This book consists of 55 essays from the best writers of the American Left (some writers made more than one contribution and many essays contain more than one subject so that there are considerably more than 55 topics covered.) The result is a scathing indictment of the Obama presidency and its betrayal of liberal principles.
There are no chapter headings in this book and its essays are not arranged in any particular order (that I could see) so that you can pretty much pick and choose where you want to begin. It's not a book that needs to be read from beginning to end.
In what is probably the most "psychological" essay in the book (Obama the Deregulationist) Andrew Levine tells us the reason for the betrayal of liberal principles: Obama is not a liberal and never has been; he is a libertarian. (Others have noted this, e.g. Paul Krugman -"More and more it's becoming clear that progressives who had their hearts set on Obama were engaged in a huge act of self-delusion. Once you got past the soaring rhetoric you noticed, if you actually paid attention to what he said, that he largely accepted the conservative storyline, a view of the world, including a mythological history, that bears little resemblance to the facts.) Realizing that Obama is a libertarian explains a great deal, why, for instance, in the debate over "Obamacare", the "public option" was dispensable window dressing, while the "private option" was never in question. It explains Obama's readiness to let Wall Street call the shots, and his attack on business regulations. It explains why Obama is so eager to get the most shameless corporate types into his administration, and why, on matters of war and trade and other issues of immediate concern to capitalists, he can't do enough for them - to the detriment of his core constituencies. These are not just political maneuvers or expressions of unrequited partisan yearning, and neither are they concessions to ineluctable constraints.The are misgjuided but principled positiions that actually make conventional liberalism look good. . . . Just as "a house divided against itself cannot stand," neither can a Reagan-besotted executive committee of the entire ruling class."
Bradley Manning (The Torture of Bradley Manning by Medea Benjamin and Charles Davis) is accused of humiliating the political establishment by revealing the complicity of top U.S. officials in carrying out and covering up war crimes. In return for his act of conscience, the US government is holding him in abusive solitary confinement, humiliating him and trying to keep him behind bars for the rest of his life. . . . The lesson is clear: You're better off committing a war crime than exposing one. There is one big difference between Obama, who has prosecuted more whistle-blowers than any president in history and Richard Nixon's treatment of Daniel Ellsberg, the leaker of the Pentagon Papers: Nixon never had the heroic whistle-blower of his day thrown in solitary confinement and tortured. (For another view of the Bradley Manning case, see Bill Quigley, "Obama's Assault on Civil Liberties: Twenty Examples.")
Sibel Edmonds looks upon the Obama presidency as a third term for George W. Bush as she discusses the State Secrets privilege; NSA Warrantless wiretapping; Accountability on Torture; the Revival of the Bush Era Military Commission; And "On War and Bodies Piling up."
The editors, Jeffrey St. Clair and Joshua Frank, provide us with the first and last essays in the book. In "Barrack Obama, Changeling," they tell us that Obama's worst political wounds were self-inflicted when, during the campaign, he rushed back to Washington to help in the Bush bailout. "This was perhaps the first real indication that the luminous campaign speeches about generational and systemic change masked the servile psyche of a man who was desparately yearning to be embraced by the nation's political and financial elites. Instead of meeting with the victims of Wall St. predators or their advocates like Elizabeth Warren and Ralph Nader, Obama fist-bumped with the brain trust of Goldman Sachs and schmoozed with the creme-de-le-creme of K Street corporate lobbyists. In the end, Obama helped salvage some of the most venal and corrupt enterprises on Wall St., agreed to shield their executives from prosecution for their financial crimes, and, predictable, later got repaid with their scorn."
In "Occupy the System" the editors assert that "Obama's first term revealed the utter vacuity of our political system and the prodigious level of corruption eating away at the sinews of the U. S. empire. Democracy itself is being degraded. From bank bailouts and war to indemnification of corporate criminals and assassination orders against American citizens, the most urgent matters of government are now hatched without public debate in the secret chambers of power.
I've only scratched the surface in this review. Read the book and you'll be overwhelmed.
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- Reviewed in the United States on April 30, 2012
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Top reviews from other countries
- Jon CalderReviewed in the United Kingdom on February 12, 2017
Contrary to the griping 1 star review, this book ...
- Tammy MohunReviewed in Canada on May 24, 2016
boring and bumpy but unfortunately important compendium
- M.C.Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 11, 2012
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