We need to beat swords into plowshares.

We need to beat swords into plowshares.

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

We shouldn’t dump Obama, some say, because we don’t need 1972 all over again…

Alan L. Maki

I disagree... we do need 1972 all over again but this time liberals, progressives and the left (the only real meaningful coalition for reform) need to do it correctly this time around... and, yes we can.


The grassroots delegates to the... DFL state convention took it upon themselves to nominate Mark Dayton... his nomination was seconded by well over two-hundred delegates with the majority of the delegates giving his nomination thunderous applause... it was improper for Brian Melendez to withdraw Dayton's nomination as he so sloppily did.


A very proper nomination was made and seconded and Dayton should have been included... at no point did Dayton ever personally decline the nomination.


Which brings me to McGovern and why he (we) lost... first of all McGovern made a big mistake (and I think he may have acknowledged this some years later) that it was wrong to take Eagleton off the ticket... Eagleton was a good liberal and he was more "sane" than any of the backers of the Vietnam War... in fact his problems were not unlike those of Mark Dayton... to suggest as Brian Melendez did as he desperately tried to shore up the losing campaign of Margaret Anderson-Kelliher, that Dayton "is crazy" was taken directly from the playbook used against McGovern with Eagleton by the corporate Democrats who loathed McGovern just as they do Mark Dayton... and, what we have developing in Minnesota is this top section of the Democratic Party claiming they are now "united behind our ticket" actually sitting on their hands and not lifting a finger or opening their pocketbooks... just as they did with McGovern. In fact, even some of the Kennedy's acknowledged voting for Nixon.


Ironically, the Wall Street Democrats are going to cut off their noses to spite their faces in continuing to support Obama and they are prepared to throw the rest of us to the wolves just as they fed us to Nixon.


So, we can take a chance with winning by coming up with a real progressive like George McGovern... or, we can go down to defeat with Obama... personally, I was very satisfied sticking with McGovern.


Obama has now lost all credibility with the very base among the liberals, progressives and left which he requires to win with his speech last night... the occupation of Iraq is going to cost far more than the war and the war in Afghanistan is destined to become the most hated war in all history by the American people and the rest of the world... that ?Barack Obama would have his Press Secretary Robert Gibbs assail and attack the left (the most important component of his base because it is most vocal and most active) and then turn around and tell the Nation he turned to George Bush for advice sealed his doom.


I hope liberals, progressives and the left are, this morning, in deep search of a primary challenger to Obama if he doesn't have the decency to announce he will not run for re-election as Lyndon Johnson did... I would also note that Lyndon Johnson was in a far better political position to seek re-election because he had a stellar domestic record of real reforms under his belt... while all that Obama has is a Wall Street austerity agenda of tightening the belts around the necks of working people who are now suffering as they haven't suffered in over 75 years.


If Dayton is successful with his campaign of "tax the rich" here in Minnesota, he might actually become a presidential contender... just like Floyd Olson was becoming until his untimely death. And Dayton certainly would make a better president than Pawlenty.

I will settle for a defeat with a decent man (or woman) like George McGovern any day over a victory by a two-faced, deceitful, lying, warmongering creep like Barack Obama.

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