"This offers cold
comfort to millions of college students saddled with massive debt and
workers confronting the prospect of dead-end, low-wage and part-time jobs. The
economic legacy of the Obama administration has been a bonanza for Wall Street,
with huge income gains for the top 1 percent and falling and stagnating wages
for the vast majority. The main beneficiaries have been wealthy individuals like Chelsea Clinton herself, who is married to a hedge fund manager."
THE DEMOCRAT PARTY:
HELL BENT ON FINISHING OFF THE AMERICAN WORKER!
"At one point she hailed the “record
profits” of the auto companies. She did not mention that these profits came at
the expense of the jobs, wages and retirement benefits of thousands of auto
workers, decimated under the terms of the auto bailout organized by the Obama
administration."
Obama makes election eve appeal to students and workers at University of Michigan
Obama makes election eve appeal to students and workers at University of Michigan
By Shannon Jones
8 November 2016
On the
eve of the November 8 election, President Obama traveled to the campus of the
University of Michigan in Ann Arbor to make a last minute appeal to students
and workers on behalf of Hillary Clinton in a state that is viewed as critical
to the Democratic candidate’s election chances.
The
decision to send the president to Michigan reflects the deep concern in the
Clinton camp that the state, which had been considered reliably Democratic,
could fall to Republican Donald Trump. Clinton strategists are worried that the
lack of enthusiasm for the Democratic nominee among students, as well as
African Americans, could result in a low voter turnout in a state that voted
for Clinton’s rival for the Democratic nomination, Bernie Sanders, in the
primary election.
Indeed,
Clinton herself made a visit the same day to Grand Valley State University in
western Michigan.
A campaign stop by Clinton Friday in Detroit attracted largely
more-prosperous middle class layers and very few students or workers. Remarks
by attendees to the World Socialist Web Site at that event
reflected a general lack of enthusiasm for the Democratic candidate among the
more working class elements.
In Ann
Arbor, the audience for Obama, estimated at 9,000, consisted of a large layer
of middle class professionals along with a section of students and numbers of
health care workers. The Ann Arbor area has been a stronghold of support for
the Democratic Party, with Washtenaw County, where Ann Arbor is located, going
for Obama over Republican challenger Mitt Romney by a 2-1 margin in 2012.
Chelsea
Clinton introduced the president. In
her brief remarks, she stressed the
standard
identity politics themes advanced by Hillary
Clinton. She went on to
assert that her
mother, if elected, would continue the
economic policies of
Obama “and all he has
accomplished.”
This
offers cold comfort to millions of college students saddled with massive debt
and workers confronting the prospect of dead-end, low-wage and part-time jobs.
The economic legacy of the Obama administration has been a bonanza for Wall
Street, with huge income gains for the top 1 percent and falling and stagnating
wages for the vast majority. The main beneficiaries have been wealthy
individuals like Chelsea Clinton herself, who is married to a hedge fund manager.
For
his part Obama adopted his usual folksy persona. He rattled off a list of the
supposed achievements of his administration, including the Affordable Care Act,
which has seen a huge rise in insurance rates, with many workers losing
employer-based coverage.
At one
point, Obama even had the gall to criticize
Trump for advocating that auto
companies shift
their operations to nonunion areas to obtain lower
wages. This,
as though Obama had not imposed 50
pay cuts on young autoworkers and attacks on
retirees, with the collaboration of the United Auto
Workers, in the 2009 forced
bankruptcy and
restructuring of the auto industry.
Continuing
his appeal to the trade union bureaucracy, Obama went into a nationalist rant
against China, denouncing Trump for using Chinese steel in his hotels. “He is
giving jobs to Chinese steelworkers, not American steelworkers,” he declared.
Referring
to the alienation felt by young people over the mudslinging by both the Clinton
and Trump camps, Obama urged young people to “tune that out.” The main issue,
he asserted, was Clinton’s greater fitness to be “commander in chief.”
He did
not mention the fact that Clinton has called for the establishment of a “no-fly
zone” in Syria, an act that could produce a confrontation between the US and
nuclear-armed Russia. Nor did he point out that his own administration has been
at war longer than any other US administration.
He
then rattled through a list of Clinton’s economic program. The mention of
affordable college tuition, a major applause line during the campaign of
Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, drew little response from the
audience, an indication that those in attendance attached little credibility to
Clinton’s promises.
The
last portion of Obama’s speech was empty of content, devoted to promoting
identity politics and mouthing general platitudes referencing democratic
ideals, long abandoned in practice by the US ruling elite.
In
speaking to those attending the event, this reporter was struck by the
difficulty that even the most ardent Hillary Clinton supporters had in
articulating the actual issues motivating that support. No one expressed any
great hope that economic conditions would improve under a Clinton presidency.
Many indicated that they were mainly voting against Trump, citing his
“unfitness” for the job.
Several
workers agreed to share their thoughts at length with this reporter. A common
focus was concern over the personal attacks in the Clinton-Trump contest and
the lack of discussion of substantive issues.
Tammy,
a part-time worker whose husband is employed as an automotive engineer, said
that she understood the economic anxiety tapped into by Trump. Her remarks
belied the lying portrait that Obama painted of a prosperous and happy US
populace.
“I
think there is a lot of despair. Many people have lost their jobs. They feel
they are paying taxes and not getting anything in return.
“One
of my sons had to join the military so he could go to college.” When this
reporter asked her what she thought of the endless wars being pursued under the
Obama administration she replied, “It scares my son that one of these little
wars could become a big war.”
Referring
to the experience of Obama’s Affordable Care Act, she reported that her sister
“has to pay for medication more than she ever paid before.
“I
understand why she is against Obamacare. It is hard to come up with the $800 a
month she has to pay for medicine. She is fortunate that she can pay, but what
about people who can’t?”
Referring
to the general alienation felt against both big business candidates, she
remarked, “This is the first election where there are no signs in my
neighborhood.”
Jimmy,
a young hospital worker, said that he had only decided to vote for Clinton over
the course of the last few days. “Before that, I wasn’t going to vote for
either. Trump, obviously, but Clinton supported the 1994 crime bill that put a
lot of people unnecessarily in jail.
“This
has been the only election where I have not been enthusiastic to vote. The only
thing going for Hillary is that she is a woman.
“I
have seen a lot of mudslinging, but no plans for the economy.”
A
retired medical worker, who spoke to the WSWS on condition of anonymity, said
that she had been a supporter of Bernie Sanders.
Noting
Trump’s support in Michigan, she remarked, “Bernie won Michigan so the
upsetter, Trump, can also win.
“I had
a son who graduated in 2009. He finally got a job, but it took a few years. We
are feeling the impact of unregulated markets.”
When
the WSWS asked about the growing threat of a major war erupting out of the
conflicts in the Middle East with Russia, or with China resulting from Obama’s
“pivot to Asia,” she replied, “I hate to say it, but I think the question of
war is taken for granted—the military industrial complex.”
Remarking
on the election, she said, “It’s the worst I’ve seen. I hope it’s the worst
I’ll ever see. I have hopes in Clinton, but as far as getting anything done, I
don’t know. She has ties to Wall Street.
“I
liked Sanders’ message about economic inequality. It made me hopeful for a
movement like that. I think that is needed.” But, she continued, “we are stuck
with two parties.”
This
reporter explained that the Socialist Equality Party was running its own
candidates for president and vice president to raise the central issues facing
the working class, including the danger of war, that were being ignored by both
the Democrats and Republicans. The role of Sanders had been to channel the
anger and discontent of workers back into the Democratic Party.
She expressed thanks for our taking the time to discuss the issues
and said she would take a look at the World Socialist Web Site .
THE
TWISTED ROAD TO REVOLUTION CAME DOWN WALL STREET
FIRST
OBAMA
–CLINTONOMICS FOR THE SUPER RICH
"Between 2002 and 2015 annual
earnings for the bottom 90 percent of Americans rose by
only 4.5 percent, while earnings for the top 1 percent grew by 22.7 percent, according to the
Economic Policy Institute. Under the Obama administration, more than 90 percent of
income gains since the so-called “recovery” began have gone to the top one percent."
“Our entire crony capitalist system, Democrat and Republican alike, has become a kleptocracy approaching par with third-world hell-holes. This is the way a great country is raided by its elite.” ---- Karen McQuillan THEAMERICAN THINKER.com
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