Looking for a Material Difference in Barack Obama’s Decision-Making in his Second Term? Bad News.
I remember with a proud smile how exuberant my little daughter was about the 2008 presidential election. It did my heart good to see the 13-year-old I loved so engaged in our democratic process; she had “Yes We Can” posters all over the house, and I encouraged her all the way. How delighted she and I were in his victory!
Then reality sank in. We quickly saw that there was nothing really “enlightened” about this guy at all. He had been elected with Wall Street and Big Pharma money; just like anyone who succeeds in American politics, he was owned by special interests (though I guess we were fortunate that it wasn’t Big Oil yet again). And his decision-making reflected this at every turn — especially when it came to protecting Wall Street from the shambles it had made of the world’s only remaining super-power.
In any case, those looking for some material difference in Barack Obama’s decision-making in his second term are understandably losing hope, given his nomination of Jack Lew as Treasury Secretary. Lew is a virtual clone of Timothy Geithner, architect of the tax-payer bailout of Wall Street, supporter of reckless profiteering in a deregulated financial environment. Our nation’s people live on the precipice of a further and far deeper financial collapse so that our multibillionaires can get richer.
Most Americans think they wake up each morning in a democratic republic, because that is what Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and their fellows bequeathed us. They think there’s meaning to the vote they cast every four years, in which they’re asked to choose between two politicians with nearly identical ideas, and, more to the point, each of whose candidacy exists solely with the backing of certain gargantuan industries. They’re mistaken.
Btw, my daughter has found a new interest: boys! I suppose I should have seen that one coming.
We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office. ~Aesop, Greek slave & fable author
I will continue to say that we cannot rely on the government to do the right thing any more than we can rely on oil or fossil fuel companies to do the right thing. We must do it ourselves by doing the right things and ceasing to do the wrong things.
I will say that I believe that if the election had gone the other way, the situation would degrade substantially faster than it will with the current administration.