The congruence and unanimity of President Obama’s speeches and press performances have continued to inspire an upbeat national mood, of hope in the future despite the prevailing news of economic implosion and war. My support for Obama is centered more in what his campaign and the removal of GW Bush from office brought forth in the American people than singularly in Obama himself. America and the pop nature of our techno global culture is devoted to the cult of personality from rock singers to movie actors to glitterati and celebrity of every sort. GW Bush himself was a “hero” to America just eight short years ago for coming out of his bunker to stand upon the rubble of the WTC, the image and metaphor of his long and destructive presidency, and because he could swagger out a sound byte through a bull horn America had its icon restored and faith to move forward despite the staggering tragedy of 9-11 and the economic collapse that followed.

Only a few voices in the wilderness cried out against the follow ups, the deliberate lack of protection for 9-11 site workers, the carpet bombing of Afghanistan as revenge against CIA asset Osama Bin Laden and the 19 or so Saudis who were aboard the crashed airliners on that fateful September day; over 50 Cruise missiles launched the first morning at over $1M each provided by Rumsfeld chum the Raytheon Corporation. As a nation we were aggrieved enough to give a pass on empire building, construction of dozens of giant military bases throughout the mid and near East, extraordinary rendition, the invasion and destruction of Iraq, the death of an estimated 1,311,696 Iraqi civilians plus 4,200,000 displaced and often homeless Iraqi refugees, Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, and to the list of Bush catastrophic failures was added the US economy which totters on the brink of a Chernobyl like meltdown, an abyss like his handling of New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina that seriously got the attention of his fellow aMurikans.

Obama’s campaign was a breath of fresh air to say the least. Here was an astute blend of idealist and pragmatist in one multicultural package that promised to lead us into a new era of Change, with change being one thing anyone with half a brain could agree upon after eight years of profligate empire. People rose up across the nation to participate in the political process, to make their voices heard, to celebrate, to question, to show up on that bright day in January to collectively say good riddance to bad rubbish and welcome a President who could think. But therein lays the trap, for as much as Obama’s personal talent is great, he and his office are as much a part of the system as his predecessor, working within a swamp of political corruption and incestuous corporate influence that has brought America to the shores of ruin.

Obama speaks about one nation, one people and I admire that aspiration but it’s as far from fact as the goat stories of GW Bush. Does the deliberate malfeasance and wholesale theft of the US treasury that Paulson and his Wall Street partners engineered have anything in common with 90% of the population standing in line at a grocery store? The Congressional performers take pot shots for the cameras at CEOs who show up for a little abuse and a load of gold while at least 10% of what Congress doles out to the corporations finds its way back into their own re-election chests. The bankers withstand the sterno can Congress calls heat while Timothy Geithner whose charmed career as a banking insider from Kissinger Associates to Chairman of the NY Federal Reserve Bank where he engineered the bailout of Citigroup which some analysts say started the meltdown in the first place, now dumps ton after ton of sand from his crew of Bernanke supplied helicopters upon the inferno at core reactor 11 Wall Street.

My point being this is no time for progressive voices to be silent, to find some new found respect for the office of president or blind belief in Barack Obama. America has risen out of its slumber through the Obama candidacy and election and the sleeping giant must not return to its comatose state. A greatly admired and intelligent friend recently told me that whatever Obama does they would support because over time we would realize that Obama’s intellect was superior. I looked down to see what I might be stepping in because I hadn’t heard that kind of horsepucky dropped in liberal circles while W ruled the White House and it shouldn’t be shoveled out now. Obama might be one of the smartest guys in the room but weren’t smart guys the ones that brought us Enron?

Obama needs all the backpressure we individually and collectively can put on his poor choices and all the support and encouragement we can provide when he’s right. Just one example: putting Rahm Emanuel in charge of his White House Staff makes perfect sense after the partisan dogfight of the Stimulus Package for you can be sure Emanuel made enough threatening neck-biting phone calls when that bill was in question to justify his salary. It is also well to bear in mind that Emanuel is directly connected through his family and his own personal history to the far right in Israel that is steering that country off a cliff into the most brutal forms of military oppression upon their neighbors. That doesn’t make Emanuel the wrong choice for Chief of Staff but it certainly demands constant scrutiny and a clear understanding that in all his appointments and policies Obama is walking a razor’s edge between corporate influence, onerous deal making, and choices that can and should stimulate We the People into standing up, speaking out, and doing the one thing that We the People CAN DO that government may not and that is to make this nation something to be proud of.

Cut and paste this note to the President and drop it in his email box:

President Obama:

I am strongly opposed to the drone bombings in Pakistan and to the increased war effort in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. This belligerent, force led foreign policy corrupted our nation over at least the last eight years and was something I understood you were going to alter through reason and dialogue. I recognize the commitment you made to strong defense but your actions just one month into office are presenting an America intent on using its military might rather than its intellectual prowess. I supported your election and I am not prepared to withdraw my support of your presidency, but if you are to be a president of true change, leading us beyond our faith and belief in war even MORE than the economics of our military industrial complex, will begin a truly evolutionary process.

cc: Your US Representative, your US Senators

vpdonhynes.blogspot.com/2009/02/studying-war-no-more-congruence-and.html