The landslide election of Barack Obama and its euphoric aftermath were, I believe, widely misinterpreted, especially by Washington Democrats.  It was not just a rejection of the Republican Party, nor merely of Cheney/Bush neo-conservatism (though these were certainly involved).   No, the Obama phenomenon reflected the widespread desire of the American people for “Real Change” … for Change they could believe in – just what Obama promised.  It reflected not just a desire for a change in party (they could have had that with Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden), but a yearning for a fundamental change in how government does business and (I contend)  whom government serves.  In short, it reflected the hope that Obama would truly serve the needs of the people and not the moneyed elite.  Some of us still harbor faint hope that President Obama will yet turn out to be that kind of President – a populist President who brings about “Real Change”, not the “chump change” we’ve seen so far.

Alas, the young (and relatively inexperienced) President surrounded himself with members of the Washington status quo elite he showed such disdain for during the primary season.  Even before the election, many of us saw the hand-writing on the wall.  His selection of Joe Biden (the most hawkish of the primary candidates) as running mate was an early indicator.  Naming Rahm Emanuel (the Israeli super-hawk who kept all us anti-war candidates from being funded by the Democratic Party in 2006) was the final nail in the coffin.  We didn’t even have to wait for him to pick his national security team to know that our hopes for a quick end to the corporate wars of aggression against Afghanistan and Iraq would be dashed.  Is he an improvement over the previous administration?  Certainly!  (Even John McCain would have been that.)  But is he a populist president who is putting the needs of the people ahead of the greeds of the wealthy elite?  Certainly not!  Let us count the ways (well, a few of them).

1. He has turned his back on the majority of Americans who favored him primarily for his opposition to the Iraq War.  He has not only let that occupation drag on, but he has greatly increased our involvement in Afghanistan and extended that war into Pakistan as well.  The whole “War on Terror” is phony, and he should know it.
2. He has failed to reverse the Cheney/Bush usurpation of our Constitutional rights.  His extension (and in some cases expansion) of the “Patriot Act” and his continuation of the threat of martial law, surveillance and punishment of dissidents, and use of torture-induced testimony against suspects is unconscionable.
3. He has dashed the hopes of the majority of Americans who want a single-payer national health system by excluding even the discussion of such a change during the entire health “reform” fiasco.  The resultant bill is little more than a gigantic subsidy for the insurance companies and pharmaceutical manufacturers, guaranteeing them millions of new (forced) customers, while doing nothing to provide competition or limit premiums.

Most critics of Obama say that he has lost support because he has gone too far to the left.  Many of his disillusioned base say he has gone too far to the right.  They are all wrong.  This old left-right paradigm simply doesn’t work any more.  The old far left and the new far right are together in their rejection of centrist status quo corporate-dominated politics.  The people have been artificially divided for far too long.  The question is not how big government should be.  It’s whom government should serve.  The real divide now is between the populists who want to serve the people and the professional politicians who serve only themselves and big money.

It has now become painfully obvious to most Americans that BOTH major political parties at the national level are currently owned lock, stock, and barrel by the same big money interests.  (It has been obvious to some of us for a long time, which is why we supported John Anderson, Ross Perot, and Ralph Nader, and why I ran for President as an independent in 2000.)  We must now face the fact that it is impossible for a true populist to get the support of the leadership of either party or of the monopoly corporate media.  But Barack Obama enjoyed the support of both of these, and therefore they must have KNOWN that he wasn’t really the populist he pretended to be.  (The same goes for Scott Brown, by the way.)  Those who really ARE populists (like Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul) are marginalized by their party and ridiculed by the media.
Obama is not what we voted for.  To get that, we must break the stranglehold of the two-party system and the corporate monopoly media.

Dr. Robert M. Bowman, Lt. Col., USAF, ret.
National Commander, “The Patriots”
1494 Patriot Dr, Melbourne, FL 32940
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