by B. R. GOWANI
Obama couldn’t get Judge Merrick Garland approved in over 8.5 months
Trump got Amy Coney Barrett approved in less than 40 days
how come?
Senate majority leader McConnel and other Republicans opposed Garland
Mitch McConnel’s Republicans, with Senate majority, supported Barrett
why did it happen?
President Obama didn’t fight back hard enough for Merrick, a moderate
he’s a system’s man who doesn’t want to disturb people used to the system”
“we’ve got all these legacy systems in place, and managing the transition, as well as adjusting the culture to a different system, would be difficult to pull off. So we may need a system that’s not so disruptive that people feel like suddenly what they’ve known for most of their lives is thrown by the wayside.”
the above was Obama’s argument against the Canadian style healthcare
didn’t matter if people suffered/died due to poor healthcare system
Obama didn’t put a dent in health/insurance/pharmacy profits
the above was then, when Obama was president (2009-2017)
the following is now, after four years of Trump presidency
Peter Hamby’s Snapchat program Good Luck America interviewed Obama
former president Barack Obama criticized progressives’ language
“I guess you can use a snappy slogan like ‘defund the police‘ but, you know, you lost a big audience the minute you say it, which makes it a lot less likely that you’re actually going to get the changes you want done.”
every system defender, anywhere, preaches the same shitty sermon
in order to avoid pissing off a segment of the people, i.e., the “moderates”
then he gives advise to progressives:
“One thing the presidency taught me is that the country is complicated.” “When you actually get on the ground and talk to people, you know, you go into some rural town and you find out there’s some huge Vietnamese population or you go into the Black community in a barbershop and find out church-going folks are pretty conservative. That’s why my biggest advice to progressives is to get out and talk to people. Because folks are always simpler in 140-character version. And when you actually take the time to hear their stories, where they’re coming from, why they feel the way they do, they’ll surprise you.”
is Obama implying that progressive movement ignores common people
many of the progressives got elected through support/money of commoners
unlike him, Biden, Harris, and others who got money from big corporations
what the progressives are demanding are certain fundamental changes
defund the police is one of those demands
what is wrong in it?
has Obama experienced the loss that families of police-violence have felt?
their loved ones were murdered by the brutal police forces
this has been going on for a long long time
Obama is a moderate, uses fine language, gets his point across
in what manner did he succeed in his eight years rule
what hope does he have that the system will change post racist Trump
Trump presidency has further emboldened the white supremacists
Obama pretends to be the leader of the common people – that’s a lie
Obama bailed out the rich criminals early on in his presidency
but the common people didn’t see much change in their lives
and now he has the nerve to lecture how progressives should articulate
newly elected progressive Representative Cory Bush tweeted:
“With all due respect, Mr. President [Barack Obama]—let’s talk about losing people. We lost Michael Brown Jr. We lost Breonna Taylor. We’re losing our loved ones to police violence.
It’s not a slogan. It’s a mandate for keeping our people alive. Defund the police.”
2nd term progressive representatives were not far behind
“We lose people in the hands of police. It’s not a slogan but a policy demand. And centering the demand for equitable investments and budgets for communities across the country gets us progress and safety.”
Ayanna Pressley tweeted:
The murders of generations of unarmed Black folks by police have been horrific. Lives are at stake daily so I’m out of patience with critiques of the language of activists. Whatever a grieving family says is their truth. And I’ll never stop fighting for their justice & healing.
Rashida Tlaib tweeted:
Rosa Parks was vilified & attacked for her civil disobedience. She was targeted. It’s hard seeing the same people who uplift her courage, attack the movement for Black lives that want us to prioritize health, funding of schools & ending poverty, rather than racist police systems.
it’s always risk-free to praise and elevate the dead; it’s in the past
the dead are not going to do anything to upset the status quo
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted:
“What if activists aren’t PR firms for politicians & their demands are bc police budgets are exploding, community resources are shrinking to bankroll it, & ppl brought this up for ages but it wasn’t until they said “defund” that comfortable people started paying attn to brutality”
tension between progressives and Democratic establishment is not new
it’s been brewing for some time, especially after sidelining Sanders
Obama, sensing the trouble, has tried to placate the progressives
he acknowledged at least one thing, that AOC was allotted little time
“… The fact that an AOC only got, what? Three minutes or five minutes [actually, 96 seconds at the Democratic National Convention]? When she speaks to a broad section of young people who are interested in what she has to say, even if they don’t agree with everything she says.”
but in August 2020, Obama didn’t endorse AOC in her reelection bid
although, he did endorse 118 other candidates in that election
nevertheless, AOC won her House seat by a huge margin
Obama is a multimillionaire who charges $400,000 for a single speech
he was paid $600,000 for a single speech in Columbia, South America
Columbia’s average worker will have to work 72 years to earn that sum
for a book deal, he and his wife Michelle signed a $65 million deal
it is no wonder then,
Obama doesn’t want to destabilize the status quo
Obama is not with the commoners;
his role models are billionaires
it would be better if he keeps his mouth shut and takes a back seat
and allow leaders for the common people to bring change …
B. R. Gowani can be reached at brgowani@hotmail.com