Obama’s enemies are our
enemies
Why right-wingers are
frightened
By Steve Hammer
stevehammer.org
Our new president is under
attack. You can’t turn on the television or listen to radio without hearing
some politician or conservative talk-show blowhard trashing President Obama.
Rush Limbaugh, the de
facto head of the Republican Party,
has expressed his hope that Obama fails. Former Vice President Cheney has
severely criticized the Obama foreign policy. And Indiana’s own mini-Limbaugh
Congressman Mike Pence has also emerged as an opposition leader.
For a few moments I was
disturbed by the fact that so many people seem to hope Obama fails and that the
country winds up in the toilet.
Then I realized that the
people who are against Obama are the same people I’ve been fighting against my
entire life. Rush Limbaugh, Dick Cheney and Mike Pence represent the
conservative white power structure at its most sordid.
And guess what? They’re
scared to death at the moment because everything they’ve worked for all their
lives is endangered and about to be eliminated. Conservatives are happiest when
the nation is in a state of permanent war and when our economy is designed to
keep our rich people rich and make our poor people even poorer.
All of that is imperiled by
the presidency of Barack Obama. Halliburton no longer has a board member in the
White House. The defense contractors who made billions during the Iraq war will
have took elsewhere to sell their goods. The wealthiest 1 percent of people
won’t continue to get unfair tax advantages.
No wonder they’re angry and
afraid. They have good reason to be upset because the deck is no longer stacked
in their favor. The preferential treatment they’ve received since 1980 is over.
Reagan is dead and buried and so are his ideas.
But it was the Reagan
revolution that gave so much power and wealth to those who were already plenty
rich and powerful. Reagan’s deregulation boom eliminated many safety oversights
and worker-safety rules, meaning millions more in the pockets of the fat cats.
Reagan’s union-busting
philosophy took hold, denying millions of hard-working Americans the right to
organize in the workplace and bargain with their employers for fair wages and
benefits, causing a seismic shift in this nation.
And it was the Reagan-Bush
expansionist, militaristic foreign policy that not only cost the lives of
thousands of Americans, but also emboldened our adversaries, leaving us
vulnerable to terrorism at home and abroad.
Yes, the forces aligned
against our president are strong and powerful. These opponents have a nearly
unbeaten streak of stripping away freedoms, causing economic devastation and
waging unnecessary wars.
And these enemies of the
people – for there is no other way to describe them – are gearing up for battle
on every conceivable front. Our country desperately needs to reform its labor
laws and the Employee Free Choice Act would do that, allowing workers to join
unions free of the repressive hands of the bosses.
Big business will do
everything it can to destroy this vital legislation. The medical establishment
will pull out all the stops to keep health care out of reach for millions of
citizens. The military-industrial complex will do whatever it takes to keep the
machinery of war humming along.
There’s a difference this
time, though. We now have something this country has never had before – a
president who is on the side of the weak and powerless. Barack Obama, unlike
any president since Lyndon Johnson, is determined to open the doors of
opportunity wide to all Americans, not just a wealthy few.
And this president enjoys
such widespread support that nothing short of a military coup can stop him.
Rush might have a few million retirees, shut-ins and traveling salesmen on his
side, but Obama could draw a million people just about anywhere he goes.
As the skipper said
himself on Saturday, “I know these steps won’t sit
well with the special interests and lobbyists who are invested in the old way
of doing business, and I know they’re gearing up for a fight as we
speak. My message to them is this: So am I.
“The system
we have now might work for the powerful and well-connected interests that have
run Washington for far too long, but I don’t. I work for the American
people.”
That’s what
got the conservatives frightened to death – and that’s what should bring the rest
of us great cheerfulness and optimism. God bless America.