Form over substance ? - Democratic Underground

ClericJohnPreston

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Fri Jan-04-08 04:02 PM
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Form over substance ?

Well, let me wade in here as I make my first post here at DU.

I completely empathize with those that opine their frustrations, even after a win by Mr. Obama last night. Like Michael Moore and countless other pundits, I applaud the fact that Democrats came out in force to vote, which was the true storyline of this Iowa Caucus. It bodes well for November 2008. It better, for frankly, I couldn't envision another four years of Rethug politics from a Repug President.

However, shouldn't we peer behind the curtain, as I suggested countless times during the early Presidency of Bushco?

Bush is no more than a moronic ENABLER, a mere puppet of CORPORATE AMERICA; his empty head and pliable strings were easily pulled by his corporate masters from Exxon to Boeing. These Corporations need WAR. They need it for profit and gain, no matter the cost to citizenry, whose rights eroded everytime corporations gained at the largesse of Georgie to Corporatists. Bushco never met a Corporation they didn't like, from Halliburton to Blackwater. Wall Street, not Main Street , USA, is their only concern.

While people got caught up in the feints and distractions of hating one man, they took their eyes off the REAL ENEMY: CORPORATIONS.

Despite Obama's soaring rhetoric, I am reminded of the old commercial for Wendy's: "Where's the beef"?

In the end, after being distilled, wasn't last night's speech mere FORM OVER SUBSTANCE?

Dumbya said it best. "Fool me once, shame on you...fool me twice...can't get fooled again." My point simply is, voters have to look beyond APPEARANCES and at hard facts.

Rhetoric, filled with glittering generalities, does not produce results.

It is a FACT, one that I understand is conveniently ignored by Obama supporters, that Obama takes more Big Pharma dollars than any candidate, save Hillary.

To me, that spells CORPORATIST, the downfall of this society.

Obama talks the talk, but does he walk the walk?

John Edwards has completely DEFINED the source issues about which this race and the slippery slope loss of individualism are about. Simply, Corporate greed noted first in Eisenhower's prescient farewell speech, in which he warned that the rise of the "Military-industrial complex", could destroy a Democracy, to the near Fascism of Bushco, IS the issue. It's the CORPORATIONS, stupid, updating the famous quip.

Before Edwards surging Populist brimstone speeches, Obama never talked about the categories he seemed simply to name last night, as if checking off category boxes. He spoke of lobbyists being pushed out of the political loop, but it is HIM, NOT EDWARDS, who is the benefactor of their largesse. Think people. If you take their money, you aren't going into battle with them and you end up with Corporatist Hillary, all over again.

There can be no compromise, no quarter given to Corporations or the facilitators of those who have eroded Democratic principles. It is far too late. Corporations have overtaken individuals in political supremacy. Whether it is immunity from prosecution or Wars dictated by monied contributors, there is no place for these entities in any society of compassion and empathy. How is Obama to protect us with Healthcare when he is cozying up to the healthcare lobby?

I was trained to be a critical thinker. Red Staters who would fall before a modern day "Elmer Gantry" in Huckabee, are merely exposing the same stupidity and vapidity as 2000 and 2004. That type of Fundie thinking is dangerous and antithetical to a Constitutional America.

So, we Democrats have to INSIST that our politicians be better than that. We can't act like rubes anymore and put "blind faith" into a candidate whose bona fides are not "street earned". Edwards grew up poor and made something of himself. I understand the virulent distaste for corporations, especially insurance carriers, if you are a Trial lawyer, which, by the way, is not a pejorative as thugs like to paint "liberal". Obama is anything but street. He grew up privileged.

Who will fight for you? Who understands that bipartisanship is the mealy-mouthed policy of Harry Reid and Speaker Pelosi and Rahm Emmanuel? We need a FIGHTER. We have no more chances to stop big business unless you want a Corporate World, where you are merely a consumer unit.

I want to see Obama talk FACTS. POLICIES. STRAIGHT ANSWERS. He could begin by explaining his taking money from the very lobbyists he called out last night, which is really EDWARD's issue. Edwards has taken nothing from Corporate America, putting his relevance as a candidate in our hands, through direct support.

This isn't "sour grapes". It is my recognition that we can't afford to get it wrong this time. We can't be docile TV era programmed people who react to push button entreaties. You can see it clearly now with fear-mongering, so you have to see it when a candidate TALKS an issue, but has no SUBSTANCE behind it.

Edwards plan for the domestic economy was approved by Galbraith and a host of the most important economists in the United States. His vow to stop poverty comes from the gut, and his venom for Corporations is not MSM themed "fringe anger", but the exact measured reasoned approach to a group who will not go softly into that good night. Obama would have you sit at a table with a Pirhanna and snake and expect REASON to follow. Edwards comprehends that the only way left to balance the equation is what I always say:

"NEUTER CORPORATIONS NOW"!!!!!

I'm happy as a Democrat for yesterday. But, Edwards has nothing to prove to me. Obama does. And you should insist on nothing else.