We've all seen how well dreaming of things that never were and asking why not has worked out.
Who’s more annoying: the idealistic kids who think Barack Obama will bring us into a brave new world of transparency and change, or the hardened adults who think they’re speaking truth to power when they remind you that Barack Obama is just as cozy with corporate interests as anyone else who’s ever been in the position to be elected president? I’m gonna say the adults, because the kids are idiots and they should be; they’re kids. The idea that an adult is somehow shocked and disillusioned by Obama’s corporate ties is hysterical; you don’t get elected president otherwise. (And using Ralph Nader as the voice of reason, as Herman does here, is a particularly amusing touch.) The most annoying aspect of Obamamania has been the messianic overtone to the whole thing. But guess what? You don’t get a vote when it comes to messiahs, unless you’re God. You and I get a vote when it’s time to pick the best deeply compromised figure who, hopefully, can transcend his corporate ownership enough to effect some kind of change, no matter how small, to the system. Because, barring revolution, that’s the only way things happen in this country. And given the weight and indolence of the average American, you’re not getting them off the couch for any revolution, even the Dance Dance kind. The best we can do is hope to hold the line against the kind of insane, “let’s let business do anything it wants to consumers without fear of fiscal or criminal penalty” Supreme Court we’ve got now (Fun fact: Bill Clinton got to appoint Stephen Breyer because the Republicans knew he was a safe pair of hands, commerce-wise) and then maybe—maybe—build from there.
Also? It’s very hot, and all these rants are making me sleepy.
