By Arthur Piccolo
News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Fri. Oct. 21, 2011: So much for my lonely campaign to get Obama to stand aside. It has a support base of one even though 99% of us are dissatisfied.
Reality strikes again. Sad confused convoluted reality strikes again. To confirm the point, this week it was announced that President Obama has already reached one million donors for his 2012 re-election campaign.
Faster than his pace in the 2008 campaign. And they say over half of the 2012 contributions are not donors from the 2008 campaign. That cuts both ways.
Most impressive of all from Obama’s point of view – there were 606,027 new donors in this most recent quarter and they say 98% of the money came from small donations $250 or less.
Now allow me to analyze this information and data in a very different way than the Obama campaign or the rest of the media. I am going to assume these small donors came from the less than wealthy who are giving Obama lots of very much larger checks. More about them later.
So Obama is doing very well among middle class contributors and we can assume quite a few African-Americans. Two groups that should be outraged by the fact they were severely mislead by Obama when he first won the Presidency.
In fact, these 606,000 are evidence for the hopelessness of Change. Yes we do live in a democracy and our elections are free and fair for the most part in a certain way. But just like with Capitalism being better than the alternative neither superficial democracy nor anything that can be called Capitalism are guaranteed to lead us to a better land rather than over one cliff after another.
Absolutely not.
Both our political system and our economic system are severely institutionally corrupted from within and yet we support both because the alternatives are worse rather that demanding better systems from both democracy and capitalism.
It is not a new problem it is a very old problem.
What is different right here in America right now is that always in the past, at least for sure during much of American history and certainly for the last 70 years, any complaints could be met with “well things are sure better than they were 40 / 40 / 30 /20 years ago” and that the future will be better still for most.
Except that is no longer true in America nor for that matter in Europe, indeed not even for the rest of the world including China. Barack Obama and his army of donors crystallize the problem.
While there is widespread disappointment with the current reality in America in general and major disappointment with Obama in particular, what is motivating those hundreds of thousands of small donors to Obama? It is FEAR of the alternative.
They are not hoping for better from Obama and not even concerned about getting screwed by his phony campaign of CHANGE in 2008 – no it is the possibility of a Republican President. FEAR of a Republican President especially a Whackadoo Right Wing Republican beating Obama that is the enemy.
That is what defines the quality of our political – discourse phony promises and even more FEAR rather than demands and hope. It is NOT a formula for a better society. It is for cynicism and even more for those with the power and the money capturing more and re-enforcement of the Status Quo no matter how bad it is.
The problem right now with this reality is analogous to the often used example of frogs in an experiment placed in a pot of water above a flame that reaches a boil very slowly the frogs and their bodies and nervous system do not notice until they boil and die.
Our unwillingness to respond appropriately to the slow and steady decline of American society will insure we only wake up if we do when it is too late. When we’ve been boiled or fried if you prefer.
Without major changes in our politics and our economy, prospects are not going to improve for most Americans they are going to get worse for more and more of us the 99% or 90%.
Wake up! The housing market is not coming back. Wake up! All those trillions in student loans for the ever escalating costs of college degrees that do not result in jobs that justify the debt if they find jobs at all.
Wake up! The American jobs machine is never going to roar back. Wake up! ObamaCare will solve nothing; medical cost are going to keep getting more unaffordable. Wake up! The banking system is a mess. Wake up! American military adventurism is bankrupting us. And on and on and on.
So what are our choices for President? Barack Obama selling FEAR of the Republican and yes indeed a Republican candidate who is truly a SCARY choice for most Americans.
We will have the choice to boil at slightly different temperatures rather than candidates running who call the bluff of the Status Quo in America and really offer big changes in our increasingly unbalanced society of the super-rich and everyone else getting poorer by the day and more discouraged …..
…… while Barack Obama tells us not to “demonize” the elite, which means don’t criticize them, certainly not harshly. Why not? Because Barack Obama and Michelle are members of the 1%. The 1% is not defined by how much riches you have but the real litmus test is do you identify with the wealthiest and most powerful and are you accepted as one of them the Obamas are. No doubt at all.
Back at Occupy Wall Street we have a “movement” going nowhere no matter how many haggard angry individuals jam into Zuccotti Park or other public spaces across America, There is NO real agenda. There is just anger and frustration and a cacophony. Guess what? That is no threat to politics as usual. Obama and the so called Democratic leadership “love” Occupy Wall Street just as they proclaim they do but NOT for the reason they give far from it. Obama and the others love Occupy Wall Street for two good reasons for them. Not for the rest of us.
OWS leaders, if they are any, are vehemently anti-political, which means they will never be the force that mounts a challenge to Obama or his policies, and even more to the extent that all the anger and frustration out there is being funneled through call it white washed through Occupy Wall Street it pre-empts the development of any meaningful political movement for change within the Democratic Party.
OWS is a bad joke compared to the Tea Party which quickly understood its power was to assert itself within the Republican Party and it did. There is no such strategy among Operation Wall Street toward the Democratic Party forcing it to become more progressive rather than the opposite appear as vague to voters as possible so they vote for Obama instead of the Republican.
It can be argued as I have better to risk electing a Whackadoo Republican than allowing Obama a second term because of how he has mislead us with his first campaign of phony change. Why?
Because a Republican in The White House will galvanize Democrats to demand a forceful progressive candidate in 2016. While re-electing Obama will validate yet again how a weak candidate without a significant program is the best way to win as we get closer to the boiling point with smiles on our faces.
As for those 1 Million donors to Obama’s 2012 campaign, while yes 600,000 of them are donors of $250 or less and misguided as I explained, tt also means 400,000 are larger donors many far, far larger as evidenced by Obama’s never ending $30,000+ a plate campaign dinners across the country and his “bundlers” who each put together hundreds of thousands often millions in campaign contributions from the rich and influential.
Obama is just getting started his confident goal is to raise $1 BILLION for his 2012 campaign. That means the bulk of the money has not been raised yet. There will be more small donors but the bulk of the BILLION will come from the rich and powerful.
Do you really think any of them are giving their Big Bucks to Obama because they FEAR he will come down on them? They have their evidence; they have nothing to FEAR. He took their money is 2008 and today they are doing better than ever unlike the rest of us. While Obama assails us “don’t demonize them.”
The only saving grace here is …
That even if Obama’s total number of donors reach 2 million or even 3 million – OVER 400 MILLION Americans will not be donors. In other words under no circumstances will even 1% of Americans contribute to Obama’s re-election campaign. That is at least one hopeful sign. Be it of no concern to the Obama team.
As for me I will continue my very, very lonely campaign to get Obama to stand aside and be forced NOT to run for re-election.
Better to be logical than stupid and gullible.
Arthur Piccolo is a professional writer and commentator and often writes about Latin America for New Americas.
