[Fwd: [Marxism] A letter from Barack Obama]

[Hein van Meeteren]

REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl

Wat een hoax.

Antid Oto schreef:
> REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject:     [Marxism] A letter from Barack Obama
> Date:     Sun, 03 Aug 2008 15:39:35 -0400
> From:     Louis Proyect <lnp3 at panix.com>
> Reply-To:     Activists and scholars in Marxist tradition
> <marxism at lists.econ.utah.edu>
> To:     aorta <aorta at home.nl>
>
>
>
> John Halle, who teaches music at Bard College and has been active
> with the Green Party, forwarded me a letter he received recently from
> the Democratic Party hopeful:
>
> Dear friends on the left,
>
> Hobgoblins, small minds and stupid consistency go together, as Locke
> reminded us, so I suppose it shouldn't have come as a surprise that a
> cast of
> <http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080818/open_letter>"progressive
> leaders" has again assembled locust-like at the waning stages of the
> electoral cycle to "urge me to listen to the voice of the people" and
> not "to retreat from the stands that have been the signature of (my)
> campaign."
>
> You then proceed to itemize some of "the core commitments shared by
> many who have supported your campaign " and which you seem to
> believe-despite virtually all evidence to the contrary- are shared by me.
>
> The left has never been much for realism-though here the rose colored
> perceptions have a strikingly hallucinogenic character.
>
> For example, I am claimed to have professed a commitment to
> "universal health care."  May I remind you that even in the primary
> debates, where one might have expected some attention to the
> grassroots base of the party, I explicitly and boldly rejected
> universal health care.  The latter was associated with my opponent
> Mrs. Clinton and while neither of us has any intention of addressing
> the root of the health care crisis, namely the for-profit health care
> insurance industry which has funded both of our campaigns lavishly,
> my "solution" as Paul Krugman noted at the time was well to the right
> of that of the DLC's initial choice of candidate.
>
> It does not escape my notice, incidentally, that your communiqué
> fails to even mention the health care delivery system which you, and
> most americans for that matter, support, namely single payer. I take
> this as a validation of what is perhaps the primary function of my
> campaign: to extract from the realm of the possible and consign to
> the realm of the unthinkable and the unutterable what is for most of
> the civilized world economic common sense and common moral
> decency.  I am happy to report that your letter is a strong
> indication of my success in having achieved this transformation, one
> which,
> <http://www.blackagendareport.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=697&Itemid=34>as
>
> Adolph Reed has written, amounts to nothing less than the functional
> eradication of the left.
>
> Thus, to take another indication, while you have yet to notice it, so
> too into the Orwellian memory hole has gone the hope that our nation
> will "shed its warlike stance around the globe and focus on
> diplomacy" as a means of resolving conflicts.  Allow me to direct you
> to my website where I call for 92,000 new troops, the redeployment of
> those soldiers removed from Iraq to an intensified conflict in
> Afghanistan-and possibly Pakistan.  Also included in most of my
> recent foreign policy addresses are calls for unilateral action
> against governments suspected of support for terrorism not to mention
> my repeated threats against Iran and Venezuela.
>
> Also consigned to the realm of far-left fantasy is "an environmental
> policy that transforms the economy by shifting billions of dollars
> from the consumption of fossil fuels to alternative energy
> sources".  In his previous capacity as chief lobbyist for energy
> giant Exelon, my campaign manager David Axelrod has spoken eloquently
> of the need to ramp up the construction of nuclear power
> plants.  That's what I mean by "alternative" and please rest assured
> that Mr. Axelrod will serve as a strong voice for this "alternative"
> in my administration. i will also invest in "alternative energy"
> through continuing subsidies to corn based ethanol insodoing securing
> payback to the farm behemoth Archer Daniels Midland for having
> bankrolled my campaign at the crucial initial stages.   Another
> "alternative energy source" embraced by me is "clean coal" and the
> industry which helped me ascend to the first rungs of the political
> ladder in Illinois.
>
> I suggest that you keep the just mentioned facts in mind in
> considering the likelihood of my  "reform(ing) of the political
> process that reduces the influence of money and corporate lobbyists
> and amplifies the voices of ordinary people" as well as the
> likelihood of "an ongoing and constructive dialogue with (me) when (I
> am) elected President."
>
> And then you wake up, as my wife likes to say.
>
> And when you do wake up, you will realize that you are left with one
> option: "challenging" me.  But please bear in mind that with the new
> surveillance capacities which I authorized as Senator and which will
> be available to me as President, challenging the executive branch is
> no longer the fun and games it was in the past.  I have, of course,
> no intention of revealing sources and methods, but for the moment
> let's just say that I know what you had for breakfast this morning.
>
> That said, you may rest assured it is quite unlikely that I will need
> to exercise these powers for any purposes beyond my own personal
> amusement.
>
> For indeed I, and the corporate executives, white shoe law firms, big
> money lobbyists and their numerous apologists are in your debt for
> having led so many leftists into the abattoir which is my campaign.
> The movement which only a few years ago assembled millions in the
> streets of Manhattan, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and other
> cities is in shambles-unable to organize a gathering beyond a few old
> timers at a street corner, let alone the kind of action which might
> actually cause me and my base to take notice.
>
> There is no need for a howitzer when the tiniest fly swatter will do
> quite nicely against the political force which you now represent.
>
> And so in conclusion allow me to cite the deathless interrogatory of
> Clint Eastwood which applies not just to my campaign but which is
> routinely appealed to, consciously or not, by all politicians of any
> stripe:
>
> "What are you going to do about it, Punk?"
>
> Given that, for the past generation, you have repeatedly hoisted the
> white flag before the battle even began, the smart money is on your
> doing absolutely nothing.
>
> Warmest Regards,
>
> Barack
>
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