M.Cord: „SHOULD BLACK NATIONALISTS, WHITE PROGRESSIVES & ALL REVOLUTIONARIES VOTE FOR PRESIDENT OBAMA?“ (C.Keller)

– 4. November 2012Eingestellt unter: english, Left Discussions & news

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by Attorney and Activist Michael Coard

Let me confess- or brag- that I am a Pan-African socialist, which means I support a unified and culturally conscious Africa that has an economic system that constitutionally guarantees food, clothing, shelter, education, health care, jobs, and human rights. And I support the applicability of this type of socialism for black people throughout the Diaspora, including in America, and for white progressives as well as all revolutionaries here, too. I now pose this question: Should people whose politics are similar to this vote to re-elect President Barack Obama, whose politics are not at all similar to this? Here are lists of why we shouldn’t and why we should.

We shouldn’t vote for Obama for the following five reasons:

1. Corporate Sucking-Up. He’s a member of the Democratic party, which, like the Republican party, consists of Washington whores working for their Wall Street pimps. In fact, at just under two million dollars, sugar daddies Wells Fargo and Deloitte LLP are among the top 20 corporate contributors to the President and Mitt Romney (not to mention super PAC contributions in 2012 of $162 million to Democrats and $331 million to Republicans). In order to return the favor, or to provide a reach-around, Obama’s pro-corporation policies led to an average annual corporate profit growth of 6.8 percent, which is three times higher than Ronald Reagan’s 2.3 percent.

2. Unleashed and Unchecked Military Powers. He signed the National Defense Authorization Act of 2010, which for the first time in history permits the government to assassinate American citizens abroad, to hold citizens and foreigners without charge indefinitely in and outside the US, to subject those outside this country to rendition that allows brutal torture by allied governments, to suspend habeas corpus, to hold secret military trials, and to replace revolver-carrying cops with M4A1 carbine-slinging soldiers on our city’s streets. Also, despite his promise, Guantanamo is still open. He escalated the war in Afghanistan and ordered the assassination of African heads of state after unilaterally declaring war on their countries. He continues to order the widespread use of teenage-American-citizen-killing drones that buzz overheard 24/7 in Pakistan. Maybe these are the reasons he refuses to investigate George W’s war crimes.

3. To Hell With Your Tired, Your Poor, and Your Huddled Masses. He deported more human beings, most of whom were brown and black, than any other president in American history. In fact, in 2011, he broke his own 2010 record of 392,862 when he kicked 396,906 men, women, and children out of the country.

4. Punishing The Good Guys. His Justice Department, using national security claims and the Espionage Act of 1917 as pretexts, has prosecuted more whistleblowers- like former National Security Agency Senior Executive and decorated Air Force and Navy vet Thomas Drake and former CIA Officer John Kiriakou- than any president ever. In fact, before Obama’s use, charges under that 95 year old law had been filed only three times in history and that includes the case against Daniel Ellsberg for his Nixonian “Pentagon Papers” leak. Drake’s only so-called crime was to expose the waste, fraud, and abuse of the Trailblazer internet and cell phone monitoring project. And all Kiriakou did was to tell the truth about waterboarding.

5. Don’t Let Them See Me Talking To You. He ignored the oldest, most respected, and safest civil rights organization in America when he refused to attend the 2012 NAACP Convention in Houston. He also dissed the 2009 U.N. World Conference Against Racism, held in South Africa, by boycotting each of the sessions. And during his first two years in office, he discussed race fewer times than any Democratic president since 1961.

We should vote for Obama for the following ten reasons:

1. Advances for Black Folks. He provided $1.5 billion in 2010 to victimized black farmers as settlement in their longstanding class-action suit. He signed the Hate Crimes Bill in 2009 and also signed the Fair Sentencing Act in 2010 to reduce the racist disparity between incarceration for crack cocaine possession and for powder cocaine possession. He fully supports affirmative action. He increased funding to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), signed an Executive Order in July to create the “White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans” in order to reinforce his 2010 Executive Order to “Promote Excellence at HBCUs.” He increased Pell Grants by devoting $40 billion over the next decade.

2. Women’s Rights. He signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act in 2009 to bring about gender pay equality and also signed the holistic Preventive Women’s Health Care Amendment that went into effect in August. He continues to fight to force Republicans to stop their opposition to his reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act. He appointed two female Supreme Court justices and selected a female Secretary of State. He has women in his cabinet, not in his binders.

3. “Bainfully” Heartless Capitalism. Romney makes Obama look like Karl Marx. He would destroy labor unions, exploit cheap labor overseas, give tax breaks to the filthy rich, and take money from the poor by slashing projects like the Children’s Health Insurance Program.

4. Warmongering (Chicken) Hawk. Romney would greatly increase the military budget. He wants to attack Iran right now. His arrogant patriotism and his black, brown, and yellow xenophobia makes Obama’s militarism pale in comparison.

5. Let ‘Em Eat Cake When They Get Sick. He would repeal the historic (albeit relatively small) gains of Obama’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, which provides coverage for 32 million previously uninsured citizens. He would privatize Social Security and Medicare and decimate Medicaid by dumping it on indifferent states.

6. The billionaire tea-bagging Koch brothers support Romney.

7. Karl Rove supports Romney.

8. Rush Limbaugh supports Romney.

9. Donald Trump supports Romney.

10. You think there’s even one good reason to vote for Romney? You’re fuckin’ kiddin’ me, right? As bad as Obama has been on many key issues, Romney’s history has proven that he would be much worse. And can you imagine a Romney-appointed federal judiciary that includes some of the nine Supreme Court justices and many of the approximately 180 Circuit Court of Appeal judges and 680 District Court judges? Like it or not, either Romney or Obama- as opposed to any third party candidate- will win next week.

Votes for progressive third party candidates (like the thoroughly impressive Jill Stein) actually help to elect the more regressive candidate. In 2000, George W., after “winning” the swing state of Florida by a mere 537 votes, sent Ralph Nader a thank you card signed with Al Gore’s tears. And America is still sobbing from the avoidable pain inflicted 12 years ago. Politics is not for ideological purists. It must be based on utilitarianism. As Malcolm X made clear: “When you have a … gospel, I don’t care whether it’s… a political gospel… (or) an economic gospel, if it’s not going to do something for you and me right here and right now, to hell with that gospel…!”

People need food, clothing, shelter, education, and health care today, not tomorrow. That means reform, not revolution- at least not yet (but definitely eventually). So join me and my fellow avowed socialist Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders by voting for Obama on November 6- and then by progressively and relentlessly pressuring him beginning the day after.

The edited published version can be seen on line at Philadelphia Magazine Philly Post: