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Moyers Articulates Progressives' Frustrations With Obama
By Gilbert Mercier
Last night, Bill Moyers was a guest on Bill Maher’s show. The “conscience of American journalism” gave a 30 minutes interview that was a comprehensive and brilliant analysis, and should be used, quite frankly, as a manifesto for the progressive Democrats. If President Obama wants to be more than just a one term President, he should listen to the wise words of Bill Moyers, and he should revamp his political strategy accordingly. Progressives gave Obama the victory over Hillary Clinton in 2008, and they are now feeling that their candidate sold out to the same corporate Democrats who were running the show during the Clinton-era.
The main topics of the interview were health care reform, Afghanistan and the decline of the American empire.
On the health care reform debate, Moyers blamed the Democratic party. He singled out Rahm Emanuel, the President’s Chief of Staff, as the personification of the corporate Democrats who are telling the progressives to shut up. Moyers said that, in the last 30 years, Democrats have become more and more like Republicans by serving corporate interests and forgetting about the public interest. The corporate Democrats are caving in to the health care industry, the drug industry and Wall Street because they rely on massive contributions from the very same corporations to get re-elected.
Bill Moyers said:”I would rather see Obama go down fighting for vigorous strong principled public insurance, than to lose with a corporate-dominated bill…..People say Obama should be FDR. I would much rather see him be Theodore Roosevelt. Teddy Roosevelt loved to fight. I think if Obama fought instead of really finessed it so much, it would change the atmosphere.”
On Afghanistan, Moyers drew a dual analogy between Vietnam & Afghanistan and JFK & Obama. Bill Moyers thinks we need to come home from Afghanistan. Moyers said:”I think it would be a tragedy beyond description for this young, bright, exiting President to be drawn into an endless war in the same way that the last young, bright, exiting President was drawn into intervened in Vietnam.”
On America as an empire in decline, Bill Moyers said:”We are a very crippled giant suffering from self inflicted wounds that if we do not treat and heal, will in fact bring us to our knees and ultimately to our doom. We are close to losing the moral, financial, economic muscle and wisdom that makes a big nation a great nation.”
Let’s hope the passing of his friend and mentor, Ted Kennedy, will give President Obama an epiphany of some sort, and get him out of his White House bubble so he can remember what he was elected to do. Bill Moyers wants the President to fight on behalf of the American people and for the greater good, it is likely that Ted Kennedy would have pushed him in the same direction than Bill Moyers.
By Gilbert Mercier
Last night, Bill Moyers was a guest on Bill Maher’s show. The “conscience of American journalism” gave a 30 minutes interview that was a comprehensive and brilliant analysis, and should be used, quite frankly, as a manifesto for the progressive Democrats. If President Obama wants to be more than just a one term President, he should listen to the wise words of Bill Moyers, and he should revamp his political strategy accordingly. Progressives gave Obama the victory over Hillary Clinton in 2008, and they are now feeling that their candidate sold out to the same corporate Democrats who were running the show during the Clinton-era.
The main topics of the interview were health care reform, Afghanistan and the decline of the American empire.
On the health care reform debate, Moyers blamed the Democratic party. He singled out Rahm Emanuel, the President’s Chief of Staff, as the personification of the corporate Democrats who are telling the progressives to shut up. Moyers said that, in the last 30 years, Democrats have become more and more like Republicans by serving corporate interests and forgetting about the public interest. The corporate Democrats are caving in to the health care industry, the drug industry and Wall Street because they rely on massive contributions from the very same corporations to get re-elected.
Bill Moyers said:”I would rather see Obama go down fighting for vigorous strong principled public insurance, than to lose with a corporate-dominated bill…..People say Obama should be FDR. I would much rather see him be Theodore Roosevelt. Teddy Roosevelt loved to fight. I think if Obama fought instead of really finessed it so much, it would change the atmosphere.”
On Afghanistan, Moyers drew a dual analogy between Vietnam & Afghanistan and JFK & Obama. Bill Moyers thinks we need to come home from Afghanistan. Moyers said:”I think it would be a tragedy beyond description for this young, bright, exiting President to be drawn into an endless war in the same way that the last young, bright, exiting President was drawn into intervened in Vietnam.”
On America as an empire in decline, Bill Moyers said:”We are a very crippled giant suffering from self inflicted wounds that if we do not treat and heal, will in fact bring us to our knees and ultimately to our doom. We are close to losing the moral, financial, economic muscle and wisdom that makes a big nation a great nation.”
Let’s hope the passing of his friend and mentor, Ted Kennedy, will give President Obama an epiphany of some sort, and get him out of his White House bubble so he can remember what he was elected to do. Bill Moyers wants the President to fight on behalf of the American people and for the greater good, it is likely that Ted Kennedy would have pushed him in the same direction than Bill Moyers.