Category: Politics

Lately, when I think of President Obama, King Solomon comes to mind.

From childhood, I was riveted by the story I heard in Sunday school about how the king determined which of two women was the real mother of a newborn infant by threatening to cleave it in half with a sword. Of course, the biological mother preferred to leave her baby whole even at the risk of not being able to care for it herself. At least, the baby would live.

President Obama should take a clue. He seems to be of the mindset that a sword down the middle of any issue is the way to justice. Admittedly, he (and we) are in a tough spot. The last administration really didn’t care about the baby, much as they wailed about the unborn. Mother Earth was on her own, vulnerable to rape on every side. Science? Only theories. The national debt? Who’s counting? Human rights? Not if you’re Muslim or in this country illegally or, sometimes, just the wrong color or in the wrong place at the wrong time.

And war? Could we ever have enough? It appears not. While the Afghanistan Rights Monitor (ARM) says that 2010 is the worst year in Afghanistan since 2001, no one in Washington seems to be listening. When Republican Chair Michael Steele spoke of Obama’s War, Senator John McCain went ballistic that someone was about to give it away to the Democrats.

In 2008, Democrats had the choice of two viable candidates and chose the one who had had the least proximity to the center of power. Like many people, I felt Hillary Clinton was tainted by the miscalculations of her husband’s administration, that the Clintons had a style of governing that was right of center while claiming to be centrist. She had, after all, gone along with the Bush Administration in the unprovoked assault on Iraq and supported the Patriot Act.

But there was a risk with Barack Obama: he had no executive experience, even second-hand. But his memoir convinced me that he was authentic, and the speeches he gave were refreshingly clear-headed and idealistic at the same time. “Just words,” said Clinton, and only now will I admit she had a point. We should have raised a ruckus when President Obama accepted a Nobel Peace Prize before he increased our commitment in Afghanistan. Or when he talked about “clean coal.” Or when he failed to stand up for the public option in healthcare.

Now we have the barely contained oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a full-flowered, dramatic demonstration of the perils of our addiction to oil and the consequences for life on earth. It’s the perfect scenario for rallying the populace to transform our lifestyle and our economy, so why did the President and the Democratic Congress back off? Friday’s New York Times editorial, “With a Whimper”, says that House Majority Leader Harry Reid has abandoned any chances to pass meaningful energy and climate legislation, throwing in the towel even on cleaning up our poison belching power plants.

We deserve better.

Somewhere in the innards of the White House and the Democratic party, people are sweating the wrong things. They used to fret about Karl Rove and Rush Limbaugh, now they cower before the likes of Glen Beck and Andrew Breitbart. Anyone who followed the summary dismissal of Shirley Sherrod after a misleading video snippet ran on Fox News needs no further proof of this cowardice.

God forbid a black woman in Georgia (whose father’s murderer, it turns out, was never tried) should admit to powerful feelings about racial discrimination! Harvard’s Skip Gates and his arresting officer got invited to the White House for a beer. Shirley Sherrod, who sounds more honest about race than 99 percent of public officials, deserves a sitdown with agriculture secretary Vilsack and the president, not to mention a promotion.

In his eagerness to demonstrate that he is of different from the black men of the civil rights era, the president struggles to find his footing. I’ve long sensed that his outrage over the handling of Hurricane Katrina was more Hawaii than Louisiana; he didn’t seem to connect on a gut level. And while I understand that the Administration might be unwilling to admit lax oversight if it wants BP to take responsibility for the consequences of their careless indifference, the note of resolve we heard in campaigner Obama seems missing.

Perhaps the Democratic Party has grown paralyzed with fear that Louisiana Bobby Jindal will rise from the Gulf and out-Obama Obama, but nothing I’ve heard from the man convinces me that he’s anything other than a shill for the Republican Party and the oil companies. If I were counseling Obama, I’d have Representative John Lewis of Atlanta in for some straight talk.

And speaking of straight talk, how about inviting Al Gore in for some sobering conversation about the planet’s prospects; appointing Elizabeth Warren as the new consumer guru; really paying attention to what Paul Krugman and others outside the administration have to say about stimulating the economy, and convening a panel to review our entire approach to the Middle East.

As we move toward next fall’s elections, I’m still hoping that Democrats will see they have no right to trade off the vital necessities that we elected them to restore. Our on-the-ground economy is still on life-support, greenhouse gases keep on building, and our deadly initiatives in Iraq and Afghanistan are siphoning desperately needed funds from our coffers as well as those of other Western democracies. The wealthy still enjoy tax-free lifestyles while teachers who live on a fraction of their income are being dismissed.

No doubt the corporate funds recently released by the activist Roberts court are flowing into the political process, but Democrats still have an opportunity to demonstrate they believe their own rhetoric, that these are real problems, not talking points. And if they don’t, we must remind them. The sword is about to come down on the baby’s head, and it looks as though neither side is willing to stay it.

I have two new heroes this week: Diane Ravitch and Dennis Kucinich don’t have a whole lot in common, but both of them exhibited the rare ability to hang onto their principles and change their minds at the same time. We could use more leaders like them.

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Years ago, when I was in a quandary about the direction of my career, I got some sound advice: Never fall in love with a corporation, because it’s constitutionally unable to reciprocate.

This week, the Supreme Court created a limited redress to that issue in Citizens United v the Federal Elections Commission, giving corporations unfettered permission to spend their general funds on the campaigns of politicians they favor, and turning them into “a real live boy” as Slate put it. Who says money can’t buy you love? If the Rehnquist court handed Republicans the presidency in 2000, it’s hard to believe the Roberts court hasn’t handed them the Congress in 2010.

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