ProgressiveDem: Masochists, Racism And The 2008 Election
Masochists, Racism And The 2008 Election
Why are the poll numbers not higher for Barack Obama?
Given the high crimes and misdemeanors committed by the Bush regime and the damage it has inflicted on this nation and its people, with McSame promising four more years of the same, there should be a larger expanse between Obama at the high end and McSame at the lower end.
"The diagnosis of national masochism is the only thing that can satisfactorily explain the poll numbers in the presidential race
"The Republican Party came to Washington, DC, in 2000 with a solid majority in both houses of Congress and on the Supreme Court, allowing them to steal the presidency, as well. If you wanted to know what a pure Republican-Party government unhindered by the Democrats, Libertarians, Greens or Socialists might look like, this was the moment.
"So they came to power when there was a budget surplus bequeathed by a Democratic president.
"They immediately ran up a big deficit every year since, doubling the national debt from $5 trillion to $10 trillion.
"Cole then reviews a litany of Bush regime crimes, scandals and scams including and concludes: "And in the wake of the greatest and most sustained act of systematic plunder since the Mongol hordes appropriated to themselves the riches of everyplace in Asia from Beijing to Isfahan, the reaction of the supine and slave-like American voting public is to scratch their heads and have a hard time deciding if they would like more of the same."
Jonathan Tasini at Working Life offers another reason for why this election is so close: people who refuse to vote for a black person as president.
Tasini writes: "Look, in the middle of this economic crisis and financial meltdown, you have to wonder: why is this election close? The answer is: race. All those negative answers to questions about whether Barack Obama has enough experience, or can be commander-in-chief or...whatever you want to choose, boil down to certain people won't vote for a black person for president. Simple as that.
"What does that mean within labor? Fact is, a certain percentage of the people who fall into the above category are union members--and union members from battleground states.
"Which is why I offer the following. At the Democratic Convention, I happened to mosy in on a breakfast meeting of the Ohio delegation. Everyone knows what Ohio means in the election--it doomed John Kerry in 2004. Unknown to me, the featured speaker that morning was Richard Trumka, secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO. For those not in the know, Trumka was the president of the United Mine Workers for a long time until he was elected to the Federation's post in 1989--part of the Sweeney team election that ousted the then-old guard lead by Lane Kirkland (actually, for a short time, Tom Donahue, who had been Kirkland's secretary-treasurer assumed the post mid-term when Kirkland stepped down but Donahue was seen as simply the extension of the Kirkland Administration...hmmm...echos of the current politica l debate?).
"Anyway, I had my video guy shoot this video. You have to be impressed with Trumka's willingness to take on race head on--and I believe that must be done throughout the country. You can't avoid it and it is foolish to not talk about it openly. So, take a look, comment and pass it on:
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