of Hillary Clinton. And the media has got the message. It's eerie, how GLBT human rights are, once again, the canary in the coalmine. Or maybe not ;)

[VarnettaTuckpocket]

6. I agree, Obamites would've shifted their support to Edwards after McClurkin

If they truly believed in gay equality, and were truly interested in an anti-Hillary running to the left of her. I don't think that even describes a lot of them, I don't think they are as progressive as they claim to be. Nobody, especially on a political junkie message board like this, could be so willfully ignorant of Obama's true conservative nature.

[Bluebear]

8. You said it. nt

[chascarrillo]

9. Edwards???

Jesus!

Edwards is the least progressive of any of the Democratic candidates on LGBT issues. That's just nuts.

[Bluebear]

10. National LGBT Leaders Endorse John Edwards For President

Chapel Hill, North Carolina – The John Edwards for President campaign announced today that prominent LGBT leaders from across the country endorsed Senator John Edwards for President.

"I am honored to have the support of so many well-respected LGBT leaders," said Edwards. "They work hard every day to make our country a better place and I am proud to join with them to fight for equal rights for all Americans."

The following LGBT leaders endorsed Edwards for President:

* Skip Paul, Corporate Executive
* Darren Star, TV Producer
* Julie Johnson, Human Rights Campaign Public Policy Committee Co-Chair
* Eric Stern, Former National Stonewall Democrats Executive Director; Former Democratic National Committee LGBT Outreach Director
* David Mixner, Former Bill Clinton for President Adviser; LGBT activist, fundraiser, author www.davidmixner.com
* Dennis Erdman, TV Producer/ Director
* Mary Snider, Human Rights Campaign Board of Directors Executive Committee Member
* David Tseng, Kerry-Edwards 2004 National LGBT Advisory Committee Co-Chair; Former Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) National Executive Director
* David Mariner, Former Out for Howard Dean Co-Chair; Founder, www.outfordemocracy.org
* James Duff, TV Producer
* Ramon Gardenhire, National Stonewall Democrats Black Caucus Co-Chair; Former DNC LGBT Deputy Outreach Director
* Scott Benson, Majority Leader Minneapolis City Council
* Shane Larson, AFL-CIO Pride @ Work National Executive Board Member; Association of Flight Attendants (AFA)-Communications Workers of America (CWA) Government Affairs Director
* Scott Wiener, Human Rights Campaign Board of Directors Member; San Francisco Democratic Party Chair* (for identification purposes only)
* Jeff Gardner, Garden State Equality Vice Chair; New Jersey for Democracy Co-Chair
* Lynne Wiggins, Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) National Leadership Council Member; Former Human Rights Campaign Board of Governors Member
* Ken Keechl, Broward County Commissioner; Former Dolphin Democrats President
* Linda Elliott, Human Rights Committee Board of Directors Member
* Dave Garrity, Former Democratic National Committee Member
* Mark Periello, Former Human Rights Campaign staff member; Democratic strategist
* Ron Ginsburg, LGBT Community Activist; business owner
* Randall Kelly, LGBT Community Activist; attorney
* Stephanie Kornegay, LGBT Community Activist; business owner
* Robert D. Horvath, Mautner Project Board of Directors Member
* Patrick J. Lyden, LGBT Community Activist; Homeland Security Advisor

http://www.johnedwards.com/news/press-releases/200700410-lgbt/

[Anouka]

11. Anything I say in regards to why....

will get me banned.