"Liberals" Owe Nader, McKinney, and The Greens An Apology

The more things change, the more Obama butt-fucks the polity. It was, unfortunately, NEVER gonna be any different. One of the more daunting political apoerias has always been the patently delusional belief that anyone who gained the approval of the OWNERS to run for, and be elected, President would, thereaffter, pose the tiniest scintilla of a challenge to the hegemony of the elites, aristos, oligarchs, bosses, landlords, etc--i.e, the richest, mostly invisible .01 percent...Especially a "marginal" candidate, a black/brown person or a woman.

The understandably irascible Chris Hedges, this morning, at TruthDig, is unstinting in his (continuing) disapproval of the policies and politics of the "Pope of Hope.":

The American empire has not altered under Barack Obama. It kills as brutally and indiscriminately in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan as it did under George W. Bush. It steals from the U.S. treasury to enrich the corporate elite as rapaciously. It will not give us universal health care, abolish the Bush secrecy laws, end torture or “extraordinary rendition,” restore habeas corpus or halt the warrantless wiretapping and monitoring of citizens. It will not push through significant environmental reform, regulate Wall Street or end our relationship with private contractors that provide mercenary armies to fight our imperial wars and produce useless and costly weapons systems.

Yeah, you might be wondering: How IS this 'different' from the Busheviki?

The sad reality is that all the well-meaning groups and individuals who challenge our permanent war economy and the doctrine of pre-emptive war, who care about sustainable energy, fight for civil liberties and want corporate malfeasance to end, were once again suckered by the Democratic Party. They were had. It is not a new story. The Democrats have been doing this to us since Bill Clinton. It is the same old merry-go-round, only with Obama branding. And if we have not learned by now that the system is broken, that as citizens we do not matter to our political elite, that we live in a corporate state where our welfare and our interests are irrelevant, we are in serious trouble. Our last hope is to step outside of the two-party system and build movements that defy the Democrats and the Republicans. If we fail to do this we will continue to undergo a corporate coup d’etat in slow motion that will end in feudalism.

The only thing with which I'd quibble with in Hedges discourse is his use of the "future" tense. It's here, friends. Full-fledged and slouching towards Jerusalem...Therefore:

Our task is to build movements that can act as a counterweight to the corporate rape of America. We must opt out of the mainstream. We must articulate and stand behind a viable and uncompromising socialism, one that is firmly and unequivocally on the side of working men and women. We must give up the self-delusion that we can influence the power elite from the inside. We must become as militant as those who are seeking our enslavement. If we remain passive as we undergo the largest transference of wealth upward in American history, our open society will die. The working class is being plunged into desperation that will soon rival the misery endured by the working class in China and India. And the Democratic Party, including Obama, is a willing accomplice.

There's more, including excerpts from Nader's recent speeches. But the important point is that Obama, the "centrist," is positioning US for servitude, and "we" need to stand up and fight it...