Give peace a... break?

Last week, I wrote of my cautious optimism for the new Obama administration. I was criticized for this by people who pointed out that he was just another ruling class politician. I responded that they were not wrong but that my hope rested less on the person of Obama himself and more on the possibility of building bridges with the millions of progressives who, for whatever reasons, voted for him. For example, millions of Obama voters support single-payer health care, even though the president himself does not. Instead of denouncing the president in week one of his term, why not engage these self-described progressives to put pressure on Obama to implement elements of the progressive agenda?

I also felt that being cynical (or whatever euphemism one wants to use), especially before he even took office, serves no purpose. In fact, it risks backfiring. If you convince someone that both Obama in particular and the system in general are irredeemably corrupt, then that person will instead go home and watch American Idol because they will view any action as pointless. They will see the situation as irredeemable. Hopeless people do not get into activism.

One of my fears all along is that an Obama presidency would neuter liberals and progressives. That they would give him a free pass for things for which that they would excoriate Bush. This is why I proposed that non-Obama voting progressives should engage those who did vote for the Democrat, rather than mocking them. Challenge them to make sure Obama lives up to whatever was their perception of what he stood for.

Unfortunately, my fear of neutering appears to have been well-founded. Already, a anti-war group in Potsdam , NY (the village in which I went to college) has decided to suspend its peace vigils after six years of having one every Saturday morning.

Somehow I missed the memo that either peace (or even the end of war) had come to Afghanistan and Iraq . In fact, last thing I read was that President Obama had promised to ESCALATE the war in Afghanistan , hoping to mimic the success the Soviet occupiers had in the same country.

Now, I understand from personal experience that Potsdam in the winter is frigid. When it's below zero outside with a bitter wind, the only place you want to be is inside under a blanket. But I have no doubt the last six winters in Potsdam have been bitter too and they continued to protest these moral monstrosities. The weather hasn't changed. The policies haven't changed.

I understand giving Obama a chance to do the right thing. I understand not calling for him to face a war crimes' trial. I understand not denouncing him. But how is the right thing going to happen, absent public pressure?

It really boils down to these questions. Were the Potsdam activists protesting Bush or protesting the wars? Was their number one objective to end the Bush presidency or to end the wars of aggression, the devastation and the killing funded by their and our tax dollars? The Bush presidency is history. The carnage he initiated continues.

The Potsdam group may be well-intentioned but do they actually believe Obama is going to magically buck the military-industrial complex if peace activists sit on their butt and hope for the best? You know very well that those who have a vested interest in endless war aren't going to sit on their butts and hope. They are going to be lobbying the heck out of the White House and the Democratic Party, including with their 'contributions.' If there's no counter pressure to the Boeings and the Blackwaters, how's anything going to improve?

Simply put: will progressives hope for the future or will we try to shape it?

The Potsdam group made the wrong choice.

Politicians will do whatever they're allowed to get away with, especially by their own supporters. It should be no more acceptable to give Obama a blank check than it was to give Bush one.

If Obama is really is the Messiah so many of his supporters seem to think, then now is the time to push the progressive agenda now, to strike while the iron's hot. Now's the time for his supporters to make sure he keeps whatever they think his promises were. Far from resting on laurels and patting oneself on the back, the Obama presidency should herald a Surge in progressive activism if we are to reverse the damage of the Bush-Clinton years.

Electing a black president does little good if he acts the same as the white presidents before him.