It's a dangerous political game we play when we pit ourselves as enemies against our actual friends. This is the result of believing the mistake Glenn Beck and others are making with an alarming increase in frequency, in that they claim that President Barack Obama is "Fundamentally Chang[ing] America". He is doing no such thing.
Many of you relatively older folks will remember (fondly?--I do) this video clip that I think was first aired as a commercial during the 1984 Superbowl. In my opinion, it is still one of the best commercials ever made.
This newer commercial remakes the classic, but with the fundamental substance changed in a fatally flawed way.
The problem? The remake portrays a message that is patently untrue. If we believe the essence of the remake then we are walking with too many Americans down the "Road More Traveled"--the wrong road--which will result in us never arriving at the real truth.
Barack Obama may have said that he wants to "fundamentally change America", but he is NOT fundamentally changing our country--any more than John McCain would have, or any more than several of President Obama's recent predecessors have succeeded in doing. He is simply carrying out the same Establishment plan that they have been carrying out, although perhaps at a slightly different velocity.
The sooner more honest Republicans AND Democrats will admit to this reality--that it is not a battle between Republicans and Democrats, but rather a battle between the Establishment and the rest of us--the better off America will be.
It's past time that we stop voting for the lesser of two dumbers at the ballot box.
Frank, let me take the opportunity to express agreement. Glenn Beck is wrong as always. Better to read Glenn Greenwald:
ReplyDeleteRemember all the talk during the presidential campaign about how, when it came to national security, John McCain was such a dangerous maniac, a war-monger, an extremist hawk? This was the exchange McCain had with George Stephanopolous last month:
STEPHANOPOULOS: Would we be fighting these two wars any differently if you were president now?
MCCAIN: Not now.
That, of course, is the trend that has been repeating itself over and over: while Obama has certainly deviated from what the GOP would do in the realm of domestic policy, he has embraced the core prevailing principles of Bush/Cheney in the areas of war fighting, civil liberties, "counter-terrorism," and secrecy/transparency-- i.e., in the full-throated continuation of the National Security State...
"He is simply carrying out the same Establishment plan that they have been carrying out, although perhaps at a slightly different velocity."
ReplyDeleteFrank, if you ever really listened to Glenn Beck, you'd understand that this is exactly the point he's trying to make: BOTH parties are taking us to the same place. It's just that one's taking us there in a jet plane. Obama is simply presiding over a huge milestone in that change, and he's accelerating it.
Richard,
ReplyDeleteExcellent article. Glenn Greenwald always has a mature and insightful look at things.
Bridger,
I listen to Glenn Beck from time to time, and I do agree with him on several things. You're right that he's been talking about both parties taking us to the same place, although he has only been saying that for about year. (I've been saying it for nearly ten.) Beck scolded and belittled Ron Paul during the last election and was a major reason why far fewer people voted for Paul than expected. I haven't heard Beck apologize for that fact--i.e. that the two party failed system that he warns about so much now was exactly the status quo that he supported for most of the last election cycle.