When President Obama was running for office and making those soaring "yes we can" speeches, he was inadvertently drawing a future line in the sand. That line was drawn when he made a constant reference to Bush's tax breaks for the rich. That reference was very different from a campaign promise casually tossed out in a speech by a politician trying to curry favor and win votes, it defined him as a man and represented who he was to become as an elected official. In other words, he wasn't a Republican and subconsciously, it was why we voted for him.
When Bill Clinton supported "free" trade agreements like NAFTA, it upset many union people who silently wondered how ANY Democrat could support something that would cost so many working Americans their jobs. They were agreements that the Republicans, always taking care of their corporate friends endorsed. He made a constant reference to those agreements creating "new" jobs and offering a bright future for all concerned. In other words, those agreements were there to help working people as well as corporate interests. Bill Clinton didn't know it then, but he was drawing a future line in the sand for the Democratic party.
As we all know, President Obama is seemingly more eager to please the Republicans and get the unemployment extensions that they are holding hostage passed, than to live up to how he defined himself during his campaign and by extension, his integrity as a man. By extending tax breaks for the rich, he has crossed the line in the sand that defined him as being the antidote to Bush and joined his predecessor on the wrong side of that line. That will render him politically unacceptable to many of his core supporters.
As we all know, President Obama is actively supporting the South Korea US Free Trade Agreement, an agreement that was originated by the Bush administration. Once again there are claims that the agreement will create many jobs due to an increase in exporting. Careful examination of the agreement by many unions and yours truly show that it has the potential to be a huge job killer, in other words NAFTA II. Unions have been in denial about Bill Clinton's support of NAFTA and have continued to support the Democrats for years. Obama's support of the South Korea US FTA just put the Democratic Party on the wrong side of the line that Bill Clinton drew in the sand years ago.
Now that the lines of integrity have been crossed, we have two choices:
1- To go into denial and pretend that the President and the Democratic Party actually represents us, not corporations and the rich.
2- To help form a pro-labor third party that will restore the American dream to the 98% of us who aren't millionaires.
The choice is yours, choose wisely!
RSS Feed