Very little of Obama's progressive agenda has been realized. A health care package better than what we had previous, but hardly adequate. Some effort to reimpose regulation on piratical companies. Not nearly as much as we hoped.
How much of the progressive agenda has Obama implemented?
Add up what Obama has failed to do, against what Ron Paul would be unable to accomplish of his agenda, and is Paul really any worse?
I can't answer that, but neither can you.
And I fear that the CONSERVATIVE part of Ron Paul's agenda would more readily be actualized than those parts of his agenda which we progressive find appealing.
In October of 2008, a French journalist asked me how great a difference it would make if Barack Obama were elected that upcoming November.
My reply: "That then would depend on us. Even if Obama is far MORE progressive as an individual than progressives think he is, it will mean little unless we can soon unleash a popular progressive democratic movement for justice. The government of the USA hss essentially become a corporate state, though "free" elections and certain civil liberties are still intact. Without a popular movement, Obama will find himself neutralized if he's trying to be progressive, or will be readily co-opted if he's not a man of strong progressive convictions. What you must understand Mr. Ode, is that progressive changes have not happened in America simply because, or mainly due to, the election of progressive political figures. That helpes. But ultimately, it is when there's a progressive MOVEMENT that things start to happen. Talk to any veteran of the 1960s about how Kennedy and Johnson both dragged their feet on civil rights until King and the Movement forced their hand. Or think about how Lincoln dragged his feet on Emancipation. an Obama victory next month would open up a window of opportunity. But are we prepared to take advantage of it? If not, what is Obama likely to do?"
I had that conversation with a journalist at Red Emmas, a popular anarchist coffee house/bookstore in Bmore.
The journalist then asked "How likely, Dr. Savant, is the rise of such a Movement in America?" To which I could only reply: "I don't know. But I want to do what I can to bring it about before the Right resumes the initiative."
As you know, the corporate sponsored Tea Party got moving before we finally created the Occupy Movement. I wonder what would have happened if the Occupy Movement had arisen on a large scale BEFORE November 2010. I heard Bernie Sanders on Rachel Madow saying: "God if only this Occupy Movement had happen at least a year earlier."
We're here now. The spirit of King lives!!!
-Savant
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