The Obama Disaster, at Home and Abroad
A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford
“Shutdown – a
real battle and test of wills over people's programs – is better than
Obama’s slick and slimy style of calibrated surrender.”
When you predict
disaster, it’s no fun being right. Since long before Barack Obama was
elected president, we at Black Agenda Report have said that this
center-right corporate politician is a War Democrat whose foreign policy
objectives – if not his rhetoric – are no different than George Bush’s.
With Obama’s expansion of Bush’s wars and his opening up of a new,
North African front, in Libya, we have been proved catastrophically
right – right, to the point of tears.
When we said that Obama
was a tool of the Wall Street bankers that backed his candidacy to the
hilt, and that he would repay them with trillions in return, we were
right – more right than even we imagined. We said that Obama was
obsessed with trying to forge a grand alliance with the Republicans, and
would wage an internal war against Black people’s interests and the
left wing of the Democratic Party to do it. All that has come to pass.
When the GOP took control of the U.S. House last November, we said it
marked the “End of the Age of Obama,”
and that the “best outcome that could result…is that the Republicans
overreach and, in their white nationalist triumphalism, make it
impossible for President Obama and congressional Democrats to reach an
accommodation” with them. The GOP is
over-reaching, while Obama has already sacrificed trillions in social
spending trying to split the budget difference with Republicans who
persist in seeking total victory. Obama has nothing to argue about with
the GOP, having himself placed the entire Democratic social welfare
legacy on the chopping block for the sake of deficit reduction. As we
said back in November, gridlock – shutdown – a real battle and test of
wills over people's programs, is better than Obama’s slick and slimy
style of calibrated surrender.
“How can Obama represent us, when he compromises with people who are
trying to beat our brains out.”
The Obama disaster has
forced those of us on the Black Left to organize around solid principles
and to look at the political actors in our own communities with a much
colder and unforgiving eye. So we now have the Black Is Back Coalition
for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations, that brooks no compromise
with Obamite imperialism and servitude to Wall Street. We have allied
ourselves with others on the Left, who are holding a major anti-war
mobilization in New York City on April 9, and in San Francisco on April
10. Last week, the first Black-led anti-Obama demonstration in Harlem
took place, outside a gentrified restaurant where Obama was hosting a
$30,000 a plate dinner.
Nellie Bailey, of Harlem Fightback Against Wars at Home and Abroad,
challenged hundreds of protesters to “seize the moral high ground
that has slipped away under the false illusion that Barack Obama
represents the interests of working class people, much less working
class Black people.”
Professor of Africana
Studies, Bill Sales, asked, “How can Obama represent us, when he
compromises with people who are trying to beat our brains out.” Obama,
said Sales, “is a moderate Republicrat corporate lawyer. Don't drink the
Kool-Aid.”
Charles Barron, a New
York City Councilman, said the “last straw” for him was when Obama
called up the president of South Africa demanding that former Haitian
President Aristide be prevented from returning to his homeland. In a
debate three years ago, Councilman Barron told me that he supported
Obama, despite misgivings, because he wanted “to give a brother a shot.”
Well, Obama has proven he ain't no brother. He has shot his wad, and
Black America will be a healthier place when he is gone.
For Black Agenda Radio, I'm Glen Ford. On the web, go to
www.BlackAgendaReport.com.
BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at
[email protected].
http://blackagendareport.com/content/obama-disaster-home-and-abroad
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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