General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsObama calls for ‘collective action’
We are made for this moment, and we will seize it so long as we seize it together, he said.
Our current challenges, he argued, call for collective action.
We have never relinquished our skepticism of central authority, nor have we succumbed to the fiction that all societys ills can be cured through government alone, he said. But we have always understood that when times change, so must we; that fidelity to our founding principles requires new responses to new challenges; that preserving our individual freedoms ultimately requires collective action.
Obama defended entitlement programs that Republicans hope to reform as part of deficit-reduction cuts.
The commitments we make to each other through Medicare, and Medicaid, and Social Security these things do not sap our initiative; they strengthen us, he said. They do not make us a nation of takers; they free us to take the risks that make this country great.
He promised action on the climate, saying, We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations.
Obama also pledged his commitment to equal pay for women as well as equal rights for gay Americans and voting reforms to avoid long lines at the polls. And he said touched on immigration reform, declaring that our journey is not complete until bright young students and engineers are enlisted in our workforce rather than expelled from our country.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2013/01/21/obama-defends-entitlements-promises-climate-action/?Post+generic=%3Ftid%3Dsm_twitter_washingtonpost
Enrique
(27,461 posts)he's going to put us in hobbit homes.
octoberlib
(14,971 posts)Socialist! Communist! I loved it.
flamingdem
(39,321 posts)bigtree
(86,005 posts)flamingdem
(39,321 posts)and this can be seen with the poor relationship towards Cuba and Venezuela, one area where I fault Obama. The State Department really blew it on Honduras -- there is a human rights crisis there as a result of undermining President Zelaya and not rejecting the coup thugs, one of whom is now running for President -- all because Zelaya was friendly with Chavez, and this is a disaster that has gone basically unreported. I understand being an Americanist but not to the point where one is blinded by the idea of other countries, weaker countries choosing a different system.
It's all words, it's all bullshit. POWER is what counts in the end.
I really hope that he addresses the multiple errors in Latin America in his second term but sadly there is not much impetus towards doing anything.
patrice
(47,992 posts)They elevate workers as equal partners in an enterprise.
Fumesucker
(45,851 posts)But some are more equal than others.
patrice
(47,992 posts)Fumesucker
(45,851 posts)If one has been snookered by high soaring rhetoric in the past then remaining skeptical is a lesson learned from experience.
patrice
(47,992 posts)Fumesucker
(45,851 posts)patrice
(47,992 posts)also means that neither can I accept that judgement of my own perception(s), nor does it mean that someone can't back away from that elephant and its perceivers a bit and perceive multiple perceptions.
All with the caveat, of course, that perception is NOT a one ne process, 1 unit of sensory input : 1 unit of perceptual output. That isn't even the architecture of the neurophysiology that makes perception possible, let alone of the "software" that runs it.
flamingdem
(39,321 posts)not socialism/communism
We are capable as humans to learn from the past and improve our lot!
(Unless you are a Republican but they are the minority now he he)
virgo7
(16 posts)Fire Walk With Me
(38,893 posts)against peaceful protesters."
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2045085,00.html
Nuclear Unicorn
(19,497 posts)Fire Walk With Me
(38,893 posts)by Occupy in his own country, under his watch. Not a single word out of the WH regarding 7400+ Occupiers beaten and arrested, excepting HR347 and the NDAA.
patrice
(47,992 posts)patrice
(47,992 posts)Fight2Win
(157 posts)The right wing was laughing over this, and our side was silent.
"we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends"
Martin Luther King Jr
Fire Walk With Me
(38,893 posts)While "tea party" people get to strut around with rifles and racist placards.
patrice
(47,992 posts)ChazII
(6,206 posts)as well.
patrice
(47,992 posts)Fight2Win
(157 posts)"we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends"
Martin Luther King Jr
patrice
(47,992 posts)mean a lot of things, or nothing at all, and only fascists would try to determine that for everyone else. And the hallmark of a fascist is someone who doesn't ask others "better ____________ (what) than _________________ (what)" too afraid to disturb their tired old cliches about trees of something and the blood of other people, not their own.
HereSince1628
(36,063 posts)Fight2Win
(157 posts)Our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go out into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism, and militarism.
We must move past indecision to action. We must find new ways to speak for peace in Vietnam and justice throughout the developing world, a world that borders on our doors. If we do not act we shall surely be dragged down the long, dark and shameful corridors of time reserved for those who possess power without compassion, might without morality, and strength without sight.
Fight2Win
(157 posts)The military grows to new heights, at the expense of the many
The crushing poverty of millions right now, millions of homeless school children, bankers walk away stealing people's homes...
Meanwhile powerful interests control our media and blame us for the problems, while they pilfer and loot our treasury for the bankers, the military industrial complex.
This is where we need to focus our collective action:
Majority of Tax dollars go to the Pentagon(Trillions missing in 2001) Which Cannot Be Audited? WTF!!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022231576