Words and Deeds

“Your actions speak so loudly I can’t hear what you say.”

Updated below: July 4th, 7:00am

We now know why the Clintons have been able to reconcile with Barack Obama, why Hillary was smiling and looked so comfortable with him on the stage in New Hampshire. He has demonstrated by his actions that he is no threat to the established ruling class. He is one of them. He is a fully vetted member of the moneyed governing elite, and they can safely work to elect him, since he does not threaten the hold that they have on power.

He is worth electing, in fact is quite necessary to elect him, because he is the least bad of the options that the power system is offering this election.

All through the primary he told us that he would “defend the constitution,” that he would “restore the constitution,” that he “understood the constitution” because he had “taught the constitution.” And now, promptly after winning the primary, he votes in favor of a bill that erodes the constitution. Before the primary he promised that he would support a filibuster to prevent any bill from passing that would grant immunity to companies that had broken the law by spying on Americans, and now he joins Bush and McCain in deciding that such an issue is less important than “keeping America safe from terrorists.”

In defense of his vote in favor of the FISA bill he allows his staff to feed us lies about the need to pass a compromise in haste before the “FISA Law expires,” hoping that the voters are all sufficiently ignorant that they will not know that the FISA Law has no expiration. He himself gives as a reason for his support of this bill that it “restores the FISA Court as the sole authority” when it actually grants vast new powers to the executive with only the most bare and cursory oversight by the FISA Court.

All during the primary he said that he would end the war in Iraq, that he would not be a “war president.” Now he talks of escalating the war in Afghanistan, ramps up talking tough in Iran, and is talking big about increasing the size of what is already the largest military force in the world. We spend as much on our military as the rest of the world combined, and he wants us to spend more. The “call to arms” that has been missing all these years is finally issued. But why now? Why a call to arms for a war you promised to end?

The media and blogosphere is up in arms about McCain’s denial that he ever said he was “less than expert” on the economy, and declaiming at length about his reversals of position on various issues. Yet Obama is doing exactly the same thing. Last month he was opposed to granting immunity to telecoms, now he is okay with it. Last months he was opposed to passage of wiretapping legislation that broadened the power of the executive, now we need it. And when asked about it, he denies that he has changed his position.

That’s what politicians do. They say whatever is convenient to the moment, whatever the audience in front of them is most likely to respond to. The truth means nothing to them. They cannot speak to their principles because the only principles to which they are dedicated is their own election and the preservation of their own political party’s supremacy. That’s what politics is in this nation.

Obama campaigned on a promise to change that way of doing government and, not even yet elected, he is breaking that promise. That makes him no worse than anyone else who has ever run for office. It just means he is no better, and I had hoped for better. He won’t do the good things he was promising, but he won’t commit the horrors that John McCain threatens, so he still has my vote. He has lost my enthusiasm.

Markos Moulitsas said, “I don’t want to see him talking about leadership. I don’t want to see him talking about defending the constitution. I want to see him doing it.”

When he had that chance, Markos, he settled for talking.

Update: July 4th, 7:00am
Gleen Greenwald, who has been and remains a supporter of Obama, has an outstanding analysis of Obama's support of the new FISA bill at this post.