Clinton and Obama are political twins,
bought off by corporate interests,
ready to defend the American empire
by killing people in faraway places
or tossing the working class [both black and white]
under a bus if they think it is expedient to do so
Were he alive to witness the Obama campaign today,Obama's Thoroughly Corporate Candidacy
Martin Luther King would cringe at Obama's
willingness to accommodate white supremacy.
In his ponderous, power-worshipping and badly titled campaign book The Audacity of Hope, Obama ignored elementary U.S. social reality and soothed the master race by claiming that "what ails working- and middle-class blacks is not fundamentally different from what ails their white counterparts."
Equally calming to the white majority was the slavery reparations opponent Obama's argument that "white guilt has largely exhausted itself in America" as "even the most fair-minded of whites...tend to push back against suggestions of racial victimization and race-based claims based on the history of racial discrimination in this country".
White fears that Obama will reawaken the tragically unfinished revolutions of Reconstruction and Civil Rights were further soothed by his claim that most black Americans had been "pulled into the economic mainstream".
During a speech marking the anniversary of the Selma, Alabama Voting Rights march, Obama even claimed that 1950s and 1960s civil rights activists - who he referred to as "the Moses Generation" - had brought black America "90 percent of the way" to racial equality.
It's up to Obama and his fellow "Joshua Generation" members, he said, to get past "that 10 percent in order to cross over to the other side."
Caught up and rendered silly by Obamamania, Black progressives who should know better have unilaterally disarmed themselves in surrender to a media-amplified euphoria that most resembles a group drug fest.
The faculties of memory and common sense shut down, as longtime activists effectively repudiate their former lives to join the mindless bacchanal swirling around Barack Obama's thoroughly corporate candidacy.
We at BAR, who have consistently held Black politicians to the standards of the historical Black Political Consensus, find ourselves reviled by Black erstwhile progressives "based on annoyance that we brought a skunk to the party."
But the stink does not emanate from us - it comes from Obama's own mouth, when he praises racist Ronald Reagan and the 1990s "ideas" of Newt Gingrich, in a blatant bid to make common cause with those who wish to destroy the last vestiges of a Black Movement, root and branch.
Obamamania
Obama's very vocal fans should speak up. Their candidate is praising the right wing rollback of civil rights. Do they think the 60s and 70s were full of excess?If so, what were those excesses? If they don't agree with Obama, will they say so? What does this statement portend for the policies of an Obama administration? It is past time for the love fest to end, and hard questioning to begin.
If Hillary Clinton or John Edwards uttered those same words they would be quite rightly taken to task.
At his worst, in the nadir of his Sister Souljah moment, Bill Clinton did not dare to make such statements. Even Slick Willie was not slick enough to think he could praise Ronald Reagan and still get votes from black people.
High praise for Reagan was not the end of Obama's slide into right wing demagoguery.
"I think it's fair to say that the Republicans were the party of ideas for a pretty long chunk of time there over the last 10-15 years in the sense that they were challenging conventional wisdom."
One day Obama channels Ronald Reagan, the next he channels Newt Gingrich. It is too frightening to ask how much lower he will fall.
Obama calculates that he can get away with anything and still be supported by most black people. Unfortunately, at this moment he is correct. Race pride based on symbolism has become the order of the day though it is clearly no substitute for a principled political fight.
What does Obama have to say or do before his supporters call him out? If they believe that the warm and fuzzy feeling brought on by a black president is reason enough to support Obama, they should say so.
They won't have to defend him and BAR can stick to the business of political analysis. Currently the criticisms directed at BAR are based on annoyance that we brought a skunk to the party, and not on any reasoned arguments.
Black Agenda Report will continue to live up to its standards we have set for ourselves.
Hillary Clinton and Obama are political twins, candidates bought off by corporate interests, ready to defend the American empire by killing people in far away places or tossing black people and the rest of the Democratic base under a bus if they think it is expedient to do so. BAR will closely scrutinize both of them during this primary season.
A presidential election year is always difficult. The Democratic party is run by people who don't want it to be a political party at all.
They actively search for ways to squelch activism and deny victory to Democrats who are unafraid to be Democrats.
The game is rigged against true democracy, forcing us to make difficult choices and compromises instead of working for what we really want.
These contradictions will not be easier to deal with if Barack Obama supporters continue to give him a free political ride.
We at BAR enjoy debating views that are passionately held. We won't take pleasure in seeing black America end up with a bad case of buyer's remorse. Passive support for Barack Obama can only lead in that direction, but rest assured of one thing.
Our next president, whoever that turns out to be, will always be under the Black Agenda Report microscope.