The late Gore Vidal explained it as well as anyone. Some of his best comments included:
"Apparently, a democracy is a place where numerous elections are held at great cost without issues and with interchangeable candidates."
"Any American who is prepared to run for president should automatically by definition be disqualified from ever doing so."
"By the time a man gets to be presidential material, he's been bought ten times over."
"Every four years the naive half who vote are encouraged to believe that if we can elect a really nice man or woman President everything will be all right. But it won't be."
"The genius of our ruling class is that it has kept a majority of the people from ever questioning the inequity of a system where most people drudge along, paying heavy taxes for which they get nothing in return."
"We should stop going around babbling about how we're the greatest democracy on earth."
He also said America is "rotting away at a funereal pace. We'll have a military dictatorship pretty soon, on the basis that nobody else can hold everything together."
He thought of himself as a modern-day Voltaire. We need a legion of them at perhaps the most perilous time in world history.
Reelecting Obama assures worse than his first term harm. Romney in office would match him blow for blow. Voters likely chose the lesser of two evils. At least they thought they did. In any form, evil is evil. Duopoly power offers no other choice.
Expect four more years of permanent wars, greater economic hardships, growing poverty, unemployment, homelessness, hunger, and human misery, handing more of the nation's wealth to corporate predators, governing lawlessly, and cracking down ruthlessly on resisters.
Anti-progressivism defines Obama's agenda. He's hard-right, reactionary, belligerent, and pro-corporate. He serves wealth, power and privilege at the expense of essential popular needs.
Force-fed austerity will harm millions more than already. Expect human suffering to increase exponentially domestically and abroad. Why anyone would support what they should condemn they'll have to explain.
It's true as well about political promises broken every time. IF Stone told aspiring journalists that all governments lie. Nothing they say should be believed.
Obama exceeded the worst of his predecessors. Every major pledge made he broke. He's a duplicitous con man. He's a crime boss, serial liar and moral coward. He promised change and delivered betrayal.
He doesn't fool all the people all the time but enough to matter. Tuesday night he celebrated with supporters. The Chicago Tribune headlined it.
It shamelessly endorsed his reelection. It praised his "decisiveness and intellectual rigor." It backed the worst of his policies. McCormick Place echoed with "deafening cheers….launching a wild celebration among thousands of his supporters."
It was subdued compared to 2008. Chicago offices closed early. Tens of thousands packed Grant Park downtown. Word came around 10PM. The celebratory mood felt like New Year's eve.
Supporters thought Obama could make a difference at a time of deepening economic duress. He made things worse, not better.
This year, McCormick Place erected huge television screens. Victory was announced around 11:20PM. Several thousand inside heard it. They came by invitation only. They were hand picked in advance. Tickets were needed for entry.
City streets were no more active than usual. The celebratory mood four years ago wasn't repeated. Most people likely went to bed. Obama's victory speech sounded like more campaigning.
"We are an American family and we rise as one people," he said.
"Whether I earned your vote or not, I have listened to you, I have learned from you, and you've made me a better president. I return to the White House more determined and more inspired than ever."
"Tonight, you voted for action, not politics as usual. You elected us to focus on your jobs, not ours."
"(W)e know in our hearts that for the United States of America, the best is yet to come."
"We want our kids to grow up in a country where they have access to the best schools and the best teachers….(a) global leader….with all of the good jobs and new businesses that follow."
"We want to pass on a country that’s safe and respected and admired around the world, a nation that is defended by the strongest military on earth….to shape a peace that is built on the promise of freedom and dignity for every human being."
"We believe in a generous America, in a compassionate America, in a tolerant America open to the dreams of" everyone.
"Our economy is recovering. A decade of war is ending."
"I return to the White House more determined and more inspired than ever about the work there is to do and the future that lies ahead."
"And together, with your help and God’s grace, we will continue our journey forward and remind the world just why it is that we live in the greatest nation on earth."
All of the above was said with forked tongue. Obama and likeminded rogues deplore rule of law principles, other democratic values, and vital social services when they're most needed.
They prioritize war, not peace. Their agenda threatens humanity. They don't give a damn about ordinary people. Obama never did. He just pretends. Despite all the harm inflicted on so many, half the country still supports him. Why they'll have to explain.
Imagine what he plans in term two. Humanity may not survive. More wars are planned. Current ones will continue. Social America is on the chopping block for elimination. Great Betrayal priorities demand it.
Resisters face harsh crackdowns. Anyone can be arrested, imprisoned, and stay there indefinitely uncharged and untried. On Obama's say alone, people can be marked for death. He's now judge, jury and executioner.
America hasn't been fit to live in for years. It's now dangerous. Ahead it'll be intolerable. Obama's mandate is to assure it. Imagine a leader promising better times and delivering what few can tolerate.
Imagine too few realizing that the worst is yet to come. Imagine putting up with what should be challenged and dispatched. Imagine media scoundrels praising what they should condemn.
America's "newspaper of record" endorsed him for the wrong reasons. Death squad diplomacy was ignored. So were plans for global dominance and human deprivation at home.
The New York Times cited economic recovery at a time it's worsening. It called his achievements "impressive." It claimed destructive domestic and foreign policies were successes.
It turned truth on its head. It "enthusiastically" endorsed four more years. On November 6, it headlined "President Obama's Success," saying:
Winning showed most people support his "economic policies that stress job growth, health care reform, tax increases and balanced deficit reduction…."
"It was a repudiation….of the politics of fear, intolerance and disinformation."
Fact check
Obama wrecked the economy to help banks, other corporate favorites, and rich elites. He's been more a job destroyer than creator. Nearly 25 million remain unemployed. They represent nearly 23% of eligible workers.
Most youths have no futures. Higher education doesn't help. Increasingly it's unaffordable. Most getting it end up debt entrapped for years, decades, and in some cases forever.
Obama continued past policies of offshoring high pay/good benefit jobs. Most remaining are low pay/poor or no benefit part-time or temp ones.
He cut corporate taxes. He left Bush-era cuts for the rich in place. He plans more of the same at the expense of public need. He presides over the largest military budget in world history. Increases are planned, not cuts.
He handed America's healthcare system to corporate predators. Ralph Nader calls it "a pay-or-die system that's the disgrace of the Western world."
Costs are shifted to consumers. Most get inadequate or unaffordable care. Corporate provider profits are better than ever. So-called financial reform did the same for Wall Street and other large financial institutions.
Deficit reduction will be done on the backs of ordinary people who can least afford it. Destroying social America is planned to accomplish it.
New York Times editors are well paid. Human deprivation isn't their concern.
Nation magazine also endorsed Obama. It openly campaigned for him. Defeating him would be catastrophic for progressive politics, it claimed.
Truth was ignored in support of what should have been condemned. Policies too disturbing to discuss are ignored. Obama's war on humanity and police state repression get no attention. Sophistry and lies substitute. It's official Nation policy.
It's been that way throughout its history. It masquerades as progressive. It represents middle-America elites. Ordinary people don't matter.
On November 7, Nation contributor John Nichols headlined "For Obama, a Bigger Win Than for Kennedy, Nixon, Carter, Bush or Bush," saying:
He won "a credible, national win….And it was a real victory….And a president who has been comfortably reelected ought not think small. He should 'spend his capital' on projects worthy of the trust Americans have afforded him."
Not a word in Nichols' article about permanent imperial wars, prioritizing corporate favoritism, US-style fascism wrapped in an American flag, growing unmet people needs, and harsh police state laws targeting resisters.
Nothing either on Democrats perhaps better able to destroy social America than Republicans. In 2008, monied interests chose him to do what Republicans wouldn't dare. It represented a classic reverse Nixon goes to China moment.
The fix was in. There's unfinished business. Four more Obama years may complete turning America into the worst of all possible worlds. Backers have that idea in mind.
Nation magazine and other progressive charlatans conceal it. Nichols and contributors like him turn reality on its head.
Most Americans afforded Obama nothing. Most votes for him were likely against Romney. Money power in America chooses candidates and winners. Corporate manipulated and controlled electronic voting machines have final say.
Nichols and likeminded Obama supporters suppress what should be headlined. Ordinary Americans will learn more harsh truths straightaway. Lame duck congressional budget cutting looms.
They'll be hardest hit. Obama supports it. Monied interests gave him two terms for that purpose. He hasn't disappointed. Expect lots more pain and suffering ahead.
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Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
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