Obama: MLK would not want businessmen to vilify unions.

[phleshdef]

"If he were alive today, I believe he would remind us that the unemployed worker can rightly challenge the excesses of Wall Street without demonizing all who work there; that the businessman can enter tough negotiations with his company’s union without vilifying the right to collectively bargain. He would want us to know we can argue fiercely about the proper size and role of government without questioning each other’s love for this country -- (applause) -- with the knowledge that in this democracy, government is no distant object but is rather an expression of our common commitments to one another. He would call on us to assume the best in each other rather than the worst, and challenge one another in ways that ultimately heal rather than wound."

Context matters and should not be ignored.

[Denzil_DC]

1. K&R for context n/t

[BumRushDaShow]

2. K&R

for the whole quote and not just a cherry-picked portion! :applause:

:kick:

[Empowerer]

3. The previous two paragraphs:

To say that we are bound together as one people, and must constantly strive to see ourselves in one another, is not to argue for a false unity that papers over our differences and ratifies an unjust status quo. As was true 50 years ago, as has been true throughout human history, those with power and privilege will often decry any call for change as “divisive.” They’ll say any challenge to the existing arrangements are unwise and destabilizing. Dr. King understood that peace without justice was no peace at all; that aligning our reality with our ideals often requires the speaking of uncomfortable truths and the creative tension of non-violent protest.

But he also understood that to bring about true and lasting change, there must be the possibility of reconciliation; that any social movement has to channel this tension through the spirit of love and mutuality.

Funny thing - I have no doubt that many of the people attacking the President for having the nerve to invoke the name and legacy of Dr. King at an event honoring Dr. King would have trashed Dr. King back in the day for being too "go along get along" in his admonitions and efforts to find reconciliation and understanding with even our staunchest adversaries.

[jenmito]

4. WHAT? I read here at DU that Obama said that MLK , like Obama, would love

the Wall Street banksters. :shrug: Now I'm confused! :crazy:

[yardwork]

5. I question Wall Street's love for this and any other country.

I vilify Wall Street. I vilify the banking industry and the financial industry. I vilify the decision-makers who act criminally - and buy politicians to enact laws that make morally reprehensible actions technically legal.

[Name removed]

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[Name removed]

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[Hutzpa]

6. Some people really do have a low understanding of english

Obama: If he were alive today, I believe he would remind us that the unemployed worker can rightly challenge the excesses of Wall Street without demonizing all who work there

What is so hard to understand from this statement? ghosh!

[EffieBlack]

9. Anyone who thinks that is a TOOL!!!

:sarcasm:

[Hutzpa]

16. Considering I have my hammer head on

I don't blame ya'

:P

[Pirate Smile]

8. Thank you.

[Enrique]

11. I can see why he would say that

businessmen HAVE vilified and attempted to roll back the right to collectively bargain. Also, the Tea Party HAS been attacking the patriotism of liberals, big time, so that part makes sense as well.

On the other hand, OWS is NOT about "demonizing all who work on Wall Street", so it is unnecessary to tell them not to do that.

[phleshdef]

12. Actually yea, some parts of OWS are engaging in that kind of thing.

Not all the people in support of the OWS movement have. Just like not ALL businessmen have attacked unions. But to say that there hasn't been a certain level of generalized hatred aimed at anything associated with the banking and financial industry coming out of the left is a sign that you really haven't been paying attention. I've seen it myself, all over this very board. Obama can't go anywhere near a banker or a CEO without this board engaging in a collective explosion of heads. And it doesn't matter if that person is guilty of doing anything bad or not. If they are a CEO or a banker or someone that works in investment and Obama gives them the time of day, the Naderite left completely loses its shit and they don't CARE if its warranted.

[TheKentuckian]

14. and when he gives positions and influence to some of the worst there is no shortage of

defense and spin you and your like.

Let's get real, very few of the top people that rub elbows with Obama should not be a cause of concern to outrage. This is well beyond a few bad apples and the access and capture are worlds away from "time of day" and despite never voting for Nader, I see that plain and clear.

[Name removed]

15. Deleted message

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[TheKentuckian]

17. What would lead you to possibly think I want people who understand the technicalities of finance

policy in charge of said policy?

What I don't agree with or seek ways to minimize via empathy is putting unrepentant and unreformed believers in the very structural flaws that wrecked the economy in charge of it.

It is at least as perilous as putting those that don't understand the workings involved in charge.
Being credentialed and selected by Obama (or any President) doesn't slow them down from being wrong on fundamental levels that makes them not only unhelpful but harmful.

My sympathies are exhausted before the woes of the comfortable for generations elites are much of a concern, especially when I'm asked to devote such spiritual energy to the plagues piled on the many that always work for the benefit of the few.

As for their culture, it should be annihilated as toxic to the greater society. The culture is no small part of the problem with these sectors, understanding it is only beneficial as a means to undo it. Loyalty to said culture is almost supremely dangerous in our present context, better the most hamfisted system smasher than anyone devoted to maintaining that poisonous "culture", if given the obviously false choice of the two evils.

[phleshdef]

18. One price of Democracy is giving people the freedom to create the wrong culture, if they want to.

You can't have it both ways. The American public is rightfully pissed off at the financial world. It is and it SHOULD be. But there is no dominant consensus among the American people that say Wall Street shouldn't have the right to exist and that companies should not be allowed to pursue massive profits. We can change the corporate tax structure, we can eliminate all the loopholes we can find, we can create effective regulations and enforce them in order to ensure more honesty and ethical practices in the corporate world. We can do all of that and people can still become filthy rich if they come up with something innovative that a large amount of people are willing to pay money for. And thats the way it should be. There is nothing wrong with being fortunate. You just shouldn't be allowed to seriously screw people over while doing it. I would say thats where most of the American public is at and its a long distance between there and your desire to challenge Wall Streets right to exist at all.

I believe you seriously exaggerate the level of severity in regard to "unrepentant and unreformed believers" in the administration. No one Obama has appointed to any position has ever said that Wall Street should be allowed to continue on as it had been, untouched, unregulated and unbridled. And none of his appointees are to blame for the fact that we've not done enough to reign in financial institutions and regulate things the way they need to be regulated or raised taxes on the wealthy. Thats all on the Senate and even there, a lot the good stuff failed to make law by a very thin margin. If something better had hit the President's desk, he would have signed it, especially the part about raising taxes on only the wealthy, which is something he has consistently asked Congress to do since day 1. I don't think the Senate or the House even gives a damn what Tim Geithner or Larry Summers have thought about these issues one way or the other. The Republicans probably hate Geithner 10 times more than anyone on the left can claim. They don't care what he thinks. He never encouraged them along with a small band of blue dog Senators to water down financial reform. They did that on their own, Geithner be damned.

My biggest problem with you and others who often post things that are along the same lines as the stuff that you are posting is that all of your vitriol is focused on the President and a handful of people he appointed to his cabinet while I rarely see anything coming from you in regard to the 40-50 Senators that consistently have opposed almost everything we need to do since Barack Obama was sworn in. Its misguided and its unproductive.

[ClarkUSA]

20. Amen. The vitriol and blame game is aimed solely at the President, as if the Senate didn't exist.

"My biggest problem with you and others who often post things that are along the same lines as the stuff that you are posting is that all of your vitriol is focused on the President and a handful of people he appointed to his cabinet while I rarely see anything coming from you in regard to the 40-50 Senators that consistently have opposed almost everything we need to do since Barack Obama was sworn in. Its misguided and its unproductive."

:thumbsup:

[Hutzpa]

13. Absolutely

they (OWS) are even saying that people should not vilify police as they are part of the
99%.

[BklnDem75]

19. K&R

Thank you

[Bake]

21. Was Ovama wearing his comfortable shoes when he made that pretty speech?

Yeah, I didn't think so.

Bake

[Empowerer]

22. It must be miserable to always see the worst in everything

How sad for you.

[Bake]

23. I'm prettty damn tired of looking for the best, and then getting bent over again.

I guess yuo're not tired of it yet. I'm a realist now. And my ass hurts.

Bake

[Empowerer]

24. I don't see you looking for the best. But I do see you looking for the worst even in

places where the rest of us - even if just for the moment - can see some good, as you have done in this thread.

You, of course, are free to look at things however you wish. But I thank God that I have the ability to see good where there's good and not feel the need to inject negativity into every aspect of politics.

[Bake]

25. I see the "good."

There's just too damn little of it, in the face of overwhelming suffering in our society.

Bake

[Empowerer]

26. I hear you. But you don't improve things by stepping all over the little bit of good -

i.e., a beautiful tribute to a great man - by injecting a sarcastic and unrelated attack on one of the people who was paying tribute to him.

You only obscure the good and feed the cynicism that makes it harder for people to replicate and build on that good.

That, as I said, is very sad.

[Bake]

27. So never criticize. Got it.

Don't worry, be happy.

:hi:

Bake

[Empowerer]

28. No, you don't "got it."

But try to have a nice day.

[EffieBlack]

29. Sigh . . . what can you do?