Obama & the 99%: 'In Your Face Ayn Rand & Darrell Issa'

Please read this timely article and the excellent discussion that follows at Open Salon: "President Obama to Paul Ryan/Ayn Rand: IN YOUR FACE"! It's highly relevant and timely given what's happening with the "99%" Movement that's spreading across the country.

The article includes the video of Obama's budget speech when he invited Paul Ryan, Eric Kantor, Boehner, et al to sit in the front row. That's when he told them to their face what he felt about their sociopathic vision for America.

I want to reiterate the point made in that article - that progressives must both create and sustain a "bottom-up" movement and BE the "backbone" that our elected representatives need as we collectively take on the corporate-based conservative power structure, i.e., - the "1%ers" who've rigged the system and stolen our sovereignty. Dems NEED us. But we abandoned them with the naive belief that Obama and the Dems could get it done without us being organized and doing what the Tea Party did recently and what the labor and Civil Rights movements did in the past.

I've said it before and I'll say it again - I voted for Obama to be President, NOT Messiah. Only we can be the power that he and the Dems need to enact a Progressive agenda. Without the willingness to do what is starting to be done by the "99% Movement", there can be no "top down" progressive change in this country. It's time to stop throwing stones at Obama and feeling "betrayed" because he turned out not to be the Messiah that the "Lazy Left" expected him to be. And just because he's NOT the "socialist" that the fact free fundamentalists at Foxdafi and the GOP/Tea Party say he is, that doesn't mean he doesn't deserve the back-up he and any elected representative needs to take on the paleopaths and Ayn Randite extremists, who always will have the advantage, with their Koch brother billions and the rest of the multi-trillion dollar corporate sector behind them.

In other words, it's time to grow up and engage the world of realpolitk. FDR was successful because he had an organized labor movement behind him. He didn't organize it. He asked them to get out there and make their voices heard so he could try and get some things done in Congress. Same with JFK and LBJ. They not only had a unionized movement that made up 36% of the labor force then as opposed to 6% now, but they also had the organized Civil Rights Movement to help them get things done. Like FDR, LBJ told labor and Civil Rights leaders to "get out there and make me do it." Just because Johnson won in a huge landslide over Goldwater didn't mean his "mandate" enabled him to just do anything he wanted, like many on the left expected Obama to do. The right-wing Conservative movement and the Corporate sector have too much influence in Congress for liberals or Democrats to just roll over them. That's why Republicans CAN get away with using their power in much more heavy handed ways when they control Government - they ARE the 1%! THAT's why they can get away with it and Dems can't.

Obama has none of what FDR, JFK, and LBJ had to help them to enact reforms or progressive policies. There were at most 3 TV networks at the time and some key radio stations which they could use as part of the "bully pulpit" to reach at least 50% of the nation when they gave a speech. Now, a prime time Presidential address gets about 10%. Now there's Fox News, 1600 right-leaning radio stations, thousands of highly politicized and organized right-wing churches, the internet and well funded right-wing blogs etc. that have helped move the mainstream media to the right as they react to the all of the noise this right-wing BIG LIE MACHINE is able to generate and thereby further constrain progressive politicians. At least FDR, JFK, and LBJ didn't have to deal with that. Remember, ANYTHING the President says gets filtered through the media. He doesn't have a clear path from his mouth to our ears.

Yet, Obama also inherited the worst economy since the Great Depression, including the largest loss of jobs, income, wealth, homes - and then Republicans in the Senate have used the filibuster or threat of it more than at any other time in this country's history combined to either block or severely constrain his agenda. He NEVER had enough Dems on his side to overcome the 60 vote minimum, especially since 5 of them are really Conservatives in Republican States and have to side with the Rs if they want to get re-elected. PLUS, he's been straddled with all of the right-wing "true believers" that Bush and Karl Rove gave civil service protection to just before they left office so Obama couldn't fire them.

Again, like the filibuster, they did this for more of their political foot soldiers than at any time in this country's history. And they're in sensitive positions all over the Government, including the all important Justice Department. And the Rs have filibustered OBama's choices for various Government Departments, Agencies, etc. as well as Judges, and he's also stuck with a bunch of the Republican U.S. Attorney's in the Justice Department who make decisions over who gets investigated etc. So trying to even go after Wall St. or other Republican 1% bastions of wrong doing, including Bush/Cheney, has not been politically feasible without millions of people in the streets demanding it.

And now, seemingly anticipating this, Republican Darrell Issa, who's the right-wing extremist who's also in charge of conducting Congressional investigations, is directly going after Eric Holder, the head of Obama's Justice Department, to preempt any possible investigations not only of Wall St., Banking Industry, etc. but also of the activities of the Republican Governors and State Legislatures that have passed all types of onerous restrictions on both registering and voting among people who most likely vote for Democrats. That includes terminating early voting, closing down voting and registration locations in minority communities or reducing hours for voting, creating onerous ID, absentee balloting, and/or residence requirements that disproportionately effect minorities, the elderly, and students away at college, etc.

Issa's partisan chicanery can also be seen as attempting to influence the Justice Department's investigation of Issa's "sponsor," Rupert Murdoch - CEO of Fox and create a distraction away from the Justice Department's identification of "far right wing extremist groups" as the most dangerous home-grown threat to the Country. You won't be seeing Issa investigating that - because they're part of the Republican/Tea Party constituency. So Issa will be creating all kinds of havoc with his McCarthyite investigations. That's why he's trumped up phony accusations against Holder, which he's spinning to make it look like Holder committed perjury during his testimony before a Congressional hearing. He's twisting Holder's words and portraying them in a false light so that Fox, Rush, and the rest of the right-wing BIG LIE MACHINE can stir up a bunch of noise demanding that an "independent investigator" be brought in and thereby undermine Holder's credibility.

Issa' abuse of power not only effects Holder and Obama, but ALL progressive and democracy loving Americans who believe that Democracy requires broadening participation in the electoral process. Issa and the Republicans are trying to limit voting in ways that disproportionately effect Democratic voters in key States where the electoral votes at stake could swing the election. Remember, the President is voted for State by State based on the majority of votes cast in each State. He then gets the number of electoral votes in that State based on that States Congressional delegation (which equal 2 Senators plus the number Congressmen they have). As of today, it takes 270 electoral votes to win and it's "winner takes all," i.e. you win a majority of the popular vote in that State and you get ALL of the electoral votes.

But now, Republicans are even changing the electoral rules in Pennsylvania so that even if Obama wins that State, like Democrats typically do, he wouldn't get all of the electoral votes. Rather, they'd be split between him and the Republican based on the percentage of the vote each got! Remember, Gore beat Bush by a few million votes nationally. But it all came down to the number of electoral votes in Florida. And the Supreme Court gave those to Bush. We can expect a similar outcome should the electoral vote tally be that close.

In my view, Issa is one of the most dangerous, destructive, and powerful people in the Government and it's high time that Progressives stand up to his thuggery and that of his ilk. I pray that the "99%" movement take notice of the power of people like Issa, who is one of the key acolytes on behalf of the "1%" and in a key position to help them take over the entire government in 2012. Imagine what his pay day will be when he leaves Congress and becomes a lobbyist for them or head of one of their Corporations should he and they get away with this naked power play. And imagine what our country will look like if he/they and their NRA, "2nd Amendment remedy" shock troops succeed, especially given what they've already shown they're willing to do to get their way. If THAT's not enough to get your ass in gear, stop throwing stones at Obama, and pretending that electoral activism and power doesn't matter, then I don't know what will.