Skip to content

Obama Speaks Populist, Caters to Power Elite

Obama Speaks Populist, Caters to Power Elite

December 9, 2009 SVadmin Comments 2 comments

bankstersHere’s a good column by Robert Scheer, who voted for Obama with hope in his heart, but “came unglued” recently when he received “yet another of those ‘we the people’ e-mails from the president.”

“Barack Obama’s faux populism is beginning to grate, and when yet another one of those ‘we the people’ e-mails from the president landed on my screen as I was fishing around for a column subject, I came unglued. It is one thing to rob us blind by rewarding the power elite that created our problems but quite another to sugarcoat it in the rhetoric of a David taking on those Goliaths.

In each of the three most important areas of policy with which he has dealt, Obama speaks in the voice of the little people’s champion, but his actions cater fully to the demands of the most powerful economic interests.

With his escalation of the war in Afghanistan, he has given the military-industrial complex an excuse for the United States to carry on in spending more on defense than the rest of the world combined, without a credible military adversary in sight. His response to the banking meltdown was to continue George W. Bush’s massive giveaway of taxpayer dollars to Wall Street, and his health care reform has all the earmarks of a boondoggle for the medical industry profiteers.”

Scheer begins the following passage with an example of Obama’s populist rhetoric, a quote from the president’s fund-raising e-mail:

“ ‘As we head into the final stretch of health reform, big insurance company lobbyists and their partisan allies hope that their relentless attacks and millions of dollars can intimidate us into accepting the status quo. So I have a message for them, from all of us: Not this time. We have come too far. We will not turn back. We will not back down.’

But we, following him, have already backed down. Does the president not recall that he began his health care reform effort by ingratiating himself with the insurance lobbyists in taking ‘single payer’ off the table on day one? The insurers are not really upset with what may survive as a minuscule public option, for they have won the big prize: Everyone must buy insurance from them under penalty of law, and there will be no built-in requirement for cost control. Their so-called opposition to the current plans has to do with fine-tuning the president’s guarantee of their future profits.”

See full column: “Dear Barack, Spare Me Your E-Mails“

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Blog, Politics

Post navigation

PREVIOUS
County CIO Comments on Library Citizens’ Oversight Committee
NEXT
LSSI Budget Details Revealed

Join Our Mailing List

2 thoughts on “Obama Speaks Populist, Caters to Power Elite”

  1. Douglas Keachie says:
    December 9, 2009 at 10:11 am

    Given that Pakistan has nukes and missles to deliver them, and they just had an assassination, and the Taliban are very active within their borders, I think that the needs of the few outweigh the needs of the many, and we do need to be in Afghanistan.

    I would agree, the stance on health care needs to be beefed up, and he needs to take the GIANT step of revealing he and his family will forego the “privileged few” healthcare plan for the Congress and him and the Supreme Court, so as to hilight this glaring “New Feudalism” feature of our supposed democracy. What’s good for the populace, must also suffice for the dukes, barons, and kings and queens.

  2. Don Pelton says:
    December 9, 2009 at 7:36 pm

    Thanks Doug.

    I confess I’m confused about Afghanistan. You may well be right about that.

    I do know that it is usually amazingly easy to justify starting a war, and almost impossible to justify ending one. We’ve been through this so many times.

    There’s a weird notion — a prevailing notion, really — that we best support our troops by keeping them at war (in harms way). That’s also considered very patriotic.

    Alien anthropologists will no doubt someday be quite confused by how such insanity can be a cultural norm.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.

DONATE TO THE FOOD BANK OF NEVADA COUNTY

(CLICK IMAGE)

DONATE TO NEVADA COUNTY RELIEF FUND (click image below)

Erika Lewis, Shaye Cohn, Craig Flory – Got A Mind To Ramble

Jack Kornfield: A Steady Heart in Time of Corona Virus (Part I)

Tara Brach: A Steady Heart in Time of Corona Virus (Part II)

Subscribe to Sierra Voices Journal

Recent Posts

  • Mask News We Can All Use
  • Chaos agent: Right-wing blames US Capitol riot on notorious instigator banished by Black Lives Matter
  • How to stop an Insurrection Caucus: These reforms could reduce GOP extremism and save our democracy
  • The U.S. Capitol raid was a failed self-coup previously seen in dying regimes
  • Accountability for the Attempted Coup

Recent Comments

  • (Posted by) Don Pelton on GOP Warns Dems About Court Packing (Cartoon)
  • Criminal Incompetence, Malignant Ignorance Will Lead to Hunger and Violence on A Nice Depression Now Benefits the GOP in 2022 and 2024
  • togel singapura hari ini on How Wall Street Has Turned Housing Into a Dangerous Get-Rich-Quick Scheme — Again
  • Ao Corrente on How Wall Street Has Turned Housing Into a Dangerous Get-Rich-Quick Scheme — Again
  • forex forum on How Wall Street Has Turned Housing Into a Dangerous Get-Rich-Quick Scheme — Again

Archives

  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • November 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • December 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • January 2014
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • October 2010
  • September 2010
  • August 2010
  • July 2010
  • June 2010
  • May 2010
  • April 2010
  • March 2010
  • February 2010
  • January 2010
  • December 2009
  • November 2009
  • October 2009
  • September 2009
  • August 2009

Categories

  • Aging
  • Articles
  • Atlas Obscura
  • Authoritarianism
  • Black Lives
  • Black Lives Matter
  • Blog
  • Buddhism
  • Cartoon
  • Climate Change
  • Corona Virus
  • Corruption
  • Disenfranchisement
  • Economics
  • Education
  • Election Fraud
  • Environment
  • Farming
  • Fascism
  • Fire!
  • Food Insecurity
  • Foreign Policy
  • Forest Management
  • Gender
  • Health Care
  • History
  • Humor
  • Hunger
  • Ignorance
  • Labor
  • Local
  • Masks
  • Medical Care
  • Men
  • Middle Class
  • Mining
  • MMT
  • Modern Monetary Theory
  • Music
  • Native Americans
  • Pandemic
  • Parenting
  • Poetry
  • Police
  • Politics
  • Press
  • Race
  • Reviews
  • Revolution
  • Right-wing terrorism
  • Russiagate
  • Science
  • Technology
  • Trump Virus
  • Tyranny
  • Uncategorized
  • Voting
  • War
  • War on Government
  • Water
  • Watersheds
  • Wildfires

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org
© 2021   All Rights Reserved.