Dear ______ -I read Tom Hayden's piece several days ago and think it is so beneath him -- particularlythe "white liberal-left" and "white blindness" racist condescensions. There are, of course, many inthe Black community who are justifiably appalled at Obama's performance (or lackthereof). See http://blackagendareport.com/content/what-obama-has-
wants to make this about race, perhaps he should focus on the fact that, after four years of Obama, far more Blacks are living in poverty and four times as many Black women in the U.S.are dying in connection with pregnancy and childbirth than White women.Hayden never would have written such an apologist piece for an imperial militarist andcorporatist regime in the '60s or '70s. Can you imagine such a piece by him then, gushinglyendorsing Nixon because of his overtures to China, his signing of the Clean Air Act, and hisestablishment of the EPA? Amazingly, he writes as if he is clueless about Obama's miserable performance regardingclimate change and energy -- and the fact that tuition rates have skyrocketed under hisadministration. He worries in the first paragraph of his piece about what Romney would or wouldn't do regarding these issues -- as if Obama hasn't made it all far worse. And doesn't it occur to Hayden that the reason so many Americans are misinformed isbecause our President is such a lousy leader/communicator? (Why else would "only six percentof Americans believe[ ] the stimulus had created any jobs"?)We could have had a single-payer Medicare-for-all health care system had Obama stoodup against the insurance and pharmaceutical industries. Even with the vast majority of the American people favoring single-payer at the time, our President wouldn't even let it see the lightof day -- then rapidly and cowardly abandoned a public option.I've described my "strategic" thinking to you before. You know full well that I amcampaigning to help encourage and inspire a broad-based people's movement -- the only waywe'll ever achieve real social, economic, and environmental justice in this nation. You apparentlythink it healthy for everyone just to shut up and be polite in the face of the Obama administrationoutrages. Amazing for someone who writes and teaches about the virtues of citizenengagement. Truly amazing. Apparently you just don't want to face your utter complicity in the outrages of the Obamaadministration and the Democratic Party. You would like to see everyone just get in line and bequiet about illegal wars of aggression, the abandonment of the rule of law, the shredding of dueprocess and habeas corpus, the abysmal health care system that causes the deaths of thousands of poor and middle class people (particularly people of color) every week, and the
caving in to Wall St. campaign contributors at the vast expense of most people in the U.S. (andabroad).Would you have imagined four years ago that you would be a cheerleader for a presidentwho brags about his personal participation in deciding who will be killed in several nations,knowing that hundreds, if not thousands, of innocent men, women, and children will be killedtoo? And does it ever occur to you why so many so-called "terrorists" despise the U.S. and wantto strike out against us? Or that we're creating more enemies and instilling more hatred andhostility toward the U.S. as a result of our disregard of so many nations' sovereignty and as wekill and maim people throughout the Muslim world with such reckless abandon? (I wrote thisbefore the recent killings of the U.S. Ambassador and three other diplomats in Libya and theattack on the U.S. Embassy in Cairo -- further evidence of the hatred we have generated by our international belligerence.)Would you ever have imagined you would so enthusiastically support a president whoorders that U.S. citizens be assassinated? (So far, at least three U.S. citizens have been killedby drones -- one of whom was a 16 year-old boy.) Would you have imagined you would supporta president who asked for, and signed into law, the authority to kidnap people anywhere(including U.S. citizens) and have them imprisoned up to the rest of their lives, without charges,trial, legal assistance, or the right of habeas corpus? (Imagine what you'd be doing and writingwere that same president a Republican. The crass partisanship, instead of principle, that causesso many Democrats to blindly support this president is morally astounding.)Damn straight I'm angry -- and disgusted. Please read Ionesco's Rhinoceros, an allegoryabout the rise of facism in Europe. Whenever you write lately, I hear you "harumphing" and canimagine that horn growing from your forehead. In a decade, you can be really proud of your refusal to stand up in opposition to the march toward authoritarianism, the capitulation of our government to Wall Street, and the gross violations of civil and human rights.It's just amazing how "pragmatists" like you are selling out so conveniently, as our Constitution is being shredded and as our nation continues to cause so much misery in the livesof millions of people around the world. And as the administration persecutes and prosecutesthose who inform us about government crimes and other misdeeds, while allowing the criminalsto go free.Please feel free to distribute this as you see fit. (I'll do the same.) As I mentioned to youwhen you were in SLC, I'd love to debate you any time and any place about all of this. You andothers need to be shaken into understanding what your blind obsequiousness is doing to our nation and world.Hayden and you are so optimistic about what you can push Obama to do during the nextfour years. (It all reminds me of abused spouse syndrome.) Where have all of you been during
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