Reprinted from July 14th, 2008
In fact he has rather explicitly asks that YOU save HIM.
When he asks for citizens to become involved in the political process, in his campaign, that is what he is asking you for.
Here is how our government works, and ….surprise!…. Obama knows this. Politicians are individual human beings, (surprise again!) individual human beings, even Obama, are not gods. We, each and every one of us, including Obama, are subject to temptation, failure of will in the face of adversity, and yes, corruption. Not dirty back room money under the table corruption, but corruption as a process, over time, that saps integrity and will.
Washington DC and the strange dances of culture, pressure, and politics there are literally MADE to corrupt. To put it cutely, they have a whole street there (named K) that exists for one reason, to corrupt public servants. There is the culture of the Senate, (need I say more Harry Reid?) there is the culture of The Villagers, the cocktail party culture…..and then there are the real bad guys!
And then there are your ‘friends,’ who just need a little favor, just need you to bend your principles a little bit just this once, to help them out. Pressure, pressure, pressure. Relentless and pervasive and designed to push every button of human weakness. This pressure has ‘corrupted’ nearly every politician that has gone to DC. This pressure is exactly why things are as they are, in our government that is allegedly by, for and of The People….but instead exists to serve the aims of the Powers That Be. The Powers That Be use that power to corrupt the system to serve their ends. Not yours, not mine.
And it works.
Obama’s FISA vote was as a result of these pressures. Who knows which one got to him…but one did.
That is why he needs YOU to save him.
Obama is (surprise!) only human, not some shining incorruptible godling. How would YOU stand up under all of that pressure? He needs us to provide the counter-pressure.
And do some of the heavy lifting, as thereisnospoon wrote, It’s OUR job to move the Overton Window, NOT Obama’s …see also I Thought I Was Helping Obama by Chris Bowers. THAT is how politics works in this country. This is NOT American Idol.
Obama wants to serve The People. In order to do that The People have to fulfill there basic role in government: Pressuring politicians to do the RIGHT thing, not the easy thing. To pressure him to not give in to the OTHER pressures.
Sure we have to support him, to let him know that we have his back when push comes to shove vs. the bad guys…and most importantly, lol…to vote for him! Everybody needs ‘love.’ That is a deep personal human thing we all need to survive in a harsh world.
But what Obama really needs to do what he wants and needs to do and what we need him to do……..is NOT Fanboyz and Girlz! He needs, and we need to become, an informed and active citizenry.
Obama is now our guy, for better or worse, lol. He is the Champion…
The original meaningof the word partakes of both these senses: in the Feudal Era, knights were expected to be champions of both prowess in combat and of causes, the latter most commonly being either patriotic, romantic or religious in nature. This reaches its most literal in a trial by combat, in which each combatant champions the cause of one side of the trial.
…of the democratic cause. OUR human impulse will be to support him at all costs and against all comers.
I repeat….this is NOT what he needs from us, at least not all he needs from us. He needs us to provide cover for him to do the right thing. He needs us to pressure him. He needs us to be yelling at him so he can point at us and say….they are my base, what can I do? He needs us to bolster him politically…not personally.
As a relative outsider and newcomer to DC and the nominee, he is currently under the most pressure a politician can be under, the pressure from the insiders to change, to conform to their way of doing things. Folks will be coming to him now and whispering in his ear, telling him that this is how it really works…’sharing’ insider knowledge. Turning the screws of corruption. If Obama is who he says he is, and wants to do what he says he wants to do, the PTB will stop at nothing to stop him. And who is his only real ally? The People. Not people saying…”don’t be mean to Obama!” People telling him to live up to his promise. Tough love.
Obama needs The People to hold him to the highest standard possible, so that he can then can maintain that standard in the face of the corruption of DC. He needs US to save HIM. The People must lead, so that he can follow
Anything less is letting not just ourselves down, but him…and democracy…as well.
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if he keeps on the ways he’s been going he’s going to need some serious help…
Metaphorically and politically speaking.
We yelled at him, we spoke truth to power, we told him what needs to be done.
And what did he do?
He pointed his finger at us and slandered us as irrational, irrelevant, and insane.
It’s awesome.
He’s a Chicago pol. Would it work on Mayor Daley do you think?
It’s true that we’ve got him for 3 more years but he could make noises like change in say his 4th year and…back again for a second term and business as usual.
It’s just instinct which serves me well.
You’re saying that the atmosphere in DC is so bad, he can’t do much unless we keep at him. He so far has blithely ignored us. Do we want a president that must be prodded constantly to promulgate liberal values.
And if we put these so-called new progressives in office – won’t they cave as well if no one is covering their back –
I don’t know the answer and at least you’re offering a positive position – but I don’t trust him. I don’t read him the way you do.
Also Rahm has to go – how do we accomplish that?
I can’t seem to get over him wiping the dirt off his shoulder when he talked about Hillary in the primary. Something so inside mean – like the frat boys I knew.
He’s not the one. But then I’m a bitter knitter, a dead ender as all the young boyz snd girls call it. Nice.
Not that all administrations don’t play the same games, but they’ve seem to brought things to a new, childish level, which is probably reflective of their young ages and how they were brought up totally in the system. I’m thinking relative to the job at hand, imcompetence.
Shortly after he was elected, the Obama camp set up hundreds and hundreds of neighborhood support groups all across the USA for just this purpose–to get his back, yell loudly and force him to do the progressive agenda. He asked us to do this.
I was originally for Kucinich, but ended up voting for Obama with some reservation and a bit of a wait and see attitude. I wondered if he would be able to break the Faustian deal he must have had to make with the banksters to be able to be nominated.
I joined 2 of these support groups here in the Berkeley Bay Area, with 50 and 80 people respectively. There were so many people that we split into groups based on specific issues and brought our proposals to the larger group. The Single Payer health care group was composed of several hundred people.
I wrote at least one essay here and several comments advocating that we join these groups and get his back as he asked. I felt that giving him the massive support he said he needed would be the only way to prove if he was for real.
I don’t know how much more we could possibly have done. But he didn’t care. We had his back, and he didn’t care. We pushed him in the progressive direction, but he didn’t listen.
Obama has not broken the Faustian deal he made. I don’t think he ever wanted to.
you to stop being irresponsible and believe in this change, after all in America we don’t disparage wealth and insurance CEO’s are good people who provide a valuable service. He wants you to stop being distracted by what he said and just unite behind his wonderful family and all the fat cats who will fall on you if you don’t.