Chain of Fools

Original Link: http://riverdaughter.wordpress.com/2008/08/02/chain-of-fools/

Chain, chain, chain, chain, chain, chain
Chain, chain, chain, chain of fools
Five long years I thought you were my man
But I found out I’m just a link in your chain
You got me where you want me
I ain’t nothing but your fool
You treated me mean oh you treated me cruel
Chain, chain, chain, chain of fools

A couple of days ago, some of the smartest, most progressive members of the creative class got together and signed a letter begging Barack Obama to come back to the left. After repeatedly trashing their values and ideals, they still believed he was The One, but he had come to a fork in the road and had chosen the path to the right.

Dear Senator Obama,

We write to congratulate you on the tremendous achievements of your campaign for the presidency of the United States.

…You stand today at the head of a movement that believes deeply in the change you have claimed as the mantle of your campaign. The millions who attend your rallies, donate to your campaign and visit your website are a powerful testament to this new movement’s energy and passion.

…We urge you, then, to listen to the voices of the people who can lift you to the presidency and beyond.

Since your historic victory in the primary, there have been troubling signs that you are moving away from the core commitments shared by many who have supported your campaign, toward a more cautious and centrist stance–including, most notably, your vote for the FISA legislation granting telecom companies immunity from prosecution for illegal wiretapping, which angered and dismayed so many of your supporters.

We recognize that compromise is necessary in any democracy. We understand that the pressures brought to bear on those seeking the highest office are intense. But retreating from the stands that have been the signature of your campaign will weaken the movement whose vigorous backing you need in order to win and then deliver the change you have promised.

He chose to eviscerate the 4th ammendment when he voted for the FISA bill which allows the US government to continue to spy on its citizens without warrant. It also provides immunity to the telecom companies for their past indiscretion, and provides cover to our criminal president against future prosecution.

He also chose to abandon a woman’s right to choose what is in her best interest when it comes to her reproductive health. He said that states should be allowed to restrict a woman’s access to late term abortions. He chose to use the right-wing term “partial birth abortion” which is not a medical term, but a purely Orwellian newspeak invention of the radical christianists to demonize women. He even had the nerve to add that women should not be allowed to have an abortion just because they are “feeling blue”, seriously diminishing the importance of women’s mental health issues. He chose to sink to the lowest common denominator of anti-choice zealots who see women as nothing more than blubbering bags of emotion who can barely manage their feelings, much less their reproductive choices.

Obama also has shown his disdain for our most cherished of rights, our freedom of speech. I know this from first hand experience. In Unity, NH we were told to go to “free speech zones” (although the police had the good sense not to enforce it). I recently wrote about Denver, and the fact that the Democratic Party wants to put its members who disagree in a cage almost a quarter mile from the convention center. Obama is mobilizing his thug base to terrorize people who want nothing more than to exercise their constitutional right to protest the hostile takeover of their political party.–And before anyone starts with the finger pointing and shouts of “Racist!”, by “thug base” I’m referring to the hooligan frat boys who like nothing more than to bully their opponents, especially women.

Yesterday, several African American men had the courage to stand up and point out that Obama’s message of Hope had bypassed a majority of their community. Obama’s response? They just didn’t get him. It was their fault for not wanting to believe that change and hope will fix everything.

Just relax? Sit down? Ya’ll will have a chance later? If I were black, I’d find that kind of language a little offensive. Especially in a room of white people pumping their fists and yelling “yes we can!”. It is not on the video, but later the sign was yanked from the men’s hands to the cheers of the crowd.

So, now we see Obama’s latest FU to the progressive community, his flip-flop on offshore drilling. For months Obama has been towing the line of the progressive community that has argued that this is just an election year gimmick, and that it will be disastrous for the environment and discourage the use of alternative fuels. The Obamaphiles at Move On even put out the following ad:

This is what Obama had to say about offshore drilling yesterday,

My interest is in making sure we’ve got the kind of comprehensive energy policy that can bring down gas prices,” Obama said in an interview with The Palm Beach Post.

“If, in order to get that passed, we have to compromise in terms of a careful, well thought-out drilling strategy that was carefully circumscribed to avoid significant environmental damage — I don’t want to be so rigid that we can’t get something done.”

to paraphrase some of the know-it-all snarkers from the “progressosphere”–Shorter Barack Obama: I was against drilling before I was for it.

–or–

Barack Obama: Change you can’t keep up with!!!

“Those who wish to appear wise among fools, among the wise seem foolish.”– Quintilian, De Institutione Oratoria X, 7, 21