Long Tweet: Change and Hope

They say there hasn’t been any change during the first term of President Barack Obama, and I have to disagree.  They say that hope and change were futile and this President was a facilitator for creating a docile, sleepy populace, and again, I have to disagree.  Personally, I’ve seen the change.  I’ve seen the way I’ve approached the whole idea of politics, politicians and the entire process of getting what we want out of the only government we have to work with.  I acknowledge this as change and this change in me gives me hope.

The election of President Obama in 2008 was like turning the lights on 400 hidden cockroaches.  By the inauguration in 2009 you had elected officials meeting and vowing to make this man a one term president. Now we all know the richest families of this nation had turned this experiment in democracy into an oligarchy—plain and straight.  Their successes didn’t occur because they were so smart, rich and powerful, their power simply depended on our apathy.  Their efforts for dominance, in the last 40 years specifically, were successful because the majority of US stopped paying attention to, and engaging in, our politics.  Their power comes from being able to control media, commentary and yes, activism—an activism that stops just short of solutions.  Between misinformation, oppression and white privilege, our energies have been channeled into rhetoric and a false awareness that allowed some to vocalize their egos instead of giving the People a true voice.  Why would we continue to push for the apathy that gave these people dominance in the first place?

Things have changed so much for me; even the progressive movement has come into scrutiny.  Because of all I’ve become aware, the far-left’s willingness to risk a Romney presidency gives me pause.  That they haven’t truly figured out the matrix by now, for me, diminishes their credibility.  That they would risk my freedom for some high-browed principle that puts no food on the table is beyond me.  Harsh?  Admittedly.  But that’s what it boils down to.  This election is a first step towards the America we’ve envisioned or the final step towards the fascism we’ve all predicted.  Sure, it can be said this President is the lesser of two evils.  What else is new?  This system is indeed broken; always has been.  It is unfair and imperial and parasitic and should be demolished.  Reformatted.  Rebooted.  None of this can happen if we are outside of this system and President Obama is no savior in this regard.  We have to get our hands dirty.  We have to understand the process so we can change it.  Standing on the sidelines and complaining feeds this system.  Anyone considering themselves a champion for the poor, who does not recognize that the middleclass are the poor and that the poor are now the destitute, haven’t been paying attention and is merely feeding their own egos by espousing this type of ineffective resistance.  A person perched upon a heap of dung promoting a tired, ineffective rhetoric becomes ego driven leader of excrement.  As the heap grows, the louder they speak, shit still stinks.  Sometimes I have to wonder for whom these people are working? 

Don’t get me wrong.  I’m not disparaging anyone’s effort.  The proliferation of information is integral to this process and I’m not asking that anyone remain silent.  I have great love and respect for anyone that tries to mobilize, educate and empower the people.  I have great respect for people who use their bodies in protest and dedicate their lives to effecting change.  I adore people who spend their little dollars to make sure I’m not marginalized.  I support truth in all forms.  I love these people for speaking it.  I’m one of those people so truly, sincerely; thank you and nice working with you.  I’m just saying that knowing our history, their history, the history of the system is only the beginning.  We have to learn from what has already occurred and from what I’ve learned, we have a choice to either revamp this system or shut it down.  New thought?  Not at all, but which option is more probable?  It has to be either/or, not a smidgen of both.  For instance, in recent history we’ve seen how the protest has been completely sidelined, and by the same token, we see the hordes of people still willing to imbibe in this system of elections.  People are more apt to engage the machine, so what do we do?  Do we set unrealistic goals where everyone in America has to be progressive, radical, altruistic, vegan, atheist, and forego everything we deem counter-revolutionary in order to effect change?  Or, do we take over the machine?  Do we spend even more decades in simply being contemptuous of the system without a working strategy?  This may make for millions in book sales and punditry, but this is obviously proven unproductive as far as true progress is concerned.  We need time and a succinct approach.  For instance, we’ve had the Occupy movement and now we need to supplement that, or the next one, with a ground movement.  We’ve got to come out and engage the citizenry so they can understand what an Occupy is really all about.  We need to actually learn from the Civil Rights Movement and work this new movement like a political campaign.  We need soap boxes on the corner and to knock on doors.  Unless we are prepared to engage in a movement that looks like a presidential campaign, we will continue to lose ground and find ourselves fighting battles that activists before us have already fought and died for.  Until we realize we need to back our protesting bodies up with concrete legislation, we relinquish our sway with politicians to corporate lobbyists.  As it stands, we’re not ready for any of that.  With a Romney Presidency, we will never get ready.

In my opinion, the next four years are pivotal.  “They” are winning in turning back the clock on the major accomplishments of our ancestors.  The national republican effort to suppress the vote should automatically make everyone want to come out and vote.  No one, however anti-political should suggest or promote not voting in such a climate.  Knowing the history of this country and voter suppression…man if voter suppression in 2012 does not make you determined to vote just for GP…  I have no words.  I have no words, because that means that no matter what these 400 families try to pull, say for instance; heeding Rand Paul’s assertion that ‘certain’ parts of the Civil Rights Laws are unconstitutional or that States’ rights should always trump federal mandate, says many people would stand by and watch anything go down while taking a principled stance on the sidelines of those voting.  Any horrid thing could be overturned and enacted and then they’ll say “See” and “Told you voting meant nothing.”  I don’t see this type of protest as strength.  It just makes us invisible.  I don’t see accusatory elements ticking off atrocities as superior.  It just relegates us to pontificating.  All I know is that I have to vote because Emmett Till died for my right to vote.  Four little girls died at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church because people organized the vote at this location.  Fannie Lou Hamer was severely beaten and disabled because of her efforts.  My heart breaks for them to date.  Just yesterday people were relegated to chanting, “Let us vote.”  How can you turn your progressive back on that?  I have to vote.  Only this time, to vote President Obama, to put this President back in office is to put this President in the position to put up or shut up because I’m on to this system now and he should be on to what it is the majority of the people in this country really want.  My job isn’t done the second I pull the lever and merely pointing out his faults and the faults of the system is no longer satisfying for me.  Being aware of the “lesser evil” philosophy doesn’t make me smarter, more effective, or less naïve than anyone else.  If this President says I must make him reactive, then it behooves me to do so.  It should behoove you to do so.  I see no possibility of anything progressive being accomplished under a Romney administration.

The System is tangible, workable; if only we use it.  Sure, the more we use it, the more they try and change it but they risk making the system vulnerable with each turn.  “They” make mistakes when they change they rules.  “They” are forced to show their true face and the masses have been taking notice.  That there are people, whose names I now know, whose affiliations aren’t cloaked behind the occultist specter of the Illuminati but revealed as think tank, Senator, Congressman, Judge, lobbyist, media figure and corporation is a change for many.  We can now see how the Heritage Foundation and Koch Brothers created the Tea Party.  We can see how Alex Jones’ rhetoric simultaneously bash and protect banks and corporations.  We can see how Romney unabashedly lies while Fox News corroborates each lie he utters.  We’ve watched the Drudge Report pick and choose anti-Obama related headlines however uncorroborated with facts.  We’ve seen supposed Lefty media call a lying Romney’s first debate performance a win.  We see the true strength of racism in how republicans rally their constituency to vote against their own interest.  We’ve seen the ineffectiveness of so-called progressive leadership and how they’ve been reduced to complainers and whiners and are used to control the masses as effectively as Glen Beck--willingly or unwillingly.  Most importantly, we’ve learned that if we relegate our political involvement to simply voting for a president every four years, we end up with Scott Walker, Michelle Bachman, Jan Brewer and Rick Scott, among others.  These oligarchs and their minions are against unions, have continually widened the wealth gap and are not opposed to a failing economy to keep us hopelessly indebted.  They control the media, the activism, elections and elected officials.  They control lobbyists that create laws that their corrupt politicians institute on a state and federal level.  They would suppress your vote, your choice, your earning and learning abilities and ultimately, your freedom.  They have rewritten history as we watched powerless to stop them.  Doesn’t that at least irk you enough to vote their main faction out of office?

I don’t fear "them," I see an out.  It isn’t that they are all powerful and omniscient it is simply that they are organized in contrast to our disorganization.  This makes them effective.  We can be too. This twisted matrix they’ve created is now revealed and would suffer a powerful blow simply by re-electing President Obama.  Will President Obama wave a magic wand and shut down all military bases, make everyone rich and end sexism, racism, militarism and corporatism?  Of course not.  First off, we see Presidents do not have that power.  They don’t have the power to institute and fund legislation on their own.  That is the nature of the Constitution where there are checks and balances.  Ultimately, whom we elect on the state level, to Congress, the Senate and which president we allow access to SCOTUS appointments are all on the People of the United States.  We need to begin to take this process seriously.  And yes, it is a two party process.  There are the Democrats and then, there are the Republicans.  Face it.  Progressives need to choose a party and co-opt it.  We need to change the national dialogue and expose people to our ideas on a global level.  We need to elect more progressives as State and Local representatives and petition the President to sign our legislation on a federal level with a newly-formed State and Local momentum.  That is the ideal.  That is a foreseeable future in my opinion.  For now, we can see who this President really is.  Will he be the liberal Senator or the same Centrist President in his second term?  Will he remain the corporatist some of you call him?  Will his reelection and our election of a supportive Congress and Senate make him change course?  Don’t you want to find out?  We know what direction Mitt Romney will take the country.  Reagan and the Bushes before him already set the pace.  Don’t you want to find out exactly what President Obama means when he says he wants to take us Forward?

We don’t know what a President Obama in a second--unfettered, no holds barred--presidential term would give birth to.  Here is what we do know.  As it stands, we know this is a president that believes in war.  He believes protecting “American Interests” by any means.  He believes in the NDAA and all that it entails because he signed that while no one was paying attention.  We also know that he believes in education, healthcare, tariffs, job creation, Global Warming, Social Security, Medicare, women’s issues, LGBT issues, immigrant issues and yes, even the problems facing Blacks specifically.  He also believes in reforming Wall Street and regulating corporations.  Some say he could have done more, but no one can say, with the obstacles he’s faced, that President Obama hasn’t done a damned good job.  I don’t think we’ve seen the extent of his leadership.  Granted, his efforts have not been in lock step with the Progressive ideal; what else is new?  No president before this one can be deemed perfect.  I say we take advantage of our similarities though.  We have a multitude of issues to be addressed.  If the fockery of foreign policy is beyond his reach or willingness to reform, then let’s concentrate on domestic issues.  Let’s continue to concentrate on Stop and Frisk, because no other administration deigned to do so.  Let’s concentrate on the school to prison pipeline, because again, no other administration has ever given a care.  Let us focus on the reinstitution Glass-Steagall.  Let us focus on doing away with NAFTA and bring jobs back to America and allow other countries to feed their own people.  Let’s focus on getting rid of Citizen’s United and push for lobbyist restriction.  Let’s get the money out of politics altogether.  Let’s make education more accessible and affordable, if not gratis, and do away with the federally supported for-profit college industry.  Let’s support this President when he wants to do things like do away with corporate subsidies.  Aren’t there hundreds of ways we can work with this President?  I really don’t want to talk about what he won’t do or hasn't done.  I want to work with him on what he will do within the next four years.  I want to utilize this time to create a foundation, a platform from which a true progressive movement can spring.  So vote for Change and Hope or stay home and vote for Romney.