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Obama's speech wasn't that ham-fisted, it's just that the right-wing noise machine media have deliberately misreported and misinterpreted it.  Rather like the constant lie that Gore claimed to have created the Internet.
by rifek on Sat Jul 21st, 2012 at 09:47:55 PM EST
In the sense that Obama's argument does not take advantage to go into full throated economic populism, but instead sets up a "good billionaire non-outsourcing union busting boss who pays a healthy marginal tax rate" versus the Mitt Romney bad guy ...

... that's structural. President Obama is the leader of the Hedge Fund wing of the Democratic Party. There's got to be a good billionaire capitalist option out there. The fact that the rot of inherited fortunes has thoroughly corrupted our political system is not something that is to be mentioned by the politicians from the Hedge Fund wing of the party.

I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.

by BruceMcF (agila61 at netscape dot net) on Sat Jul 21st, 2012 at 10:42:05 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Not so long as Citizens United stands and corporate "persons" control the political money hose.
by rifek on Mon Jul 23rd, 2012 at 06:54:38 PM EST
[ Parent ]
What, not so long as Citizen United stands and corporate "persons" control the political money hose?

I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.
by BruceMcF (agila61 at netscape dot net) on Mon Jul 23rd, 2012 at 09:11:27 PM EST
[ Parent ]
I think rifek means that you cannot elect a president that is not the choice of those with the money, so the actions of US president are conditionned by that.

res humą m'és alič
by Antoni Jaume on Tue Jul 24th, 2012 at 12:59:05 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Yes.  The SCOTUS held in Citizens United, and recently reinforced in American Tradition Partnership, that the 1% own US elections, and nothing short of a constitutional amendment can do anything about it.  As a side note, American Tradition Partnership is a far-right organization focused on climate change denial and attacking alternative energy.
by rifek on Tue Jul 24th, 2012 at 01:38:44 PM EST
[ Parent ]
There hasn't been a President elected from outside the Corporate Wing of either party since 1948, so its not like Citizen's United was necessary to bring that about.

I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.
by BruceMcF (agila61 at netscape dot net) on Tue Jul 24th, 2012 at 06:32:34 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Which explains the "so long as" part, but does not explain the "not" part. I can't find what I wrote that was in contradiction to that.

It's possible to elect a President who is not from the Corporate Party, but its certainly not easy, and its certainly not going to happen without a movement making it happen, which means the prospects for doing so in 2016 have gone to the wayside and the earliest possibility is 2020.

I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.

by BruceMcF (agila61 at netscape dot net) on Tue Jul 24th, 2012 at 06:30:29 PM EST
[ Parent ]

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