Obama is like a mob lawyer who wants to convince you that his client is just an ordinary businessman, citizen and neighbor. But in his case his client is the American ruling class. --CGE
shag wrote:
> At 06:42 AM 1/25/2008, Michael Pollak wrote:
>
>> On Fri, 25 Jan 2008, Max B. Sawicky wrote:
>>
>>> I see it as just the opposite. BHO is to the left of HRC on most
>>> everything. And HRC has demonstrated less trustworthyness. I'm doing a
>>> piece on this now.
>> Please post it when you do! So far on this list that position has zero
>> defenders. We'd be fascinated to see your case and to see a man of your
>> caliber defend it. And if it's true, it'll certainly be a much simpler
>> explanation of why so many people seem to think that, which has thus far
>> been baffling us.
>>
>> Michael
>
> well, very few people actually study someone's policy proposals or ask
> about who his advisors are. they listen to snippets of speeches and absorb
> things on t.v. In that case, a detailed analysis of policy isn't going to
> explain what's going on. Carl will love this, as I think a blogger, voyou,
> got it right when she unpacked the rhetoric in the MLK speech. Carl will
> love it because it is similar to Walter Benn Michael's argument, though she
> draws her inspiration from the pomos -- much as Ange, at
> archive.blogsome.com does.
>
> First, a snip from the speech (there's more at the link below for fuller
> context):
>
> But of course, true unity cannot be so easily won. It starts with a change
> in attitudes – a broadening of our minds, and a broadening of our hearts.
>
> It's not easy to stand in somebody else's shoes. It's not easy to see past
> our differences. We've all encountered this in our own lives. But what
> makes it even more difficult is that we have a politics in this country
> that seeks to drive us apart – that puts up walls between us.
>
> We are told that those who differ from us on a few things are different
> from us on all things; that our problems are the fault of those who don't
> think like us or look like us or come from where we do. The welfare queen
> is taking our tax money. The immigrant is taking our jobs. The believer
> condemns the non-believer as immoral, and the non-believer chides the
> believer as intolerant.
>
> …
>
> So let us say that on this day of all days, each of us carries with us the
> task of changing our hearts and minds. The division, the stereotypes, the
> scape-goating, the ease with which we blame our plight on others – all of
> this distracts us from the common challenges we face – war and poverty;
> injustice and inequality. We can no longer afford to build ourselves up by
> tearing someone else down. We can no longer afford to traffic in lies or
> fear or hate. It is the poison that we must purge from our politics; the
> wall that we must tear down before the hour grows too late.
>
> Because if Dr. King could love his jailor; if he could call on the faithful
> who once sat where you do to forgive those who set dogs and fire hoses upon
> them, then surely we can look past what divides us in our time, and bind up
> our wounds, and erase the empathy deficit that exists in our hearts.
>
> Voyou writes:
>
> Look at the extraordinary care with which Obama guides us here, and the
> fundamental duplicity of his message. He moves from King's message of unity
> as solidarity in the face of oppression, to an idea of unity as empathy
> with the oppressors. He redescribes King's ideology of struggle, in which
> unity depends on knowing who your enemy is, as an ideology of empathy, in
> which there are no antagonisms to be overcome, just differences to be
> resolved through understanding.
> <http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=8200e5c2-a250-4532-b318-6182083b698e&p=3>A
> rather horrible article in the New Republic describes Obama as practicing
> "anti-identity politics," but this gets things the wrong way round: Obama
> is the fulfillment of identity politics, in that his idea of unity is only
> possible on the basis of an ideology that substitutes identity
> (distinguishing characteristics that must be respected) for politics (a
> difference that forms the basis for struggle).
>
>
> http://blog.voyou.org/2008/01/21/i-hate-barak-obama-a-post-for-mlk-day/
>
>
> http://cleandraws.com
> Wear Clean Draws
> ('coz there's 5 million ways to kill a CEO)
>
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