Because We Have a President

who either kowtows too much to the right (which would never support him anyway) in some misguided attempt to be "post-partisan" or to help Democrats get more voters or else he is a tool of the right wing, the presidency is actually more important than ever.

This linked piece is in response to this article by Eric Alterman which says in effect Obama ain't a progressive, but progressives or liberals or whatever you call them can't get elected president, at least for the time being.

The problem, of course, is not only is Obama not a progressive or a liberal, but one can make the argument he isn't and has never been a Democrat. What REAL Democrat would propose abolishing public education, continue with wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, looking at destroying Social Security and Medicare, do little to jumpstart the economy, and pander to Wall Street? He is NOT making incremental changes to policies that would reach a liberal or "progressive" or Democratic Party goal but instead is dismantling programs that help people and were programs held dear to Democrats. What Obama has done is make the "Democratic" Party just a more benign version of the toxic neoliberalism spouted by Republicans.

This "Third Way" shit, which was nothing more than neoliberalism for "Democrats," should have died with the end of the Clinton presidency. Now it has returned, and the discredited and debunked political and economic philosophy is wrecking havoc everywhere it goes.

Don't say I didn't warn you about this guy when he first announced for the presidency. The way the corporate media were pushing him was a bad sign.