Opinion
Obama Needs to Run Against Congress
I
f President Obama wants to
win in November he will have
to run against the Republican
Congress. He will actually not
need to spend his time on Rom-
ney. When you have people like
former President Jimmy Carter
suggesting that Romney is not that
bad, you have a message problem
and one that may not be resolvable
in the short-term. On the other
hand, as a few people have sug-
gested, if the obstructionist,
wealthy Republican Congress can
be tied around Romney’s neck, it
could quite possibly undermine
Romney’s campaign.
What does running against the
Republican Congress mean? It
T RANS
A FRICA
Bill
Fletcher Jr.
work for years, people who fear
that they may never be able to
work again. Obama needs to
become the voice of the voiceless.
President Obama needs to
remind people about the economic
policies that got us into this
If there is one thing that Obama
needs to do, and I am not sure that
he is prepared to do it, it is to
encourage protests and action
among the bottom 99 percent
against economic injustice
means taking a message to the
public about what sort of economy
we need. It means picking up on
the themes raised by the Occupy
movement and hammering away
at the policies of the Republican
Congress and their support of the
upper 1 percent. It means walking
the streets of our devastated cities
and speaking with the unem-
ployed, and particularly speaking
with those who have been out of
mess. This is something that the
White unemployed and precari-
ously employed need to hear time
and again. Too many of them
seem to be ready to go one more
round in the Republican economic
fun-house.
If there is one thing that Obama
needs to do, and I am not sure that
he is prepared to do it, it is to
encourage protests and action
among the bottom 99 percent
against economic injustice. I
don’t particularly care that he did
not show up in Wisconsin to sup-
port the anti-Scott Walker recall
movement. Wisconsin needed to
be
about Walker,
not
Obama. That said, the people at
the base need to hear from Obama
the way that we did in January
2009 when he supported the
demands of the workers at Repub-
lic Windows & Doors in Chicago
when they occupied – no pun
intended – their factory. When
was the last time that we had heard
a president of the USA take such a
stand? We now ask, why was that
the last time we heard this from
Obama?
We also need President Obama
to stop trying to out-Republican
the Republicans when it comes to
national security. One of the best
ways to demoralize segments of
his base can be found in the con-
tinuing attacks on civil liberties
that have been underway during
his administration. ”Whistleblow-
ers”
have
come
under
attack. Peaceful, non-violent pro-
testers – d such as the anti-war
protesters in Minneapolis and
Chicago – have not only come
under surveillance but also have
faced various legal charges. Look,
we voted for a president we hoped
would expand democracy rather
than contract it.
We also voted for someone to
end these senseless wars. Well,
points go out to President Obama
for ending the Iraq occupation, but
we are still in Afghanistan and
these drone attacks in Pakistan and
Yemen do nothing but inflame
local tensions and create more
enemies.
To win, Obama needs an
“Obama Doctrine” for the 21st
century, a clear, non-rhetorical
statement that situates his cam-
paign in the hearts and minds of
the 99 percent. We do not need
any more feel-good speeches. We
need change that we can see.
Bill Fletcher, Jr. is a Senior
Scholar at the Institute for Policy
Studies, the immediate past presi-
dent of TransAfrica Forum, and
the co-author of Solidarity Divid-
ed.
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June 13, 2012
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