This post expresses my general lack of surprise at the mid-term election results, and suggests next steps for Obama.
THE MORNING AFTER’S
BITTER PILL
The one thing about politics is that if you personally consider yourself a winner and one of the fortunate ones, when the majority of your fellow countrymen don’t also feel that way, shit happens. On November 5, 2014, the morning after the mid-terms, welcome to an America that is wallowing in pity and self-loathing.
There simply is no other way to explain why a Joni Ernst, or a Mitch McConnell, or a Scott Walker is in any position of power. I can’t really say I am sad, and I sure as the dickens can’t say I am surprised; but disappointed, absolutely. I guess I kept hoping the average Joe and Jane would, through the course of this unending campaign season, see behind the screen and realize who the puppet masters are, and reject them and their money. But then, hey, this is America, the home of the entitled and free to be ignorant and bedazzled by shiny objects and a wad of cash.
Oh, and by the way, welcome to the 2016 presidential election cycle.
The other reason that “surprise” is at the bottom of my initial reactions to last night’s blood bath is the role our corporate owned and motivated media operations played in bringing this result about. Anyone who has the brain capacity to remember where the nation was 6 short years ago knows we are on a well-lit path to economic and social stability and strength. (I know how George H.W. Bush must have felt in November of 1992.)
Here’s how what passes for news started to sound this last month. “The stock market is at an all-time high, we now have the longest uninterrupted growth in private sector jobs in American history, gas prices are at their lowest levels in years, but the average American just isn’t feeling it.” Then the newscaster would quote from the latest poll showing how pissed off everybody is, Ebola is going to kill you dead any day now, and every Democrat is running like hell away from President Obama. So, if you are very unhappy with how things are going, you are justified in your (misplaced as it is) anger. Thank you very much Edward R. Sorrow.
But the real irony in this whole scenario is that Democrats paid the price for the bad news because Republicans got away with blaming everything that ails a person on Obama, and the Democrats. Say what! How the hell did they let that happen?
Democrats were too flaming stupid not to talk up the fact that the American economic picture is solid, and it is time for the average American to reap the benefits of this environment; and Democrats are the only ones that will make sure that happens. But oh no, let’s put the party of the 1% in charge because we know the private sector will take really good care of us.
Just how bloody ignorant can we get sometimes?
America’s private sector came within a whisker of tanking the world’s economy in 2007 and 2008, just as they had done in 1929-1932. If it were not for the aggressive and consistent invention by the federal government and the FED it would have happened again. However, since 2008, 95 cents of every dollar earned in America has gone to the 1%. The private sector is currently sitting on roughly 4 trillion dollars while they vigorously fight minimum wage laws, and like the blood-sucking capitalists that they are, they are sucking the treasury dry, high on corporate welfare. Then quietly behind the scenes corporations underwrite the bill-mill of ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) that cranks out state-wide initiatives that make sure hundreds of thousands of voters cannot vote (especially those darker skinned and young people). They also have their ad men come up with blatantly insulting nonsense like calling the private sector the “job creators.” And on top of all of that, the corporation’s lawyers that sit on and run the Supreme Court have now opened the flood gates so that unlimited corporate profits are available for buying politicians (pick your flavor); hence we end up with the most expensive mid-term election ever.
Yet these are the foxes-in-people’s-clothing the American public has just put in charge of guarding the hen house. It really is enough to make a grown man cry to think about just how deceived the American public has allowed themselves to get.
I can only hope at this stage of this two-act play, “no drama Obama” grows a dramatic pair. What has he got to lose? Yes, he is certain to be put up on impeachment charges, but hell, Republicans have been very clear they are not in Washington to do the people’s business. They ran on the platform of gutting government so if they are not legislating that leaves them a bunch of time to do what they do so well when we have Democratic presidents; impeach them.
I would like to see our president fulfill a few promises through using executive orders and the bully pulpit. 1) Go as far as you can go Mr. President to make things right for Hispanics who are without papers, but are good Americans anyway; you owe them that much. 2) Tell the Canadians they can keep their GD oil sludge to themselves…no Keystone Pipeline! That should really piss off the fossil fuel industry who have treated him so well…not!
Keystone-pipeline-route
3) Let the military budget cuts take place that Republicans insisted upon through sequestration; unless of course you can get a “big deal” from them like comprehensive immigration reform. 4) Go after campaign finance reform. He obviously will not get anywhere with this one, but he needs to be the party leader that gets it on the table. This next election might just hit 10 billion dollars, and anyone with half a brain knows this is nuts. 5) Stay the bloody hell out of this Islamic civil war as much as humanly possible. The only folks those people hate more than the US is one another. They have to want peace more than we do, and this 1400 year old revenge match is far from over. 6) Insist upon advancing background checks for all gun purchases. Again, it will not go anywhere, but pound on this issue simply because it is the right thing to do. 7) Re-engage in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict; this nonsense has got to stop. If by some miracle of hard work his administration could make this crazy-crap stop, Abe Lincoln would have some company. 8) Be Black; he is the first African-American two-term President in America and he should flaunt the living bejesus out of that fact. You will drive the Secret Service a little crazy, but better they are worried about your business and not running off to tend to their own. 9) He needs to do everything he and Michelle can to get behind the need for a new women’s movement. The Republicans have made a huge mistake in promoting the vagina police and advocating 77 cents on the dollar for equal work; make them pay dearly for that stupidity. 10) Young people know that America is completely screwed up and they and their parents have to know their president will not stand still and accept the idea that this will be the first generation of Americans to suck the fumes left behind by their greed soaked elders. They really are our future and they need to hear that every day and that he is going out of office fighting for their opportunity to succeed. 11) And last but not least, beat the drums hard for reversing global climate change; nothing else will matter if we fail at that essential task.
Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose Mr. President.
J W-Bee
November 5, 2014
PS For good luck engage in advancing a modern day Glass-Steagall Act. If the individual investment bankers are not going to pay a personal price for their greed, make them sweat when they hear you are going to tie a can to the ass of their gambling habit. That too big to fail industry is out of control, and he stood by and did nothing; here’s his chance.