We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Rahm, His Critics, and the American People

from The Huffington Post. 

As you can see this liberal blog sees the failure of the Obama administration as being merely because of the "Rahm administration"--in other words, the staff around Obama are screwing up. These people are merely campaign experts and don't know how to govern in a way to carry out Obama's "pro-people policies." But then the author apologizes for them by writing, "most of them are just trying to be realistic, not malicious: they would prefer to stand up for the American people, but industry and Wall Street, who poured massive amounts of money into Obama's campaign, are simply more powerful and must be appeased."
...in ruling out those kinds of pro-people policies, the [Rahm] administration deactivated the American people. The massive grassroots organization that propelled Obama to victory seemed to evaporate into thin air in the months after the election. For the campaigners, separated by a both intellectual and bureaucratic walls from the policy, it was as though someone somewhere had flipped a switch that turned off the American people.
Liberals like this, in my opinion, are more dangerous than the Neo-Cons because they pose as well meaning, but knowingly serve to obscure the political realities of a ruling class power in a capitalist society that must maintain the illusions of a democratic system. Rahm and company, Obama also, knowingly serve the interests of the "owners" of the economy. They are serving The Empire very well by continuing the same policies as Bush, Jr., but creating the appearance that they are hamstrung by Wall Street, and Rahm and company who are "separated by...both intellectual and bureaucratic walls."