On Wed, Jan 21, 2015 at 9:31 AM, Carrol Cox <[email protected]> wrote: > It is utterly shameless to post this farce -- it is so glaringly obvious > that these proposals are made only because they cannot be adopted. Now the > reactionary DP can use it to obscure the crimes against the people > continually committed by the Obama Administration. >
I have no desire to defend Obama on this one, but the more appropriate criticism of these proposals is not they are cynical, but how weak they are! Given that most of these (with one important exception, see below) will never be enacted and given that the main purpose of this exercise is rhetorical, it is remarkable the things that are not there - no single payer healthcare, no big investment in renewable energy, nothing about militarization and police brutality. None of these are particularly radical and one can easily see someone like Elizabeth Warren supporting all of these things. So no, I don't think these proposals are cynical at all. They are all entirely consistent with Obama's neoliberal ideology and really that's the main problem with them. I should however note one important exception to all this: network neutrality. This is not yet a lost cause because some powerful corporates happen to be on the good side on this one and Obama's support is very important if he follows through on it consistently. Something to watch closely. -raghu.
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