Wednesday, April 13, 2011

That Mysterious Man in the White House ...

... confounds me yet again. Just when I think he is about to surrender abjectly, he turns around and draws a clear moral distinction between that neo-feudal supremacist vision cherished by the right, and a more livable society where everyone pays in and everyone benefits, where anyone and everyone matters, where the people really are sovereign in fact and not just in name.
As always with President Obama, it's less than what I would like, but his speech was a big step in the right direction that I hope brings a much needed shift in the debate away from terms set by the right and swallowed so unthinkingly by the corporate commentariat.

3 comments:

Leonard said...

Everybody does matter. I´m glad to bring *everyone* into sharp focus--it´s amazing to me the distance that the greedy are willing to go to pretend that ¨life is fair¨ and everyone has the same chance and compassion and educational opportunities are devices to further the pampering of the poor/weak and sick-- look to the prisons filled with costly to maintain young prisoners (who are often more costly to society on the street because of their frustration with trying to survive, themselves and others, while most white collar criminals are free/unaccountable)-- no, it´s clear, if not to the exploiters of fellow human beings, that the almighty dollar will not keep them safe, it will not help to keep insolating them from the reality of the pain and suffering of others...it will take far more than bigmouthed republican politicos, both grandstanding males and females, to keep them safe from themselves (and us)-- desperation does many things, and the unwise best remember the unwashed before their game of ¨moral¨ pretend makes them more strident and insane.

MarkBrunson said...

It's just words until he actually does something to stand up against the plutocracy.

He's made the pretty-pretty speeches before to keep the liberal class pacified when they start grumbling - then he simply rolls over for money and the Tealiban.

Then, he makes another pretty speech and everybody forgets until the next betrayal.

Counterlight said...

I don't know if it means anything, but one of Obama's biggest critics from the left, Paul Krugman, gives the speech a rave review:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/15/opinion/15krugman.html?_r=1&hp#