rangdrol, May 26 at 3:30 am,

What you are leaving out is that the American populace is not represented by the Republican Party or the Democratic Party, and the American populace is a 70% majority population of the United States.

The tired old rhetoric of “good Republican—bad Democrat ” or “good Democrat—bad Republican” is no longer good enough for the American populace, Back Street America. The American populace needs an institutionalized Multi-Party Political System in the United States, so that the American populace, the 70% majority common population of the United States can be represented in the making and enforcing of legislated law and order in the United States, rather than to continue to be subject to legislated law and order of the American aristocracy and the professional middle class as politically represented by the Republican Party and the Democratic Party.

For the United States to represent itself as a democracy when the 70% majority common population of the United States is NOT represented in the making and enforcing of legislated law and order that serves the class and cultural interests of the American populace is a ludicrous representation of democracy that has more in common with Greek Democracy, where the Greek populace were slaves.

American democracy supported by Wage Slaves in support of Socialism for the Rich and Capitalism for the Populace is no better than the abject slavery of Greek Democracy and a binary dialogue that represents the interests of the American aristocracy and the professional middle class, and excludes the American populace from participation and benefit in the making and enforcing of legislated law and order that serves the American populace’s benefit is NOT sufficient to cover up the selective stench of Exclusive Democracy for the American aristocracy and professional middle class, that like Greek Democracy was not democracy for all, but democracy for the few at the expense of the many.

Binary Republican/Democrat rhetoric of the aristocracy and middle class that promotes democracy for the few at the expense of the many is no longer good enough.

It is time for Democracy For America that is inclusive of the 70% majority common population of the United States, the American populace, Back Street America, so that the American populace is represented in the making and enforcing of legislated law and order in the best interest of the American populace; legislation without representation of the American populace that the American populace is made subject to is subjugation, oppression, and tyranny; and it is time for this type of American democracy patterned on Greek Democracy to end in the United States of America.

It is time for a change.  It is time for Inclusive Democracy.  It is time that Democracy For America represents the American populace.  It is time for Inclusive Democracy, rather than Exclusive Democracy for the American aristocracy and the professional middle class.

The tired old binary rhetoric of “Good Democrat—Bad Republican” and “Good Republican—Bad Democrat” is not democracy at all; it is the rhetoric of propaganda in support of subjugation, oppression, and tyranny for the benefit of the few at the expense of the many.

It is time for a change.  It is time for Democracy For America that is inclusive of the American populace in the making and enforcing of legislated law and order.

ThomasG,

I have no interest in defending Republicans, but I have a great interest in NOT defending Democrats. This is probably a waste of time, since anyone who capitalizes extremist (several times) is just shouting empty rhetoric and is probably not able to take in an actual argument, but…

News flash: Goldwater lost. A Democratic president and a Democratiic majority waged the Vietnam war. They paid for it with Social Security funds. (Some Republicans, a minority, opposed it.) Republicans have had a majority in the House or Senate for only very few of the years you mention. Clinton and the Democrats deregulated the financial industry, not the Republicans. A Dem congress voted in the Patriot Act and the War in Afghanistan without a fight and without demanding a real 911/anthrax investigation.

Feel good about yourself if you like, but the Democratic party is now a huge part of the problem.

rangdrol, May 25 at 10:03 pm,

The Conservative Right-Wing EXTREMIST Republicans from the time of Goldwater through Reagan, Bush I, and Bush II deindustrialized the nation and replaced the nation’s real economy with a foreign mercantile financialized economy based upon borrow and spend governance, credit and hidden taxes in the form of the purchase by the government of their own Treasury Bonds to inflate the GNP; also inflated the GNP with money from credit and mortgage securities, and put the United States into a position of perpetual war:  all of which resulted in the bankruptcy of the United States as a nation and the collapse of the U.S. Economy.

If all of the above actions I have indicated from the time of Goldwater through Reagan, Bush I and Bush II had not been perpetrated upon the United States as a nation for a period of at or about forty (40) years, Obama would not have to be dealing with the problems created by FAILED governance of the Conservative Right-Wing EXTREMIST Republicans.

President Obama should not have recapitalized private capital for private benefit.  Socialized capitalism should have arisen from the ashes of the dead corpse of privatized capitalism, but that did not happen, President Obama recapitalized private capital with social capital without substantial social benefit to the American populace, and this should never have happened.

However, President Obama did not make the mess, President Obama got the thankless task of cleaning up a Conservative Right-Wing EXTREMIST Republican mess that they had been working on creating for at or about forty (40) years.

President Obama is an increment in reversing forty (40) years of FAILED governance by Conservative Right-Wing Republican EXTREMIST governance from the time of Goldwater through Reagan, Bush I and Bush II.

It will take as much or more time for the Political Left to reverse the FAILED policies and practices of Conservative Right-Wing EXTREMIST governance as it took Conservative Right-Wing EXTREMIST governance to create the problems that bankrupted the nation and destroyed the economy.

If you want to whine, find something constructive to whine about that will help to reverse the damage to the nation and the economy caused by the Conservative Right-Wing EXTREMIST Republicans, and do what you can to encourage the legislation of a Multi-Party Political System in the United States that will enable the 70% majority common population, the American populace, Back Street America, to be represented in both houses of Congress and the government of the United States with regard to making and enforcing of legislated law and order representative of the American populace, so that social capital can never again be used to recapitalize private capital .

ThomasG,

I’m glad you think so. I doubt that the villager in Obama’s path of destruction in the ME, Africa and soon, mark my words, South and Central America will agree. Please explain why increasing the military budget without discussion, expanding the wars, threatening Iran for Israel, not threatening Israel for the Palestinians in Gaza, taking away the rights of US citizens and others apprehended by the US government, persecuting whistleblowers (see Glenn Greenwald’s last column), cutting big banks big checks and a lot of slack, and breaking almost every campaign promise makes him the best for the job.

What makes him the WORST for the job is that you and those like you roll over and support him as he expands the BushII programs you supposedly were against. I don’t get it.  What is it you like??

Maybe it’s that healthcare bill. The one that has decreased my parents’ Medicaid coverage, while not providing any affordable coverage for my family.

When measuring evil, one chooses the lesser evil.  To paraphrase Shakespeare, President Obama is the “best choice in rotten apples.  If an apple can be found with less rot, we would gladly choose the apple with the least possible rot.  Currently, President Obama is the best choice in rotten apples.

MarthaA,

Talk is cheap. His actions are no different. Name one substantive difference between Obama’s and Bush’s actions on Foreign Policy in the ME. Has he pressured Israel? Has he withdrawn from Iraq or even advanced the timetable? Is he not still using the same tired propaganda about “terrorism” to fight a war for oil and real estate in the great game of controlling resources and markets in Central Asia?

If you were a villager in Afghanistan or Pakistan, in which we bomb and strafe mostly from on high, who had seen her children blown up by a predator drone, would Obama’s words give you any comfort?

Obama is worse than Bush precisely because well intentioned people like you are giving him cover in order to feel like you are on the right side. The civil rights he is destroying daily will cost. Just you watch.

“President Obama outlined a new national security strategy rooted in diplomatic engagement and international alliances on Saturday as he repudiated his predecessor’s emphasis on unilateral American power and the right to wage preemptive war.”  This statement is totally opposite of the agenda of the Bush administration.

Obama and the business interests that hired him know that words speak louder than actions.  The favorable coverage of Obama’s speech at West Point makes that clear once again.  Obama’s new diplomacy is the biggest non-shift in policy since the Kennedy’s so-called “Alliance for Progress” covered up active CIA and military support that put pro-U.S. military governments in power in every left-leaning Latin American country except Cuba within ten years.

Yippee! Our diplomats are a little more diplomatic,
while we continue with our insatiable military ways. It
reminds me of a quote I once heard from a car sales
managers’ meeting:  “The difference between rape and
seduction is technique.”

Laurel and toga—an insult to Rome.

In fact the US is much closer to Carthage—a brutal, cruel, exploitive commercial empire that lived and died with its mercenaries.

Obama pretty much sounded like a typical imperialist loon. He just needed to wear a laurel and toga.

Truthdig should be ashamed to publish this piece of propaganda which is designed to distract from the clear history of continuing and widening Bush’s wars and assaults on civil liberties.

To dig for real truth, investigate 911. Explain the free fall collapse of Building 7. Explain why EVERY “terrorist” apprehended in any incident in the US and Europe has connections to Western Intelligence agencies, which always seem to “drop the ball"just long enough to get the news story, but not long enough to have to take much blame.

Wake UP! Obama’s skin color and party affiliation have blinded you. The civil liberties he takes away, the increasing powers he grants to the Intelligence Agencies and secret cabals in the Pentagon (funded with black ops and drug money) will serve the next Dick Cheney.

Forget all left/right politics long enough to realize THERE IS ONE ISSUE that anyone who values freedom can come together on: Enough civil liberties to assure us we can still debate and discuss issues openly with access to real information. Take a look at what is happening in Britain where the poulace is saying enough! Stop letting the little network show distract you. Rachel and Keith insult Bill and Glenn and they all get richer and more famous dividing you with abortion and gay rights as the bigger issues are left undiscussed.

I am a believer in a woman’s right to choose and gay rights and the dignity of gay people and all people. But if you lose the right of habeas corpus, the right to ask your government questions, to know what they do with your money and who is REALLY in power, gay rights and women’s rights will be all gone as well soon.

Again, Truthdig, shame.

Shooting hundreds of drones into Pakistan and killing thousands have ‘diplomatic’ written all over them—yeah, sure.

Escalating in Afghanistan and forbidding Karzai to negotiate with the opposition is really diplomatic.

Not gettingout of Iraaspromised—oh that’sdiplomatic.

Threatening Iran with a nuclear attack and refusing to negotiate with them or to discuss the Turkey-Brazil Compromise is the essence of diplomacy—who would dare say otherwise?

Threatening North Korea with nuclear attack and refusing to negotiate—also really diplomatic.

Confucius say: Wakeup, smell coffee-colored Corporate Fascist Imperialist.

Not national security, its his empire plan. Its worse than Bush, pushing military spending every higher.