Freedom Rider: So Long Suckers

by BAR editor
and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley

"The Obama campaign has
lied to its most fervent supporters."

The yearlong joke that was the Democratic primary battle is
now over. It is official. Barack Obama offers absolutely nothing new except
well executed political strategy. The grand political rallies/come to Jesus
meetings were nothing more than political theater and viral marketing on an off
the charts scale. It is true that thousands of people became involved in
politics through the Obama campaign, only to be told now that he represents the
same old same old and that they had better accept it and shut up.

The Obama campaign slogan ought to be "Never give a sucker
an even break." It isn't clear which sight is more painful to watch, the
progressives who fell for the hype and are now heart broken or the cynics who
knew the game all along and now applaud the campaign's increasingly rightward
shift.

The fact that Barack Obama will opt out of public campaign
financing proves that he is the ultimate corporate candidate, confident that he
can continue to be a fund raising machine. His cash collecting prowess is a
result of corporate fealty and nothing else. The story of small campaign
contributions propelling him to victory is just one of many bogus tales spun in
order to fool idealistic voters.

The supposedly mysterious flip-flop on FISA legislation is
anything but. The same man who promised to support a filibuster of legislation
that gave law breaking telecoms immunity now tells us to just forget we heard
him say those words. Just follow the money and the mystery is solved. Is his
decision to contradict himself a result of not wanting to cross ATT, Verizon,
Comcast, Sprint and all their corporate buddies? Unless two plus two no longer
equals four, the answer is a definite yes.

"It is time for Obama supporters to be called to account
for their complicity in the charade."

The old song remains the same, Democrats must move to the
"center" which is actually to the right, or else the Republicans will win.
Democrats have to prostrate themselves before corporate interests. After months
of hearing about change and a new paradigm and citizen organizing, we have
nothing but the tired, pathetic, corporately controlled Democratic party up to
its old tricks of peddling a losing strategy. Not a single Democratic incumbent
lost in the November 2006 elections while Republicans were sent packing. Voter
disgust about the continued Iraq quagmire was the key to victory and disproves
the corporate media and Democratic leadership propaganda that only Republican
talking points can win the day.

It is easy to berate Obama and the rest of the Democratic
leadership for their craven behavior, but it time for Obama supporters to also
be called to account for their complicity in the charade. A group calling
themselves Progressives for
Obama announced their formation on March 24, 2008. While campaigning in the
Pennsylvania primary on March 28, 2008, Senator Obama announced that he would
have a foreign policy akin to the first President Bush
and Ronald Reagan.

Progressives for Obama were made to look like chumps in less
than one week. Although that assessment assumes they ever cared in the first
place. Only they know the answer to that question, but they certainly failed in
the integrity department. If they had any at all, they would have immediately
disbanded and done so publicly. They didn't. They are still around and still
peddling Obamaism. A perusal of their web site shows that they have nothing to
say about Obama's reversal on FISA, or his threats to attack Iran or his
rejection of public financing or his support of Supreme Court rulings on the
death penalty and gun control. They are silent on any issue that reveals
the extent to which the Obama campaign has lied to its most fervent supporters.
Are they hapless chumps, or evil hustlers? It doesn't really matter. They are
accomplices to Obama's wrong doing.

"Progressives still don't know what their agenda ought to
be, or worse yet, they don't even know they should have one."

Progressives for Obama are not alone. As has happened
throughout the campaign season, his supporters either say nothing or succumbed
to torturous mental gymnastics to defend him. Maybe he has a secret plan to undo the FISA legislation. Maybe his
Attorney General will take care of it. Maybe he is counting on other senators
like Christopher Dodd and Russ Feingold will do the heavy lifting. Maybe
pigs will fly.

The endless claims of change were phony and almost everyone
knew it. It was never a matter of sounding the alarm to unsuspecting Obamaites,
it was a matter of exposing political hucksters who found a new source of
unsuspecting marks.

If there were any true political organizing in American
politics, the Obama sham would be seen for what it is. Instead corrupt
Democratic leaders sell snake oil, and the rank and file go along in confusion
or succumb to paralysis out of fear of electing John McCain. Because
progressives never fought the good fight amongst themselves, they still don't
know what their agenda ought to be, or worse yet, they don't even know they
should have one. Falling for high flown rhetoric became a substitute for hard
headed political decision making.

So we now have the Al Gore and John Kerry campaigns all over
again, albeit with more charisma and a better campaign. The fact that Obama has
a better campaign means that he is more likely to win. The fact that he is just
another bought off Democrat with a constituency who refuse to make demands
means that his term will be like that of the last Democrat. In January 2009 we
will have an even slicker Willie in the White House.

Margaret Kimberley's Freedom Rider column
appears weekly in BAR. Ms. Kimberley lives in New York City, and can be reached
via e-Mail at Margaret.Kimberley(at)BlackAgandaReport.Com. Ms. Kimberley
maintains an edifying and frequently updated blog at freedomrider.blogspot.com. More of
her work is also available at her Black Agenda Report archive page.

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