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Forum Post: cornell west on obama

Posted 9 years ago on Aug. 26, 2014, 7:15 a.m. EST by flip (7101)
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“He posed as a progressive and turned out to be counterfeit” by cornell west - So that’s my first question, it’s a lot of ground to cover but how do you feel things have worked out since then, both with the economy and with this president? That was a huge turning point, that moment in 2008, and my own feeling is that we didn’t turn.

No, the thing is he posed as a progressive and turned out to be counterfeit. We ended up with a Wall Street presidency, a drone presidency, a national security presidency. The torturers go free. The Wall Street executives go free. The war crimes in the Middle East, especially now in Gaza, the war criminals go free. And yet, you know, he acted as if he was both a progressive and as if he was concerned about the issues of serious injustice and inequality and it turned out that he’s just another neoliberal centrist with a smile and with a nice rhetorical flair. And that’s a very sad moment in the history of the nation because we are—we’re an empire in decline. Our culture is in increasing decay. Our school systems are in deep trouble. Our political system is dysfunctional. Our leaders are more and more bought off with legalized bribery and normalized corruption in Congress and too much of our civil life. You would think that we needed somebody—a Lincoln-like figure who could revive some democratic spirit and democratic possibility.

That’s exactly what everyone was saying at the time.

That’s right. That’s true. It was like, “We finally got somebody who can help us turn the corner.” And he posed as if he was a kind of Lincoln.

Yeah. That’s what everyone was saying.

And we ended up with a brown-faced Clinton. Another opportunist. Another neoliberal opportunist. It’s like, “Oh, no, don’t tell me that!” I tell you this, because I got hit hard years ago, but everywhere I go now, it’s “Brother West, I see what you were saying. Brother West, you were right. Your language was harsh and it was difficult to take, but you turned out to be absolutely right.” And, of course with Ferguson, you get it reconfirmed even among the people within his own circle now, you see. It’s a sad thing. It’s like you’re looking for John Coltrane and you get Kenny G in brown skin.

When you say you got hit hard, are you talking about the personal confrontation you had with him?

I’m just thinking about the vicious attacks of the Obama cheerleaders.

The personal confrontation you had with him is kind of famous. He got angry at you because you were saying he wasn’t progressive enough.

I just looked at him like “C’mon, man. Let the facts speak for themselves. I’m not into this rhetorical exchange.”

Is there anybody who thinks he’s progressive enough today?

Nobody I know. Not even among the progressive liberals. Nobody I know. Part of this, as you can imagine, is that early on there was a strong private-public distinction. People would come to me and say privately, “We see what you’re saying. We think you’re too harsh in how you say it but we agree very much with what you’re saying in private.” In public, no comment. Now, more and more of it spills over in public.

There’s a lot of disillusionment now. My liberal friends included. The phrase that I have heard from more than one person in the last year is they feel like they got played.

That’s true. That’s exactly right. What I hear is that, “He pimped us.” I heard that a zillion times. “He pimped us, brother West.” That’s another way of saying “we got played.”

You remember that enthusiasm in 2008. I’m from Kansas City. He came and spoke in Kansas City and 75,000 people came to see him.

Oh yeah. Well we know there were moments in Portland, Oregon, there were moments in Seattle. He had the country in the palm of his hand in terms of progressive possibilities.

What on earth ails the man? Why can’t he fight the Republicans? Why does he need to seek a grand bargain?

I think Obama, his modus operandi going all the way back to when he was head of the [Harvard] Law Review, first editor of the Law Review and didn’t have a piece in the Law Review. He was chosen because he always occupied the middle ground. He doesn’t realize that a great leader, a statesperson, doesn’t just occupy middle ground. They occupy higher ground or the moral ground or even sometimes the holy ground. But the middle ground is not the place to go if you’re going to show courage and vision. And I think that’s his modus operandi. He always moves to the middle ground. It turned out that historically, this was not a moment for a middle-ground politician. We needed a high-ground statesperson and it’s clear now he’s not the one.

And so what did he do? Every time you’re headed toward middle ground what do you do? You go straight to the establishment and reassure them that you’re not too radical, and try to convince them that you are very much one of them so you end up with a John Brennan, architect of torture [as CIA Director]. Torturers go free but they’re real patriots so we can let them go free. The rule of law doesn’t mean anything.

The rule of law, oh my God. There’s one law for us and another law if you work on Wall Street.

That’s exactly right. Even with [Attorney General] Eric Holder. Eric Holder won’t touch the Wall Street executives; they’re his friends. He might charge them some money. They want to celebrate. This money is just a tax write-off for these people. There’s no accountability. No answerability. No responsibility that these people have to take at all. The same is true with the Robert Rubin crowd. Obama comes in, he’s got all this populist rhetoric which is wonderful, progressive populist rhetoric which we needed badly. What does he do, goes straight to the Robert Rubin crowd and here comes Larry Summers, here comes Tim Geithner, we can go on and on and on, and he allows them to run things. You see it in the Suskind book, The Confidence Men. These guys are running things, and these are neoliberal, deregulating free marketeers—and poverty is not even an afterthought for them.

They’re the same ones who screwed it up before.

That was the worst moment [when he brought in the Rubin protégés].

We tried to point that out as soon as he became part of the Rubin stable, part of the Rubin group, and people didn’t want to hear it for the most part. They didn’t want to hear it.

Now it’s six years later and the search for the Grand Bargain has been fruitless. Why does he persist? I shouldn’t be asking you to psychologize him…

I think part of it is just temperament. That his success has been predicated on finding that middle ground. “We’re not black. We’re not white. We’re not rich. We’re not poor. There’s no classes in America. We are all Americans. We’re the American family.” He invoked the American family last week. It’s a lie, brother. You’ve got to be able to tell the truth to the American people. We’re not a family. We’re a people. We’re a nation. And a nation always has divisions. You have to be able to speak to those divisions in such a way that, like FDR, like Lincoln, you’re able to somehow pull out the best of who we are, given the divisions. You don’t try to act as if we have no divisions and we’re just an American family, with the poor getting treated in disgraceful ways and the rich walking off sipping tea, with no accountability at all, and your foreign policy is running amok with Israelis committing war crimes against precious Palestinians and you won’t say a mumbling word about the Palestinian children. What is history going to say about you? Counterfeit! That’s what they’ll say, counterfeit. Not the real thing.

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10 Comments


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[-] 1 points by MattHolck0 (3867) 9 years ago

I have not heard any great speeches from the president

the media told us that he was progressive

the media claimed progressive groups supported him

"hope and change" are adverbs for objectives without stating any objective at all

[-] -2 points by flip (7101) 9 years ago

isn't that the best way to sell shit? as jackson browne said "they sell us the president the same way they sell us our jeans"

[-] 1 points by MattHolck0 (3867) 9 years ago

after the poles were broken in 2000, who cares

the people were glad a new king would be appointed

[-] 1 points by ShadzSixtySix (1936) 9 years ago

''Eric Holder won’t touch the Wall Street executives; they’re his friends. He might charge them some money. They want to celebrate. This money is just a tax write-off for these people. There’s no accountability. No answerability. No responsibility that these people have to take at all. The same is true with the Robert Rubin crowd. Obama comes in, he’s got all this populist rhetoric which is wonderful, progressive populist rhetoric which we needed badly. What does he do, goes straight to the Robert Rubin crowd and here comes Larry Summers, here comes Tim Geithner, we can go on and on and on, and he allows them to run things. You see it in the Suskind book, The Confidence Men. These guys are running things, and these are neoliberal, deregulating free marketeers—and poverty is not even an afterthought for them. They’re the same ones who screwed it up before. ''

Ooops !!! There it is !! Enough said ! Also, see the two salient links here :

radix omnium malorum est cupiditas ....

[-] 2 points by 99nproud (2697) 9 years ago

And which fool thought this President (or any one pol/party) would swoop in & save the day.?

Not me.

Some of us know the real work is done on the street between elections.

Those who expect a pol to just do everything we want must be educated to get off their fat lazy asses, get active & do for themselves.

That doesn't mean dishonestly personally attacking fellow contributors, rather get in the streets, protest, petition, boycott, divestment & f course pressuring (replacing) out representatives.

In the end intelligent people know our problems are OUR fault & responsibility. Not a politician or party in a vaccum. WE allowed this with our negligence & apathy.

Stop blaming others for YOUR mistakes.

[-] 2 points by ShadzSixtySix (1936) 9 years ago

"Stop blaming others for YOUR mistakes'', huh ?!!! That is such a B-S 0.01% & 1% meme .. as when everything is everyone's fault - then nothing is anyone's fault - so suck it up and stop whining, right ?!! Bollocks to that & bollocks to you & - STOP using The 0.01% Parasite Class' arguments & memes !

temet nosce ...

[-] 1 points by flip (7101) 9 years ago

all too true - i have read some of your smack downs of the poor little 99 boy - i like them! i have mostly given up trying to discuss with him and the factless one. they are too much like trashy - boring and not very bright - a bad combination. if they were a bit smarter they might make it more interesting. i often wonder with people like that - do they believe their own bullshit?? mostly i don't think so - my thinking here is that first of all they cannot be that stupid. secondly if they really thought they had the "truth" on their side they would debate on the issues instead of like hannity and the fox news crew

[-] 2 points by ShadzSixtySix (1936) 9 years ago

Just forge on with an eye on the agon and also pls consider :

As per your excellent forum-post, here's a link to an original :

Finally, look what happened when I posted it elsewhere, lol :

That whole thread is worth a read, imo .. if only for the lulz !

pax ...

[-] 0 points by turbocharger (1756) 9 years ago

It not practical to expect individuals to do well in this political system. We expect too much of them, we have put way too much on their plate, and we are willing to do way to little in terms of helping out.

Its a losing situation no matter who you put in there.

Thoughts?

[-] 1 points by flip (7101) 9 years ago

you are right. the system is the problem for sure. . we need to move towards real democracy - getting money out of politics would be a start. chomsky's answer to the question - "what would be the first thing you would do if you were elected president?" - "i would set up a commission to try me for the crimes i am about to commit!"