Obama in Denver: We Must Take Seriosly What He Says and Does NOT Say 

Obama in Denver: We Must Take Seriously What He Says . . . and Does NOT Say

On Friday morning last week, the New York Times did big stories on Obama’s speech of the night before to the Democratic National Convention, the 75,000 people in the stadium, and a TV audience even bigger than the one that viewed the opening of the Olympics in Beijing on August 8.

The lead story dealt a lot with the hoopla of the event and when it turned to what he said, it was described, and dismissed, by the reporter as a series of broad generalities.

But that’s not true. Not far into the speech, Obama specifically outlined the major things he will do as president. Apparently, the media, whether left or right or in between, have gotten so used to slotting Obama as a rhetorician, and nothing more, that even when he specifically states that he is being specific, and serious about the specifics, he is not heard and what he says is not taken seriously. That is a big mistake, in addition to being patronizing, and lazy.

Obama was being serious that night and we should take what he says with serious attention. Only then can we also see what he does NOT say.  What he does not say speaks volumes about him and his party. It is very disturbing.

I will explain.

Departing from the noble generalities that have often dominated his major speeches, Obama launched into a recitation of specific things he will do if elected. These include such substantive and very much needed policies as the following:

--cut taxes for 95% of all working families;

--launch a 10-year program to end U.S. dependence on Middle-East oil;

--budget $150 billion for the rapid development of renewable energy;

--make health care affordable for everyone, and providing those who in any case cannot afford it “the same coverage as members of Congress” (Obama’s words);

--provide a world-class education (his words) for all children in America;

--provide higher salaries for teachers; and, looking directly into the camera for emphasis

--“we’ll make sure you can afford a college education”.

Having said these and other similar things, some of them equally costly, he paused to observe that, of course, this will cost money. Where will this come from? he asked. At this point, he still seemed on track with an honest and straightforward and truly caring message.

He answered that he will close corporate loop holes and subject the federal budget to a line by line scrutiny that will trim any bureaucratic fat that’s there.

He spent less than a minute saying this, after having spent more than ten minutes of a 45-minute speech detailing his substantive cost-related program.  Less than a minute!  He quickly went on to utter moral homilies about individual responsibility.

I shook my head. I felt like shouting at the TV screen. “Are you kidding!” You were serious but now you are simply self-deluded or you are knowingly deluding your immense audience.

He had just said that his program will cost big bucks.  But he won’t get nearly enough from closing corporate loopholes or trimming bureaucratic excess. 

Where, then, oh where, could Obama turn to find the bucks he needs for fulfillment of his promises? Or, in other words, what is it that Obama is NOT saying?

Can you, dear reader, answer the question?  It’s really a no-brainer. 

The money can only come from funds diverted from the huge and overwhelming military budget. That’s where the money is. That’s where by far most of the tax dollars of all Americans are going. Closing income tax loopholes and trimming bureaucratic excess is nice and helpful but it is peanuts by comparison to what will be needed to accomplish Obama’s domestic program.

Does Obama know this?  Of course, he must know this!  If not, he is truly in deep denial about the reality of political priorities in the U.S. government. The national government is top-heavy with expenditures for 750 military bases in foreign countries and with a Pentagon that sops up money for military hardware as if it were a gigantic sponge. It is a government of, by, and for two major parties that is top-heavy with a yearning by Washington and Wall Street elites to play super-big wheel in the world.  So, yes, of course Obama knows this. He was not born yesterday.

The wretched truth is that he does not want to deal with this reality— the somber reality of the military industrial complex about which President Eisenhower already warned us 50 years ago.

Was Obama pulling a sleight of hand in his stirring speech?  One would be hard pressed not to think so. For what else can one think: he makes promises to do things that are desperately needed – which is why he makes them. But when it comes to really facing up to what’s needed if the money for it is to be forthcoming, he retreats into silence. It’s the silence of a man who faces a huge and inconvenient truth and blinks.

He and his party with him must face up to the reality of a choice. It is the choice between America as the world’s policeman (with all that that entails for endless expenditures for endless wars) or an America

 (a) that rejects dreams of world domination—whether pursued by force of arms and intimidation (the Bush/Cheney approach) or pursued by “tough diplomacy” with force ever ready at hand (the Obama/Biden approach);
 that relies on collaborative policies with other nations in search of solutions that many nations can and will support;
 c) that relies on an approach in which the U.S. is one among many other nations who together build strong international institutions for security and world social justice; and
 d) that thus trims its military budget to a point where funds for desperately needed programs at home become available.

Obama flies away from encountering that choice.  His party does the same.  His silence, his party’s silence, is the denial that there is that choice. It is the most crucial choice that must be faced and must be made if our communities, the nation, other nations, and the human race itself is to be saved. So in his most important, and most serious, speech to date, Obama deceives his fellow citizens with promises he and his party cannot fulfill – and are not prepared to fulfill.

The one small and bright spot in the horizon of national and world politics is the existence the Green Party, both here and abroad. The Green Party has made that choice. It is a choice for a war-less world – and all that that entails for the survival and thriving of all peoples.

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