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The Forum > Article Comments > Obama's change you can believe in - the mad men did well > Comments

Obama's change you can believe in - the mad men did well : Comments

By John Pilger, published 5/5/2009

Barack Obama is the BBC’s man, and CNN’s man, and Murdoch’s man, and Wall Street’s man, and the CIA’s man. The mad men did well.

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Good article.

I think the whole 'left' and 'right' dichotomy is a big furphy, as Obama is now proving once again.

The fact is that there was not really much significant difference between the policies of the Democrats and those of the Republicans, just as there is not much between Labor and Liberal.

For example, Cain was in favour of America acting as the world's policeman, and so is Obama. Cain was in favour of more bailouts for billionaires, and so is Obama. Stimulus packages, war on terror, war on drugs, federal government takeover of education, medicine, pharamaceuticals, the militarisation of the police, increasing governlment control of anything and everything... What difference was there between them? Oh yeah. McCain wanted to bomb shop-keepers in Iraq, while Obama wants to bomb goatherds in Afghanistan.

The only consolation is that all the people who voted for Rudd in the hope of more social engineering just keep on getting disappointed when it turns out he was lying and pandering. As if that wasn't obvious! You put faith in politics and now you got what you deserved.

What never seems to occur to people is that it doesn't have to be this way. We don't have to live in a society in which most significant decisions are made in back-room deals by politicians. But you have to be prepared to surrender the fantasy of total control of your fellow citizens through the political process. You have to be able to imagine a world in which people are free to make their own decisions without you trying to dictate them. If people choose to enter into contracts that you don't like - tough luck! If people choose to live their life without paying obeisance to the religious cult of the environment - tough luck! I'm glad these laws are failing, because they are just an expression of modern-day religious intolerance and officious meddling.
Posted by Jefferson, Wednesday, 6 May 2009 10:04:18 AM
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Has there ever been a government of which Mr Pilger approved? Or does it somehow always seem to happen that every government turns out to be wicked, in his view?
Posted by Doug1, Monday, 11 May 2009 2:10:58 PM
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I tend to agree with one of the early comments:- Obama's record so far is far short of what some of us on the left would ideally hope for, but come on, do you think he could magically re-shape the whole US political system & balance overnight? Remember that over 40% of the country still voted for McCain, and some of those number are very conservative. There is a distinction between being owned by the Mad Men & money men, and carefully taking into account their massive influence as you plot a way forward, however small it may seem sometimes!

For me, Obama shows a fair bit of moral leadership at least, and of broad intelligence. If you've got time, check out his speech to the national academies of science and engineering, where he among other things he called on young people to "create, not just consume":
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/27/obamas-call-to-create-not-just-consume/

I guess it's very subjective the line between "leading as much as politically possible" versus "being a coward & not living up to your mandate for change". I am giving Obama the benefit of the doubt for now, but Rudd generally falls into the latter category, especially after the ridiculously flawed approach to climate change here.
Posted by Pat S, Wednesday, 13 May 2009 9:59:49 PM
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