Last week in American politics the Republican party received Barack Obama at one of their annual calendar events, at the conclusion of which a Q&A session took place with the President. This is not a big deal of itself, in fact I think it happens often but never with camera’s kept on, streaming the full coverage LIVE to all networks, uninterrupted!
What transpired was an intelligent, poetic, witty and awe inspiring litany of rebuttals from Obama to mostly farcical Republican questions that were really more talking points than anything else.
Did I mention Obama stood on his own vs. 140 Republicans!
- Here’s a summary as a taster
- Here’s the full video heating up around 18m (you may wish to skip here)
- For just the most salient points here’s Jon Stewart’s unique take on it all.
If you were not already aware, Obama is trying to pass fair and equitable health care for all but Republicans are preventing this by filibustering his bills, stonewalling any progress. This in spite of the majority the Democrats currently hold, that they earned fairly and justly because they are the majority (you know… democracy). Filibusters are available to mitigate that one really bad idea, not to be used like a lifetime free combo upgrade. What they are doing is like taking a mulligan in golf for every wayward shot shy of an albatross, while the sick die in line, challenging evasive relief from coverage they either couldn’t afford or thought they had!
And Health Care is just one of many discussions Republicans are muddying. Think Energy and how many believe our world is dying. I just saw The Road, a movie in which when the world dies and people are all that’s left (no agriculture), we turn to desperate cannibalism (which is never nice). It’s all good for the puppet masters pulling the Republican strings though (for fear of profits lost by turning off our addiction to oil) when the world finally stops giving what we keep taking, these few will already have holiday homes decorated in outer space to escape to… ironically probably powered by the cleanest energy money can buy!
Okay even for me that was a little over the top but hopefully you get my point.
The other part of this is how networks like Fox have been portraying Obama as an evil socialist bent on decaying everything America stands for (like mass consumerism) in order to incite middle America to oust this modern day hero before he fixes too much, as soon as his authority is challenged at the polls. And they’ve been succeeding!
In light of the unrelenting and propaganda inflamed resistance Obama faces, what happened here was so significant!
It’s wondrous to me that Obama has brought to America, if only for a brief moment, an occasion where the usual politics were cast aside and people got to see, plain as day the honesty of a man with nothing to hide. This is a sign of the times. The internet remains untainted by monopolistic influence and for now at least, is empowering people like Obama to be elected against all the vested interest the them work so hard to protect.
One of my favourite lines is from William Butler Yeats’ The Second Coming.
“The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.”
This has been the case for too long because we’ve conceded defeat to our faceless oppressors, the ones we know exist but are conditioned not to discuss in public for fear of being accused of trite conspiracy mongering.
We are lucky enough to exist in an era where emerging ideals are exposing some for the exploitative, greedy and soulless corrupters that they are. Please ensure you use this time to be passionate about things that matter.
We owe it to this moment and those like Obama who are giving it to us, to change things. If we take it for granted it will be wrenched away because there are people a panicking at this, I promise you.
There may not be many of them but they do have the most to lose.
But we the most to gain.
