There’s no longer any question relative to who President Obama really is and what he stands for. On the surface, he is amiable, serious-minded, and low key to the point that the press often refers to him as “no drama Obama.” But beneath the surface is a corporate kind of a guy who is very effectively advancing the objectives of Corporate America over those of the people of this country.
Can I back up that strong contention with concrete examples? Certainly I can and I will do it by illustrating just three examples of his policies and actions that serve to prove it.
*Obamacare:
A perfect place to start; when President Obama had a Democratic-controlled Congress and he was lobbying its members to pass legislation to create the ACA, the Affordable Health Care Act, he had every opportunity to include a “public option” in the final bill. That public option, as explained in Wikipedia, was, “a proposal to create a government-run health insurance agency which would compete with other health insurance companies. The public option is not the same as publicly funded health care, but was proposed as an alternative health insurance plan offered by the government.”
This public option would have made the ACA far more effective by forcing insurance companies to offer much more competitive plans, with lower costs and far greater coverage for the American people. Most Democrats strongly supported this public option, but Mr. Obama used several of his Democratic surrogates in Congress to prevent it from being included; he, effectively, killed it. This action on his part was a great boon to the insurance companies but a disservice to the American people.
*The TPP:
If Corporate America and the GOP desperately want this Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement to go into effect then there is no question that it’s specifically designed to create even greater profits for corporations and further declines in American jobs. By all the evidence at hand, this appears to be yet another dagger plunged into the back of the workers of America who is already bleeding profusely from previous misguided trade agreements.
It’s simply astounding to watch as Mr. Obama has so willingly joined this corporate team and is now performing in the dual roles of its quarterback and cheerleader for the TPP. Why is that and why would this president push so very hard to try to ram this legislation through Congress after he and his advisers had spent a monumental amount of time working with global corporations in complete secrecy? He wants this Congress to bend to his dictates and pass Fast Track legislation without any discussion or debate. It appears that, in the end, he will get his way.
A huge blowback is taking place against this TPP as many millions of Americans, unions, and activist organizations across this nation have been awakened to its dangers; they see yet one more massive blow to this country and its manufacturing sector. Here’s one of many articles that points out the distinct dangers involved with TPP; it also warns about a most dangerous provision in it called the TiSA, the Trade in Services Agreement.
Let’s take this saying, “something is rotten in the state of Denmark”, and alter it to “the stench emanating from this TPP agreement is overpowering.” What we have here is Mr. Obama, along with his many “GOP supporters” and Corporate America, on one side of this issue. And then we have the majority of Democrats, plus what’s left of this country’s workforce, and the American people on the other. This is not a fair fight and it shows the great degree that the masters of Corporatism hold over this government and the White House.
*War Without End:
Have you watched as this president has become so very militant? Sure he has overseen the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq and Afghanistan in accordance with agreements made with those countries; but he followed those agreements in their entirety and didn’t try to overrule them because he also knew that to attempt to stay in those countries and try to subdue their very effective guerrilla fighters would be an exercise in futility.
However, instead of building on that process and backing away from aggressive militancy in the Middle East and other parts of the world, he decided to launch new attacks on Iraq; this time through air power with his program of intensive bombing; and he has done the same thing in Syria. He knows that it’s far easier to conduct a war by dropping bombs and launching drones than it is to have his troops engaged in direct battle. It’s absolutely amazing how he is throwing more fuel on the fires that Bush started.
Many of us condemn Bush for taking America into the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and rightly so because both proved to be monumental mistakes and cost the U.S. trillions of dollars. But those wars were against countries that did not possess large and powerful militaries. Mr. Obama hasn’t initiated a full-blown war, not yet, but he is taking this country to the very brink of war with Russia, a country that has massive firepower and the greatest number of tactical nuclear weapons in the world. And that could not be a more dangerous, mindless direction in which to go.
And now we hear that Mr. Obama has, once again, failed to heed Vladimir Putin’s words of warning that the U.S. and NATO are risking a massive Russian military response if they go ahead and move huge amounts of weaponry into countries that border Russia. This article from Global Research includes a quote from Putin, in response to the U.S. and NATO’s “massive build-up of troops, heavy military equipment and missile systems on its western borders.” He clearly stated that, “We will be forced to aim our armed forces … at those territories from where the threat comes.” Does this president even begin to comprehend that he is moving ever closer to igniting a massive war that could easily include the use of tactical nuclear weapons?
Why in the world would he do such a thing? Well, it’s because he is marching to the beat of Corporatism’s Military-Industrial Complex (the MIC) and its large cadre of war hawks that have every intention of bringing Russia down.
The GOP, the MIC’s chief subsidiary in Congress loves wars; plus an increasing number of Democrats have learned to also love these wars that Mr. Obama is conducting in the Middle East. It’s difficult to know for sure whether this president has always embraced this kind of militancy or whether he has decided that “If you can’t beat them then just join them.”
What a tremendous disappointment this president has been. He could have and should have worked tirelessly to create millions of new jobs for desperate Americans. Sure he would have met great resistance from Corporate America and the Republican Party but, if he had been up to the task, he would have discussed this with the American people over and over again in speeches across this country, and rallied them to this cause; and they would have overwhelmingly supported him and demanded that Congress take action. He did no such thing, he didn’t even try; he has failed his country and its people.
It’s an almost impossible task for the American people to find a way to remove Corporate America’s control over this government. But the objective becomes far more difficult when we have American presidents like Mr. Obama who allow themselves to cave in to the overwhelming power and control of this Corporatocracy. This is like a systemic disease that has invaded the body of America, one for which we just can’t seem to find a cure; at least not yet.
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