President Barack Obama is set to give his inauguration address today. The crowd is much smaller than his first term as is his popularity. The new Gallop poll shows Obama at a 49 percent popularity rate. While he remains personally popular, the overall popularity rate below fifty percent is comparable to Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford — two presidents who ultimately languished in office.
Frankly, I think it is very disappointing that former President George W. Bush is not present. That absence takes away from the celebration of our unified faith in the democratic system.
Leslie and Jack have gone to listen to the inauguration downtown with my brother and his two kids. My 86-year-old mother drove in from Chicago with my brother for the inauguration. She was here for the first Obama inaugural and remains a steadfast supporter. However, given her mobility limits, she is watching on television with me and the three other kids. I have to write on the speech for USA Today so logistics (and laziness) has me watching a home with my mother.
For civil libertarians, this inauguration is not as joyful as it is for many others. As I have written previously, Obama has been a disaster for civil liberties and left many of us . . . to put it lightly . . . estranged. I do not consider Obama to be an inspiring figure after his first term. It is not clear if he will embrace the principles that he abandoned so quickly in his first term on surveillance, privacy, torture, and secrecy laws. While he is free of the pressure of a future election, his party leadership is expected to continue the same policies and cynical treatment of civil liberties. The Republican offer no better alternative. Obama has created an imperial presidency by general acquiescence – the silence of liberals who remain loyal to Obama as an individual despite policies that are anathema to traditional liberal values. For that reason, many of us now see Obama as a symbol of the loss of principle and values in our political system. The rampant hypocrisy that inundates our policies and politics has become stifling. My respect for Obama’s family and his personal character does not overcome those conflicts over constitutional principles and civil liberties values.
I also continue to amazed at the coverage by Fox and MSNBC — two networks that tend to follow predictable takes on Obama. MSNBC anchors have been gushing over his popularity despite the polls showing little change in the unpopularity numbers. Fox has been highlighting the divisive views of Obama to a degree that makes him look like a bunkered recluse. It is part of our new echo chamber of news where people just watch networks that reaffirm what they want the world to look like — despite evidence to the contrary.
I do view this as a celebration of another peaceful transition of government and always have the kids watch, I do not view inauguration speeches as quite as significant as suggested by the coverage. I do not expect that the 51 percent on the unpopularity side of Obama are likely to be transformed by a speech — any more than many were won over by Bush’s speech. We all can take pride in the stability of our system and another peaceful transition. Yet, on Tuesday, we will still have a dysfunctional political system controlled by a monopoly of power by the two parties. For those who want change, it will have to come by seeking changes in this system against the fixed interests of these parties and the White House.
Swartmore mom,
You don’t think President Obama should “self deport” to Kenya?
😉
ap,
It’s all been middle of the road and half-assed. Just another go-along to get-along kind of guy.
That’s why his changing his mind and taking all kinds of corporate contributions for this inaugural doesn’t surprise me in the least. It’s so typical Obama. No real commitment to anything.
“To the birthers, whose claims about Barack HUSSEIN Obama’s “questionable” citizenship were nothing but racism cloaked in concern-trollery: Suck it. He’s a two term Kenyan president now.” Daily Kos
What Are The Gobshites Saying These Days?
By Charles P. Pierce
1/21/2013
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/Inauguration_Gobshitery
Excerpt:
WASHINGTON — Welcome back to our weekly survey of the state of Our National Dialogue which, as you know, is what Vivaldi would have come up with, had he composed The Four Sea Monkeys.
Inauguration Weekend! Time for us all to lay aside our partisan bickering and celebrate our glorious republic, in which we are all guaranteed the right to go on the electric teevee set and tell our fellow citizens that the sun rises in the plain, where the rain falls mainly on the Spain. Or something. Sooner or later, on one of these Sundays, one of these shows is going to pass out of the plane of physical reality and disappear into a higher realm in a chorus of fairy farts. In that spirit, we begin this week with Face The Nation, hosted (as always) by former Tang Dynasty environmental correspondent Bob Schieffer, on which, honest to god, several allegedly intelligent primates surveyed the past four years and came to the remarkable conclusion that the reason not much got done was because Barack Obama has gone all gangsta up in Lady Liberty’s grill, yo.
Let us begin with Bob (The Watergate Replacement Replicant) Woodward, who told Schieffer that Obama declines to work and play well with the feral children and is thus spitting on the grave of the Venerable Katie Graham, the Patron Saint Of Social Climbing.
I remember Katharine Graham, the publisher of the Washington Post, used to always say ‘it’s hard to not like someone who says they like you.’ You talk to senators and congressmen, as you know, and they feel Barack Obama doesn’t like them or is at least indifferent to them. And so you have all of these conflicts in negotiations and they end… Look, the President has the upper hand now and will for some time, but you know in any… Condi Rice knows so well, any negotiation you need to leave the opponent with their dignity and the president is going out and sticking his finger in their eye.
So the president, who has been called stupid, lazy, a Kenyan, un-American, and every other synonym for “uppity” that ever occurred to Bull Connor, and of whom his legislative opponents have said quite openly that their goal was to wreck his agenda, has been engaged so far in “sticking his finger” in the eye of his political opposition. I swear to Christ, listening to Woodward, I’m starting to believe Nixon was framed. Following with her own bucket of bushwah was professional Clinton apologist Dee Dee Myers, who yearned for the golden era when the Republicans were investigating blowjobs and the Democratic president was knuckling welfare moms.
But first, a bad historical analogy.
You have to let the other guys leave the table saying they got something for their side, because they’re giving up — they are going to give up something big if it’s going to be an important deal. And I think that — that this White House has not done that as successfully as they need to. And I think — you know, otherwise you end up with Versailles right. You solve the First World War with a treaty that sows the seeds of the second one. And that’s not in anybody’s interest and this President has not been as good at that as he could be.
Barack Obama: The Georges Clemenceau Of American Politics.
Let us proceed.
I was talking to Newt Gingrich recently about what made Clinton a great negotiator and he said he listened all the time to — to find a piece of common ground where a deal could be built. This is from the Speaker of the House who worked to impeach the President. And all through that period, they were looking for a piece of common ground. And I think this administration will be well served to do that.
The thoroughness with which the lunatic conservative war against Bill Clinton has been shoved down the memory hole is truly remarkable. After all, it was the template for the lunatic conservative war against the current president. There were four years of having Washington politicians and the courtier press believe every tall tale that came out of every fish camp in Arkansas. There was an economic plan that didn’t garner a single Republican vote. There was a government shutdown. There was a nearly two-year pursuit of the president’s penis all around the Beltway, led in the main by adulterous hypocrites like N. Leroy Gingrich, Definer Of Civilization’s Rules And Leader (Perhaps) Of The Civilizing Forces. There was, in fact, the destruction of Gingrich’s political career. And Myers looks back on that time as a model for what she wants to be happening now because Gingrich and Clinton put their respective adulteries aside long enough to pass a welfare “reform” bill that was punitive enough to get Clintion re-elected? We need better Democrats here. But this discussion of A World That Can Never Be would not be complete until we heard from the Magic Dolphin Queen, who has been living in the higher realms of fairy farts since half-past a gimlet in 1986.
We are essentially a fifty-fifty country still. So you would think the President would have spent the past few weeks going forward and saying let’s all be together. Instead he has been very sharply, definitively us guys versus you guys by going at the Republicans on the Hill, by speaking in a way that is very sour about why Republicans take the stands they take. He implicitly is speaking about Republicans in the country who are half the country. I think that’s a new way to play it, a tough and dicey way to play it.
There are three policy-making institutions in the federal government. The Democrats control two of them. More people voted for the Democratic presidential candidate than for his Republican rival, and that was only a couple of months ago. More Democrats got elected to the Senate. More people voted for Democratic candidates for the House than voted for Republican candidates for the House. This is not “a fifty-fifty country” unless you divide by the square root of VAT 69 and then multiply by the cosine of Pi in the sky. And can we at least acknowledge, if we’re going to be talking about “the country.” that the president’s approval has gone nowhere but up since he started being a little less concerned with Republican fee-fees.
Thanks for the lecture DHMCarver. I guess you’ve never heard about the bully pulpit. And don’t believe that a president can set an agenda that represents vision. And need not become notorious for abandoning even what supposed positions he advocates — constantly. And who practices a foreign policy of militaris, And speaks of immigration reform while locking up record numbers. And touts the Constitution while violating privacy rights as policy and practice. And lauds openness while prosecuting those who open. Who eschew torture while protecting tortures and continuing black holes. Who supports gay rights only marginally and when financial contributions are at stake. Who seems never to remember working to protect our environment. Who has yet to take criticism and action against financial halocaust beyond platitudes
Please, save us your smugness.
Last night, rapper Lupe Fiasco was thrown off the Inaugural Concert stage for rapping about the grim future of our country under Washington’s policies. Bravo to him, and to all conscious artists still speaking truth to power!
Here’s what he said:
“I really think the war on terror is a bunch of bullsht
Just a poor excuse for you to use up all your bullets
How much money does it take to really make a full clip
9/11 building 7 did they really pull it
Uhh, And a bunch of other cover ups
Your childs future was the first to go with budget cuts
If you think that hurts then, wait here comes the uppercut
The school was garbage in the first place, that’s on the up and up
Keep you at the bottom but tease you with the uppercrust
You get it then they move it so you never keeping up enough
If you turn on TV all you see’s a bunch of “what the f*cks”
Dude is dating so and so blabbering bout such and such
And that ain’t Jersey Shore, homie that’s the news
And these the same people that supposed to be telling us the truth
Limbaugh is a racist, Glenn Beck is a racist
Gaza strip was getting bombed, Obama didn’t say shite
That’s why I ain’t vote for him, next one either
I’m a part of the problem, my problem is I’m peaceful
And I believe in the people.”
~Lupe Fiasco~
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/20/as-biden-is-sworn-in-hints-of-his-plans-for-2016/?ref=politics Biden isn’t waiting for Hillary.
Professor, I know you are an Obama-basher, but the Gallup poll is an outlier, as you surely know, and Gallup spent the entire past election cycle showing consistently low, and wrong, polling numbers for Obama. In reputable polls (Gallup is no longer reputable, sadly) Obama’s approval rate is in the mid-50s, and he is also the first president in generations to win both of his elections with over 50% of the popular vote — another fact you conveniently ignore. If you submitted a brief to the court with these kinds of factual admissions, you would earn a sanction. Disappointed.
And for those of you on the left who love to bash Obama — truly, do you live in fantasy-land regarding what he could accomplish? Blousie, you charge him with having “so many opportunities to make a real difference and he squandered almost every single one of them” — can you get specific? What could he have done that he didn’t, in your estimation? I guess moving the needle on gay marriage and moving the US towards something resembling more universal health care do not count as significant accomplishments in your book?
Reading all of the left-bashing of Obama reminds me of the left whining in his first two years — “There’s no difference between the Democrats and the Republicans, I am going to take my copy of Mother Jones and go home. Wah!” And what did that get us? The 2010 midterms and the most conservative electorate in this nation’s history in a century. The result? The Tea Party ascendant, a lurch to the right in Congress, and severely conservative legislatures throughout the county. Just before redistricting, no less! Well played, political left! Well done! Your petty sulking screwed the country for at least a generation. You should have showed up to the polls when it mattered.
I never drank the Obama Kool-Aid, and am not a particularly big fan of him, but this whole whiny attitude from the left about Obama sticks in my craw. Engage, organize, vote — but please stop whining.
The debate continues:
Obama is a basically progressive good guy working within a dysfunctional political system A complex individual, with various motivations who is not understood by his critics, left and right. A figure more to be pitied than blamed.
OR
Obama is a running dog neolib of the 1 %. Weak, but without liberal/progressive courage or conviction, so little more that a stuffed shirt egotistically going through the presidential motions.
————————-
I’ll choose the second. A disaster for the sort of political change need to rescue the US from it’s downward trajectory as a nation.
Ben Jealous…
“The challenge to us is to remember what we learned when we first entered this movement: that you never elect somebody to make change happen for you,” Jealous says. “You elect somebody to make it a little easier for your movement to keep on making change happen.” -Ben Jealous
http://www.democracynow.org/2013/1/21/naacps_ben_jealous_at_obama_inauguration
“The challenge to us is to remember what we learned when we first entered this movement: that you never elect somebody to make change happen for you,” Jealous says. “You elect somebody to make it a little easier for your movement to keep on making change happen.” -Ben
http://www.democracynow.org/2013/1/21/naacps_ben_jealous_at_obama_inauguration
http://www.thenation.com/blog/172327/president-can-and-must-claim-mandate-govern# Obama is the first president since Eisenhower to get over 51% in two consecutive elections.
The guy had so many opportunities to make a real difference and he squandered almost every single one of them. We can always hope he’ll start standing tall during the next 3 years but I honestly don’t think he has it in him. -Blouise
We’ll just see more of the same, in all likelihood. I hope not… but it would seem that he’s shown his true colors.
Angela Davis: Now That Obama Has a Second Term, No More “Subordination to Presidential Agendas”
http://www.democracynow.org/2013/1/21/angela_davis_now_that_obama_has
ANGELA DAVIS: Let me say that this time around we cannot subordinate our aspirations and our hopes to presidential agendas. Our passionate support for President Barack Obama—and it’s wonderful that we can say for the second time, “President Barack Obama,” and we support him, and we are passionate about that support, but that support should also be expressed in our determination to raise issues that have been largely ignored or not appropriately addressed by the administration.
And let me say that we are aware that we should be celebrating, critically celebrating, the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. There should be massive celebrations this year. What has happened other than the film Lincoln? And, of course, with two-and-a-half million people behind bars today, the prison system, the immigrant detention system are terrible remainders and reminders of slavery. Mass incarceration has devastated our communities. It is a false solution to problems that have persisted since the era of slavery.
We should be addressing the state of our schools, the continuing crisis of overincarceration, over-punishment. We should be addressing the part played by private prison corporations in pushing for repressive legislation designed to incarcerate ever-increasing numbers of immigrants. Last year, some 500,000, a half a million, immigrants were detained. And that, of course, is the largest number ever.
The past still haunts us. Its ghosts ride the echoes of our lives. To overcome poverty, to overcome racism, we must also overcome xenophobia, homophobia. Justice for African Americans is organically linked to justice for Palestinians. The struggle goes on. A luta continua. And as June Jordan said, we are the ones we have been waiting for. Thank you.
AMY GOODMAN: The renowned author, educator, founder of the Critical Resistance movement, Angela Davis, speaking at the Peace Ball: Voices of Hope and Resistance Sunday night.
obama is a political coward. the votes he voted present on should have shown that.
My husband is a die hard Obama supporter but I am not although I am very glad he did beat Romney. He contributes so we have invitations but are not going. He is having surgery, probably later this week, instead. 🙁 Went to Carter’s inauguration as I was on campaign staff. If everything works out we will we will be moving to DC at the end of the year.
He’ll meander through the next 4 years then become hugely popular (a la Clinton) once he leaves the White House.
The guy had so many opportunities to make a real difference and he squandered almost every single one of them. We can always hope he’ll start standing tall during the next 3 years but I honestly don’t think he has it in him.
Perhaps this is a preview of part of the USA Today piece?
I worked in DC in ’72 at the time of Nixon’s inauguration. We lived about 10 blocks from the Capitol just off E. Capitol Street, and we walked down to hear the speech, wheeling the infant daughter in a stroller. Walked right to the East portico parking lot which was crowded, but room for us. No big security deal. Couldn’t really hear the speech. Later that night I went back and clipped off one of the metal “no parking – inauguration” signs from a tree for a souvenir — eventually got rid of it
And exactly how did he get reelect…. Oh yeah…. The loser of two evils….
Enjoy watching the event with your mother, Professor. It is always special to be able to spend time with your parents at that age. The only way to “fix” the system is to take all of the money out of the process. That is the only way, in my opinion, to guarantee that the House and Senate or the White House, will be bought and sold to the highest bidder.
I hope it is warmer there than it is in Chicago. It was 9 degrees this morning.