It is discouraging – after writing yesterday about how Dennis Kucinich was the lone wolf, one of the few who could stand up to power, he folded. He’s on board the Obama train now. Prepare now for some cowboy foreplay-“Brace yerself honey.” They are ramming this bill through.
This is a huge victory for Obama and the DLC Dems – they are rubbing our faces in it, teabagging us, letting us know that there is no place for progressives in their party. They will take a huge drubbing at the polls this fall because millions of us just won’t have the energy to vote for people so unprincipled. I suspect that matters less to them than the mere fact that they defeat any nascent progressive movement in this land.
This gives lie to the Democratic fall-back that the votes just aren’t there for true health care reform. The votes are there, and the means to get those votes has always been there. However, Obama and the Democratic Party leadership have never wanted reform. The bill they are passing, a corporate-written bill ushered through in a scripted process, has always been what they were after. And they are persuasive and powerful. No doubt Kucinich was reminded that he can be challenged in the primaries, that big money will go after him, that he would receive no support from the party. Maybe he’s been wiretapped, maybe he’s got a skeleton. There were probably some positive enticements too. Obama can be persuasive. Yet never once – never once! – has he used those powers in favor of true reform.
It’s disgraceful, discouraging. Kucinich was a man of honor in defeat. Now he’s just another mealy-mouthed Democrat. So his defeat at the polls, as with all the others, would be of no consequence.
As they say, a man who places faith in politicians is doomed to disappointment. Damned if I didn’t have faith in him.
The good news is this: Obama appointee and Wall Street/health insurance-funded Senator Michael Bennet was defeated in the caucuses last night here in Colorado by Andrew Romanoff, who appears to be somewhat progressive. In an obnoxious and heavy-handed move last month, Obama elected to interfere in a local primary in support of Bennet. The results last night are a slap to Obama, and a message to Bennet that if he wants to win, he had better hide his funding sources.
All in all, not a good day. Power wins a big one, loses a small one. No doubt Bennet’s people right now are crafting ads about how he’s a man of the people, and Kucinich is putting together a press conference to somehow salvage his manhood.
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PS: I suggest that anyone who calls or emails Kucinich to complain include the words “I know it was you, Fredo. You broke my heart.
Piece of Mindful 
Serious, has Denny ever possessed any manhood?
To me the life of leisure with political convictions is telling everybody else they must sacrifice while he lies in his wife’s ample bosoms of inherited wealth.
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Oh no – it took some chops to be a progressive running for president – to stand on stage in “debates” and never even be asked a question.
There was some substance there, I ahve no doubt. A man cannot take the abuse he has taken over the years and been such an unwavering progressive without courage. We are looking at an exercise of raw power here – if he folded, can anyone stand up to the corporations?
I tried to deal with the question of power below. Democrats and progressives do not understand how power works.
Honest question, Swede: Do you?
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Not the first time. He caved without a whimper at the 2008 D-convention after promising supporters (he was a late hanger-on in the Presidential race) he’d fight for a plank in the platform to get out of Iraq and Afghanistan now. He’s an important role player, playing his party’s toughest critics. He’s good at what he does.
And Big Swedeee, in corporate paradise nobody must sacrifice. It’s all take, and no give. No problem as long as the tv and money presses are running 24/7.
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As they say, a man who places faith in politicians is doomed to disappointment. Damned if I didn’t have faith in him
Those that have faith in those that use evil means will get exactly what they deserve.
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Maybe I don’t understand Mark, last time I checked it wasn’t the corporations who were phoning in their disapproval.
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I’ve been trying to understand that comment – are you being sarcastic and rubbing it in, or is that the depth of your understanding?
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“Smooth runs the water where the brook is deep;
And in his simple show he harbours treason.”
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