Chris Bowers is right to castigate the “moderates” for much of the failings of the Democratic agenda, but the Democratic leadership and the president must also come in for a massive share of the blame.
No one should be surprised by any of this, of course. As Chris Hedges told me in an interview on Sunday, the Democrats have become as bankrupt as the Republicans, are as beholden to corporate interests as the GOP and just as unlikely to make real reform happen.
Consider Bill Clinton. He gave us NAFTA — a trade agreement Hedges called the “greatest betrayal of the working class” that any president has offered — and welfare reform, the kind of destructive policies usually attributed to Republicans.
Basically, Hedges says, “We live in a copropate state and the corporations have control of both parties” — and that includes the presidency. Barack Obama, he says, is a brand that
offers an image that appears new and radically individualistic that inoculates us from seeing that the engines of corporate power and the military industrial complex continute to plunder the country.
It is corporations that continue to control our politics. Obama does not threaten the core of the corporate state anymore than Bush did.
It’s like the ad campaigns run in the past by Benetton and Calvin Klein, advertising that used the imagery of diversity and progressive politics (Benetton) of sex (CK) to create the illusion of hipness and transgression to sell product. The Obama brand works the same way, he said, making “us feel good about our government even as corporate overlords loot the treasury.”
The goal, as with all brands, is to ensure we remain passive consumers and mistake a brand with an experience.
This fits with the rather timid approach he’s taken on policy with Congress, leaving the tough lifting to the legislative branch and avoiding any expense of political capital. There have been no lines in the sand.
Hank Kalet 
I think it was Gore Vidal who said that we had only one political party, the Corporate Party. Well, OK, that's true but not entirely true. FDR \”betrayed\” his caste and enacted legislation that finally favored the working class and ordinary Americans. LBJ gave us Medicare and Medicaid and massive civil rights legislation that was long over due. The GOP fought all these popular programs tooth and nail. The Democrats are certainly flawed but the GOP is almost 100% beholden to the rich, the US Chamber of Commerce types and the giant multinational corporations.I am disappointed that Obama is not FDR but would you really prefer McCain/Palin at this time? I wish we had a viable true liberal/progressive political party but it's not happening. What party is offering a single payer universal health care proposal in the House? It's called HR676 and it has been proposed by liberal Democrats John Conyers, Dennis Kucinich and other progressive Democrats. It has no support except from progressive Democrats & has no chance in hell of ever passing but the point is that the GOP would never propose anything like this ever for all eternity in any galaxy you might want to imagine. Could you ever imagine the GOP proposing HR676?Maybe the progressive Democrats should break off and form their own party? I'm just dreaming.
>I think it was Gore Vidal who said that we had only one political party, the Corporate Party. I agree. The corporation is a creation of the government. And, like \”regulatory capture\”, so to the created has \”captured\” the creator. It's incestuous. And, nothing, any individual can do, can unwind it. Or, even apparently slow it down.>FDR \”betrayed\” his caste and enacted legislation that finally favored the working > class and ordinary Americans. Please. Don't make me laugh. He took \”honest money\” out of circulation and allowed gooferment to never be constrained again financially. He institutionalized a welfare program (\”social security insurance\” which was none of those things) that was an inter-generational ponzi scheme. He instituted the wage and price controls that gave rise to \”benefits\” as a way around them. That led to the problem we have today of healthcare tied to employment. (Which gives rise to socialized gooferment healthcare!) Worst he either caused or induced us into WW2 which took a terrible toll in human suffering. Skip over the human rights stuff (e.g., Dresden bombing and the Neisei internment)! On my chart, he's the second worst President in our history. >LBJ gave us Medicare and Medicaid and massive civil rights legislation that was long over due.Payoffs to the AMA and the cost estimates were a joke!>The GOP fought all these popular programs tooth and nail. Yeah, right. What a joke. \”Tooth and nail\”. Wheeling a dealing. I can almost here the conversations. Next you'll give the democrats credit for civil rights legislation.>The Democrats are certainly flawed but the GOP is almost 100% beholden >to the rich, the US Chamber of Commerce types and the giant multinational corporations.All I'd like you to admit is that BOTH parties are corrupt. And, it's all a \”performance\”.>I am disappointed that Obama is not FDR but would you really prefer McCain/Palin at this time?May I be so rude as to suggest that it really would NOT make any difference. > I wish we had a viable true liberal/progressive political party but it's not happening.And, I wish we had an \”honest\” party. Liberal or conservative. But it ain't going to happen in our lifetimes. And, the problem is government in the first place. It's too powerful and it attracts all the grifters.>What party is offering a single payer universal health care proposal in the House? No party, because it's a \”loser\”. It's \”un American\”. And, the AMA would never approve it. You'd be better off trying to get a \”catastrophic health care insurance\”. I remember when that was what \”health and hospital insurance\” was. My mom paid Knickerbocker Hospital about 250$ for my stay for a appendectomy and Blue Shield sent her a check for 200$. (80%) And, the doctors billed her 125$ for the operation which she paid and Blue Cross sent her a check for 82.50. And I was \”instructed\” not to get sick any more. There was no doubt about the bill, she went over it line by line. Insurance is for catastrophes; not for routine maintenance. And, certainly not for lawmakers to play politics. >Maybe the progressive Democrats should break off and form their own party? I'm just dreaming.Having supported many third parties and splinters, you're dreaming. The \”rules\” passed by the duopoly ensure they will have no competition.