I read several blog posts this morning touting Obama's victory speech, and then a friend called me up and told me that Obama incorporated some of Edwards's populist rhetoric last night. So, I watched it to see if there was anything for me to grab on to.
He did sprinkle in some populist-sounding phrases, and then came to a point where he said:
"There are people all across this great nation who can't afford four more years without health care..."
Good line.
"They can't afford another four years without good schools..."
Another good, very important line.
"They can't afford another four years without decent wages..."
Excellent.
"... because our leaders couldn't come together and get it done."
Wha??? I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but once again, Obama shows he just doesn't get it. He makes it sound like there are procedural, bureaucratic issues, like the politicians in Washington just aren't talented enough.
But that's just not it. There's a side here that doesn't care about other people; one that is actively trying to keep us from having health care, that is dismantling our public schools brick by brick, that is trying to keep our wages down. The same side believes that we should be able to torture people, start whatever damn wars we'd like, spy on whomever we want to, keep our women in their places, and a whole spate of other things that are just plain wrong and harmful to tens of millions, or even hundreds of millions of people in this country.
We need to convince those who can be convinced that our side is right, and not try to compromise with the other side to come up with expensive "solutions" that make corporations rich and don't fix the problems. We need to repudiate them and rid Washington of the other side, not unite with them. Sure, I believe in two-party politics, but the other party is just SO wrong. We don't need to be more reasonable, they do.
The issue, unlike Obama seems to believe, is not that people can't get things done, it's that roughly half the people want to get the opposite done!
And thus, I'm still not on board with Obama, because he just doesn't get it.
-Z |
