Don't cry for me, Argentina

Change, change, change… this campaign’s empty word. Clinton talks about the ones she made, but doesn’t actually mention any of them. For obvious reasons. Yesterday’s teary performance, in which she said she didn’t want to go back, blew me away. What is she talking about? The timid retreat of her centrist Democtrats against the rampage of the Right? Bill’s record of softening up the nation for the GOP? I know many Democrats have very warm feelings for Bill, but his record was shit: “triangulating” to emasculate progressives and give into the Right, again and again and again: welfare “reform,” the reprehensible Defense of Marriage Act, the odious Communications Decency Act, “free” trade for the rich, and the continued gutting of habeas corpus. Not to mention his silence and do-nothingism on genocide in Rwanda. First “black president”? Latest genocide president, more likely.

For my politics, Edwards is the best of the top three Democrats, Clinton the worst. Obama’s “change” message/brand is, like all such advertising, hollow. It’s the epitome of the surface and celebrity that passes for politics. Because change doesn’t come from wishful thinking or hope; it comes from struggle. Edwards knows that and expresses it; unfortunately, he’s been storied by the media as a case of noblesse oblige. Obama is still a cowardly Democrat, refusing to take the plunge into the populism that will win. The forces arrayed against us are mighty: the financial services industry; the insurance and drug companies; the oil industry and the car manufacturers; and of course that great cancer long eating away at the Constitution: the national security state. Coming together in a big ol’ multiracial group hug is sweet, but isn’t what will to take on these monsters. It could be a first step, though, if we put the pressure on Obama and force him to represent.