Obama warns against
“cynicism” at Ohio State commencement address
By Andre Damon
7 May 2013
7 May 2013
At a commencement address on Sunday at Ohio State University,
President Barack Obama counseled students not to be “cynical” about government
and politics.
There was an almost comically absurd element to Obama’s
remarks, delivered with his characteristic demagogy and attempted gestures at
profundity. In his first four years in office, along with the first months of
his second term, Obama proceeded to systematically repudiate every campaign
pledge and to deflate every illusion that, with the assistance of a highly
coordinated marketing campaign, led millions of people, including a large
number of young people, to vote for him in 2008.
The Obama administration handed trillions of dollars to the
banks; has overseen a massive attack on public education; is leading the
campaign to slash Social Security and Medicare, the core federal retirement and
health care programs; expanded the war in Afghanistan, led a war against Libya,
and is preparing a new war in Syria; and has asserted the right to kill anyone,
anywhere, including US citizens, without due process.
After this record of service to the corporate elite, he declares:
“When we turn away and get discouraged and cynical… we grant our silent consent
to someone who will gladly claim it. That’s how we end up with lobbyists who
set the agenda; and policies detached from what middle class families face
every day; the well-connected who publicly demand that Washington stay out of
their business—and then whisper in government’s ear for special treatment that
you don’t get.”
The references to the “whispers” of the wealthy and
well-connected is particularly rich, coming only a week after Obama nominated
Penny Pritzker for commerce secretary. The selection of Pritzker—a longtime
Obama confidant, billionaire heiress and owner of a private equity company—only
underscores the fact that the administration is a government of, by and for the
financial aristocracy. She will be the wealthiest person ever to serve in a
presidential cabinet.
Previous to his appointment of Pritzker, Obama appointed Mary Jo
White to head the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), one of the main
financial regulators. White made millions of dollars as an attorney for banks
responsible for the financial crisis, including Bank of America and JPMorgan
Chase, whose CEO, Jamie Dimon, called White the “perfect choice” to head the
SEC.
Practically every cabinet appointee of Obama’s has close personal
connections to the ruling class, many having come directly from corporate
boardrooms. Under Obama’s watch
not a single executive at a major financial firm has been criminally tried,
much less sent to jail, for their role in the financial crisis.
As a whole, Obama’s speech was characterized by a complete
separation from the actual conditions facing the graduates he spoke to, who
confront joblessness, falling wages, and a lifetime in debt. “You have every
reason to believe that your future is bright,” he told his audience. “You’re
graduating into an economy and a job market that is steadily healing.”
He added later, “The trajectory of this great nation should
give you hope.” Really? This is under conditions in
which over 11 percent of college graduates are unemployed a year after getting
out of school, and another 16.1 percent simply drop out of the labor force,
according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Most of those who do find a job
are paid barely enough to get by, let alone pay off student loans. Wages for
young adults are falling faster than any other part of the population, and are
down by 6 percent in the past four years.
Most of the students that Obama addressed Sunday will be so
burdened with debt that they will delay or have to completely put off starting
a family or buying a home.
It is not surprising that Obama should neglect to dwell on this
disastrous situation, because his administration bears responsibility for it.
In the government-sponsored restructuring of the auto industry, the White House
insisted that the wages of new-hires be slashed in half, setting the stage for
vast reduction of wages throughout the economy.
Obama sought to paint opposition to the government’s violation of
democratic rights as right-wing hysterics. “Unfortunately, you’ve grown up hearing
voices that incessantly warn of government as nothing more than some separate,
sinister entity,” Obama said. “They’ll warn that tyranny is always lurking just
around the corner. You should reject these voices.”
This comes from a president who has personally overseen the
illegal assassination of thousands of people, including at least three American
citizens, in weekly “Terror Tuesday” meetings. The assertions of executive
power have been systematically expanded, going beyond those claimed even by the
Bush administration. The specter of a police state—the response of the ruling
class to growing social opposition—is in fact lurking around the corner.
The moribund state of American politics, of which the Obama
administration is a principal expression, is, according to the president, the
fault of the American people. “Democracy doesn’t function without your active
participation,” he admonished. If politicians “don’t represent you the way you
want… you’ve got to let them know that’s not okay. And if they let you down,
there’s a built-in day in November where you can really let them know that’s
not okay.”
Such limp efforts to encourage illusions in the viability of the
“democratic process” in the United States will not go very far. The experience
of the past four years has not passed in vain. Millions of people, including
many of those in the audience at Ohio State, are drawing the quite justified,
if “cynical,” conclusion that the entire political and economic system is
rotten to the core.
Europe on the eve of mass working class struggles
IT'S NOT JUST AMERICA LOOTED BY OBAMA'S BANKSTER LOOTERS, ALL OF EUROPE HAS BEEN PILLAGED BY BIG BANKS, AND THE PEOPLE ARE DOING SOMETHING ABOUT IT!
IN AMERICA IT'S A DIFFERENT SITUATION. THE PEOPLE REMAIN PASSIVE AS THE BANKS CONTINUE TO LOOT!
OBAMA’S HAREM OF CORRUPT BANKSTERS… DO A GOOGLE FOR HOW MANY ENDED UP WORKING IN HIS ADMINISTRATION.
“Records show that four out of Obama's top five contributors are employees of financial industry giants - Goldman Sachs ($571,330), UBS AG ($364,806), JPMorgan Chase ($362,207) and Citigroup ($358,054).”
OBAMA and HIS BANKS: THEIR PROFITS, CRIMES and LOOTING SOAR
CRONY KING OBAMA: CURL: The Obamas live the 1% life
OBAMAnomics: FROM THE MAN THAT HATED AMERICAN BUT LOVED AMERICAN BANKSTERS:
OBAMA, THE BANKSTER OWNED LA RAZA DEM
“The response of the administration was to rush to the defense of the banks. Even before coming to power, Obama expressed his unconditional support for the bailouts, which he subsequently expanded. He assembled an administration dominated by the interests of finance capital, symbolized by economic adviser Lawrence Summers and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.”
LIKE EUROPE???An immense and unbridgeable chasm exists between the conditions of life for masses of people—suffering from the greatest economic and social crisis since the 1930s—and a ruling class whose wealth is almost entirely divorced from productive activity in the real economy.
OBAMA’S BILLIONAIRE NOMINEE FOR COMMERCE, PENNY PRITZKER…
BILLION$$$$ MADE OFF HIRING CHEAP ILLEGAL LABOR??? show me even one dem
billionaire that does not push for obama’s agenda of OPEN BORDERS, NO E-VERIFY
and NO ENFORCEMENT of LAWS PROHIBITING THE EMPLOYMENT of ILLEGALS…even one!
Based
in Chicago, Pritzker operates an international empire based on low-wage service
work in Hyatt-operated hotels and nursing homes, along with several investment
firms.
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