Nov. 5, 2008 (World News Trust) -- Do you ever get the feeling that the voting booth
is a lot like those
buttons you find on some big
city street corners? You know, the ones
you push so you can obey the law while pretending to make the light
turn green more quickly?
From high
profile veterans to the suddenly energized
young folks brandishing Obama bumper stickers on their fuel
efficient (sic) vehicles, the Left -- in
almost all its guises -- drank the Kool Aid again.
Not just the lesser evil fairy tale but also the
“Democrats can be pressured by popular movements” fabrication.
No demands are placed on Democratic candidates for fear any hint of
leftist tendencies would make them unelectable. Instead, we
hear: “Let’s get them in
office and then pressure them with our
time-honored and battle-proven protest methods.”
Sheer, unadulterated fantasy. Not a shred of
evidence to back it up, but it’s put forth every time America
elects (sic) another
president.
Question:
Was any pressure exerted on the last
counterfeit lefty, Bill Clinton?
Answer:
Token, at best.
Question:
Did such activist pressure --
as wretchedly feeble as it was -- have any
impact on Bubba?
Answer:
NAFTA; the repeal of welfare; the bombing
of the Balkans, Iraq, the Sudan, etc.; Anti-Terrorism
and Effective Death Penalty Act; Defense of Marriage Act, abandoning
his pledge to consider offering asylum to Haitian refugees; backing
away from his most high-profile campaign issue: health care; reneging
on his promise to "take a firm stand" against the armed
forces' ban on gays and lesbians; the invasion of Somalia; increasing
the Pentagon budget by $25 billion; firing Jocelyn Elders; dumping
Lani Guinier; renewing the sanctions on Iraq; ignoring genocide in
Rwanda; passing a crime bill that gave us more cops, more prisons,
and 58 more offenses punishable by death; the passage of the salvage
logging rider; continuation of the use of methyl bromide; weakening
of the Endangered Species Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act;
lowering of grazing fees on land; subsidizing Florida's sugar
industry; reversing the ban on the production and importation of
PCBs; allowing the export of Alaskan oil; the telecommunications
bill; unconditional support for the Israeli war machine, and not
pardoning Leonard Peltier.
I could go on for hours
but either you get the idea by now or you just don’t wanna hear it.
And don’t forget: much of this happened while Mr. Bill was enjoying
the “advantage” of a Democratically-controlled Congress in
1993-1994.
Ain’t democracy
swell?
Besides, what makes us
believe in some imaginary left
wing pressure (which, if it even existed,
we already know will not be aimed in Obama’s exalted direction) that has the strength
to influence presidents?
While the savvy
strategist/activists of the Left harbor their
delusions of grandeur about their ability to sway the Prince of Hope,
here’s a tiny bit what they -- and all of us -- have
allowed to happen without exerting our “influence”:
epidemics of preventable diseases; the poisoning of our air, water,
and food (including mother’s breast milk); global warming, climate
change, animal and plant extinctions, disappearing honeybees,
destruction of the rain forest, topsoil depletion, etc.; one-third of
Americans either uninsured or underinsured in terms of health care;
61 percent of corporations do not even pay taxes; presidential lies,
electoral fraud, limited debates, etc.; the largest prison population
on the planet; corporate control of public land, airwaves, and
pensions; overt infringement of our civil liberties; bloated defense
budget, unilateral military interventions, war crimes committed in
our name, legalization of torture, blah, blah, blah...
Before you know it, the
U.S. government will start spying on American citizens and detaining
prisoners without charges while allowing corporations to ravage the
earth in pursuit of profit, wiping out entire eco-systems in the
process. Oops... sorry: they’re already doing all that and the
mighty Left is fighting back by supporting Obama?
Everywhere I went on
Election Day, I was asked by friend and stranger alike:
“Did you vote?” Once the polling booths closed, I could be
100 percent certain I’d not be asked another politically motivated
question by such people for another four years. No one would be
rushing up to me and demanding to know if I was planning to do
anything about, say, FISA, the death penalty, the PATRIOT Act,
homelessness, or factory farming. The election is over. Obama has
won. For 99 percent of the Left, that means their work is done until 2012.
It’s time to gloat and reap all the rewards, right?
My prediction: The only
pressure that will be consistently exerted by
those on the Left will be the pressure of their
soft butts on their couch
cushions as they sit back to smugly watch Jon
Stewart, Keith Olbermann, Stephen Colbert, and Bill Maher.
My advice: Take up
yoga, lefties, because you’re gonna need an awful lot of
flexibility to perform the contortions necessary to explain and
justify President Obama’s actions over the next four years.
Mickey Z. can be found
on the Web at http://www.mickeyz.net.