Dr. Cornel West: "Obama becoming puppet of Wall St Oligarchs"

[Charleston Chew]

Run time: 07:47 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4M4uBdrI_s   Posted on YouTube: April 04, 2011 By YouTube Member: RTAmerica Views on YouTube: 304   Posted on DU: April 04, 2011 By DU Member: Charleston Chew Views on DU: 8882

 
The economic rift between rich and poor in America is deepening, but a new awareness is also taking root among the people. That's the opinion of renowned civil rights activist Dr. Cornel West, who shared his views during an exclusive interview with RT's Marina Portnaya
___________

http://www.cornelwest.com/about.html

[Mimosa]

1. Wow! A must watch video.

Cornel West perfectly describes the shift in Obama's direction and how we all are affected.

I'm one of the 'ordinary people' West mentioned who provided Obama with financial and spiritual support during his candidacy. This time I have nothing to give. How many of us are poorer today than we were in 2007 and 2008?

[progressoid]

3. Wow indeed.

[marew]

4. I got an email request this morning to donate...

to Obama's reelection campaign. I told them no and I told them why. I feel so betrayed.

[Poll_Blind]

2. Man, his assessment of Obama from around 3:00 minutes in to about 4:15 and on is...

...spot-on.

PB

[JJW]

5. Corporate Tool

I doubt Clinton would have hired back, those people who were so dead wrong about free markets and finance. O is a mix of Bush, Clinton, and Reagan. And what a sad combination that has proven to be.

[Citizen Worker]

7. I have yet to hear Clinton say that repeal of Glass-Steagall was a mistake, or that NAFTA, GATT and

WTO were ill-advised and served only the interests of corporations at the expense of the working class. Clinton would, I believe, hire the very same wrecking crew.

[liberation]

23. Indeed, Clinton is yet to miss a t-time with Pappy Bush

And yet, even when all the cards are on the table, some people still have to give the benefit of the doubt.

Denial works for some people I guess.

[Enthusiast]

57. Of course.

Clinton won't take the blame. But there would have been no collapse in 2008 if he had vetoed the damned Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. He is as at fault as any of the asshole Republicans.

[defendandprotect]

17. Bill Clinton with Gore were co-founders of the DLC which was funded by Koch. Bros....

you don't think Clinton knew what he was going?

:eyes:

[sasquuatch55]

64. The Chicago man Obama is obviously a Friedmanite.

We have been duped again, no?

[joentokyo]

97. Hear, hear! Corporate, yes. Tool, definitely!

[stockholmer]

6. Jump You F*#kers (A Song For Wall Street)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yge311sFhC8

[ZombieHorde]

38. Awesome. nt

[Plucketeer]

8. Dr. West NAILS IT!

Of course, this has BEEN obvious for some time anyways.

[jimlup]

9. Really I think it is a matter of identifying the correct enemy...

And in my opinion it is the Corporate Elites and bankers. Particularly the Wall Street insider boys. We can blame the republicans, we can blame the "government", we can blame "Obama" but all of these are off target. The real reason for the shit storm is these people. The ones who insist on taking home $14 million individual bonuses because they have defined themselves to be "The brightest and Best".

Honestly, it is amazing to me that we have let them do this. It is a crime against our society and we need to bring these fuckers down. I've been asking why was that not our generations version of "Let the Eat Cake"? Why do we stand for this?

[stockholmer]

44. yes,but if a so-called progressive president does nothing to curb banksters,then he gets called out

[knixphan]

52. It is exactly the Banksters.

And the fact that not enough folks vote in primaries (both exec and leg)

O was never a progressive, so I can't blame him for not being Dennis. I would rather Dennis (But besides me, how many folks donated to Kucinich '08?) :)

[Enthusiast]

59. I did. Still do. nt

[Enthusiast]

58. Those elites?

They couldn't do it without the help of allies like Obama. Obama is surrounded by Wall Street insiders.

[wordpix]

71. however, why is the president we voted & worked for not bashing these banksters/fraudsters?

He is barely saying peep about them and worse, he appoints them to high positions, e.g. Immelt, Geithner

[wildbilln864]

10. k&r! nt

[Itchinjim]

11. Cornel who?

[Charleston Chew]

12. that says a lot about you

You are not familiar with one of America's most provocative public intellectuals?

[Name removed]

13. Deleted message

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[Itchinjim]

16. Charleston who?

[Name removed]

19. Deleted message

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[Itchinjim]

20. Ouch!

That's gonna leave a mark!
Obama 2012.

[Enthusiast]

60. PLUS ONE! nt

[dotymed]

66. Hopefully, you are attempting to

"stir things up" or maybe you too young to identify with Dr. West.
He is a "truth to power" intellect who has (for years) captured the feelings and voices of poor and average Americans. He is a natural treasure, much like Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky.
Unfortunately, I think a lot of biased, ignorant people will not take him seriously because of his color and his relationship with the black empowerment movement. If that is the case, we will not have his eloquent voice to help lead us out of this darkness, and he is so well spoken and heartfelt.
I believe that Dr. West can be as much of an inspiration to this generation as Dr. king was to an earlier generation, before he was so violently assassinated.
Please, do not look at the color of his skin, hear the message of his heart, it is so true.

[colsohlibgal]

14. Right On Cornel

Truth to power, wake up Mr. Obama, I didn't spend weekends canvassing in 2008 for this.

[defendandprotect]

15. "Becoming" ... ? "Now, leaning to the right?" I like Cornell West, but where has he been?

From the first days of this administration -- days after the election -- "Obama

was a puppet of Wall St. oligarchy" --

Certainly, this is rough enough for someone who supported Obama -- anyone can see

the difficulty of this -- and I think AAs in America were among the first to speak

out letting us know that Obama was moving in directions they didn't vote for --

but we need more than this!

Even recognizing how tough it is to say, I made a mistake and we need to correct it --

we still need more than this!

From Michael Moore, as well -- another supporter of Obama --

All who did need to readjust their BS-meters and look for a better way than voting for

the candidates the corporations are pre-bribing and pre-owning and pushing towards us!!

And then letting us vote for them on the GOP voting computers -- just in case we get it

wrong!!

[PatentlyDemocratic]

22. Exactly

He's been this way from the start. I recall an interview with a union leader who had supported Clinton in the primary. He said he was wary of Obama due to his refusal to stand up to corporate interests while serving in Illinois.

Certainly his decisions since taking office have been pro-corporate. More than anything, this video is showing how disappointed true progressives are with Obama's corporate-sponsored administration. He had a chance to really make a mark on history and help the middle class, but instead he bent over like everyone else in Washington.

[Name removed]

43. Deleted message

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[RBInMaine]

18. The fringe of the fringe.

[Avant Guardian]

25. The fringe of the left is communism

He is a commies commie?

[ZombieHorde]

40. That is usually where I am. nt

[inna]

54. who, Cornel? what a vile and disgusting comment.

[wordpix]

75. Incorrect. Cornel is fringe just like MLK was fringe in the '60's.

Who stands the test of time? Cornell is mainstream liberal on this, and you're the one who's not.

[NorthCarolina]

21. Give em' hell Cornel. K&R nt

[EvilMonsanto]

24. Dennis Kucinich 2012

Please everyone
Plz vote for Kucinich

He has always shown consistency, way more than any other Dem
Please everyone....

Shouldn't you vote for the one that truly always fought for you, your rights and accountability of big Corp.?

He was against allowing big corporations to be dismissed with in impunity
He also was against all this hopeless wars... always has been... ALWAYS

Please everyone
Let's all make a promise today to vote for Dennis Kucinich !!!


DENIS 2012

[JTFrog]

26. "DENIS 2012"

I get it. The other "N" was abducted by aliens. :shrug:

:rofl:

:rofl:

[Charleston Chew]

28. your comment doesn't make sense

[JTFrog]

29. In what respect, Charlie? n/t

[Charleston Chew]

30. I dunno, I guess I just don't get it.

[JTFrog]

31. So you would put a "DENIS 2012" sticker on your car?

:rofl:

:rofl:

:rofl:

[fascisthunter]

88. I have a bumper sticker that says: DENNIS

:rofl:

[demwing]

77. Its a joke!

The post that was being responded to had originally misspelled "Dennis" as "Denis," but has since fixed it.

The alien abduction part was probably in reference to Kucinich's experience (as taken from one of Shirley MacLaine's books) that he once saw a UFO hovering over the MacLaine rose garden, and that he "felt a connection in his heart and heard directions in his mind."

I believe there's life out there, and I believe that there may be things flying around the planet that cannot be identified, but this story sounds like MacLaine and Kucinich were smoking something strong, and Dennis went out tripping in MacLaine's rose garden.

Anyway, the post was just a joke. You might be thinking on this one too hard... :)

[pam4water]

42. +1

[JTFrog]

65. Turn your TV off once in a while it must be getting to you.

Obushma?

Are you fucking serious??

[dotymed]

68. Has Dennis decided to run for President

again? I really wanted him to win in 2008, but the dirty tricks from both sides, made that impossible and he had to leave the race (where he was marginalized) to confront a suddenly well funded congressional opponent.
BTW, some of our greatest Presidents, entertainers, politicians, etc.. have seen what they believe were aliens.

[wordpix]

73. Dennis is great but not electable---haven't we seen this for many years?

The American sheeple want someone "charismatic;" i.e. tall, handsome and glad-handing. Kooch doesn't fill the bill, unfortunately. He's tried for years but nothing will help him fulfill the "charismatic" requirement of the sheeple.

Bernie Sanders is a candidate who would be a great president but doesn't have "it," either, due to his age.

I work in education and view all this as a failure of our educational system.

[dotymed]

94. I must concede

every point to you.
Doesn't it seem like, when the "curtain has been opened so wide" these last few years, that people would actually want someone legitimately (proven) on their side?.

[Charleston Chew]

27. let's try and sum this up

It really doesn't matter who you vote for ...
...unless we have sweeping campaign finance reform.

and

If you are not voting in local and state elections then it is almost irrelevant who the president is.

[kjackson227]

78. +1... BUT...

It's too bad that your factual and incisive knowledge of how our political system fails us will be lost in the maze of Obama bashing. Some DU'ers here are only interested in whining, not helping to change the system.

[elleng]

32. West loves West.

[kurtzapril4]

33. I agree.

However, I enjoy listening to the show he has every weekend with Tavis Smiley on my local public radio station, WBEZ. They call people out on all sides. :spank: I appreciate it. It is nice to hear an intellectual like Dr. West on the radio, there aren't too many of them! And Tavis kind of keeps him in check.

[elleng]

34. Would like to hear Tavis do that, but really don't want to listen to West's rants.

One a year is enough!

[Charleston Chew]

36. Maybe you shouldn't have clicked on this post?

[kurtzapril4]

46. I don't mind his rants against

the PTB, because in MHO, he's right. But I do agree he's a bit in love with the sound of his own voice. Then again...he's a professor. Kinda goes with the territory, LOL!

[liberation]

62. So basically, it is a bad thing that he was *gasp* speaking in an interview when asked questions?

Should he have conducted the interview using sign language, subtitles, or something else altogether?

To be consistent, I assume you guys will make the same accusation of Mr. Obama, since he is a great speaker and he is known for long speeches and interviews. Right?

[ZombieHorde]

39. Do you not love yourself? nt

[elleng]

86. I like myself.

[wordpix]

74. what does that have to do with the posted interview? I agree with everything West says

I don't care if his self-esteem is through the roof or the atmosphere---he's correct about Obama.

[TatonkaJames]

35. Cornell West is a genius

as is Eric Michael Dyson, both well spoken and brilliant in their analogies.

[madrchsod]

37. "becoming"?...... i`d say he`s almost there..

[pam4water]

41. Why couldn't he figure this out before Obama got elected! I knew his only qualification was looking

'looking good in a suit' so Obama would end up take the advise of someone with simple but wrong solutions. Like keep doing the same stuff Bush did.

[Name removed]

48. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[WillyT]

45. K & R !!!

:kick:

[Raster]

47. There is no "becoming." It's already done happened.

[GameOn]

49. And West is an attention whore. NT

[democracy1st]

50. Your PS3 awaits you.

[demwing]

51. We are all whores of one kind or another

I'm a whore to my job. What kind of whore are you?

[ReggieVeggie]

67. HAHA! The universal dismissal of anyone who doesn't fall in line

They're just attention whores, egomaniacs, dumb, stupid, Republican enablers, etc., etc., etc.

[BEZERKO]

69. As is anyone worth their salt in this business.

I don't really care what anyone in political activism or political intellectualism has to say if they're not attention whores.

[Name removed]

53. Deleted message

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[SunSeeker]

55. I say vote for Obama

Sure Obama has not given us everything we want, but who could? And who, since FDR, has even come close to doing what Obama has done in 2 years? Yes, keep up your demands for more progressive action, but don't say Obama is "just the same" as the Republicans and that it doesn't matter who you vote for. It's just not true. That sort of defeatist thinking plays right into Republican hands. It demoralizes Dems and makes them just not vote, resulting in the election of real corporate puppets like George Bush--who then appoint fascists like Alito to the Supreme Court. If we had a Supreme Court full of justices appointed by Democrats, like Ginsburg and Sotomayor, corporations would not have been declared "people" and Karl Rove's GPS would not have come into existence (thanks to Citizens United) to fund Scott Walker and the rest of the Republicans who swept into office last fall while the left sat home as all the teabaggers voted.

[Name removed]

56. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Enthusiast]

61. Democrats like Clinton and Obama

are directly responsible for the mess this nation is in. Clinton for signing NAFTA, the Telecommunications Act and the Gramm-Leach Bliley Act and Obama for allowing *Bush and Wall Street to go un-investigated and unpunished. Obama and Clinton and not real Democrats, they are fake Democrats.

[demwing]

76. They are the new Democratic Party, Inc

supporting their corporate donors when they should be supporting Unions and building the middle class.

Reagan - and his "Reagan Democrats" - really did change America after all. Maybe that's why Limbaugh stumbled on his words when a caller asked why Reagan was a conservative hero, even though many of his policies are currently rejected by the Right.

To come clean and say "Reagan is a Republican (not conservative) hero because he was able to sell America a false dream version of economic and ethical strength, and mitigated the damage done by Nixon's criminal acts. This helped convince Democrats to vote against their own financial self interests, and changed the future of the Democratic party. Without Reagan, there would be no New Democrats, no Bill Clinton, and no Barack Obama." would be letting a few too many cats out of the damn bag.

[Enthusiast]

81. It took a professional actor.

Now they know the formula. They tailor this formula ever so slightly to adjust for the electorate and the times.

[ellenrr]

63. thanks Cornell- better late than never I guess

[wordpix]

70. "a pawn of Big Finance and puppet of Big Business"---well said and +1

[Eljo_Don]

72. puppet

Obama is all ready a puppet of the oligarchs. They said to him: Do what we tell you to do or we will vanquish you by any means, legal or illegal. Remember Kennedy.

[sarcasmo]

79. Right on, he is one of the best guests on Bill Maher.

[Search4Justice]

80. Thank you for this important video...

... any chance we can get piped inside the White House bubble?

[alan2102]

82. "Becoming"?!

Old news. The puppet status was evident before the
election, in October 2008. If not before.

[Name removed]

84. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Arlene McCarthy]

83. Professor West

Bravo !

[byronius]

85. I like West, but I don't buy this at all.

I don't fit in on this thread, but I felt I should register my opinion. Obama's no puppet. He's a man at war with vast powers, and not altogether succeeding. I do not believe Dr. West (or any other progressive) could do any better.

[JTFrog]

93. +1

Well said.

[Mosaic]

87. Excellent video clip!

One to watch again and again, if you want to learn the truth about what is really going on.

[Charleston Chew]

89. Cornel West Sounds Off on Obama's Nobel Peace Prize

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x389900

[Charleston Chew]

90. The Precarious Fate of Barack Obama

Nov 9, 2009

The president faces a choice, Cornell West says. He can be a masterful, Machiavellian politician like Bill Clinton or a great transformative leader like Abraham Lincoln.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x529312

[Charleston Chew]

91. Cornel West: Obama is for Big Business not Jobless

Educator Cornel West sat down with theGrio to discuss how unemployment is affecting African-Americans.

TheGrio asked West about national unemployment trends for African-Americans. He called on President Barack Obama to implement a comprehensive jobs policy -- a program that would mirror former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal, and focus primarily on creating jobs for people without a college education.

" the same way we had an investment banker policy when they were in trouble," West said of what he views as a double-standard in current economic policy. "All AIG needed was a push. So let's help push these poor people, these working people into jobs with a living wage."

West, who has been outspoken in both his support and criticism of Obama, said the current administration has not made poor people a priority.

"Obama has an economic team that's composed of persons who have no history whatsoever of being concerned about poor people," West said. "Obama's been doing a good job of reassuring the establishment. But there's many of us who believe the establishment is on our necks."

The Princeton University professor is busy promoting his new book, Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud. The memoir is a departure from West's previous books, where he focused primarily on issues such as race and social justice.

http://www.thegrio.com/2009/12/cornel-west-obama-is-for-big-business-not-the-jobless.php

[Norrin Radd]

92. kr

[struggle4progress]

95. West made more sense back in November 2008:

November 19, 2008
Cornel West on the Election of Barack Obama: "I Hope He Is a Progressive Lincoln, I Aspire to Be the Frederick Douglass to Put Pressure on Him"

... For me, my criticism of Barack has to do with trying to acknowledge the degree to which, one, thank God we’re at the end of the age of Ronald Reagan, we’re at the end of the era of conservatism, we’re coming to the end of the epoch of the Southern Strategy. For the first time now, we’ve got some democratic possibilities. This has been a political ice age, and the melting is just beginning. And Barack Obama is a symbol, but we’ve got to move from symbol to substance. We’ve got to move from what he represents in a broad sense—and it’s a beautiful thing to have a black man in the White House, we know that, and black slaves and laborers and other white immigrants built the White House. And to have a black family there, significant; black face for the American empire, fine. Can we revitalize democratic possibilities on the ground with Barack in the White House? I think we can. We can put some serious pressure on him, and we can actually continue the democratic awakening among working people and poor people and push Barack in a progressive direction ...

You know, I fear that Brother Barack might be challenged by what Bill Clinton was. When you have been an outsider to the establishment, you want to make the establishment feel secure, and therefore, you want to recycle names that the establishment feels are legitimate names. And therefore, you’re reluctant to step out too far, because you’ll be unable to proceed and unable to govern with a smoothness that you think ought to be characteristic of your regime. And so, he ends up selecting people who the mainstream are going to herald as legitimate, rather than make that break and acknowledge this is a new day, and it ought to be the age of everyday people, the age of ordinary people. That’s what I think. And it’s ironic, because there’s a sense in which Brother Barack Obama might be reluctant to step into the new age of Obama and remains looking backward to the end of the Clinton moment. And I say, no, we need to break free. Now, it could be like FDR: he’s just reluctant, and we’ll have to push him. And that’s fine ...

Well, we use, in many ways, his own words. He says that he wants the bottoms up. That’s fine. We organize, we mobilize. We don’t look simply for a top down. The Clintonites have often been top down. It’s the bottom up. We organize, we mobilize. We consolidate our organizations. And in the end, of course, we may have to take to the streets. That’s how people’s power is expressed, but it’s expressed in a critical and, for me, in a loving way ...

Yes. America’s hanging in the balance, state of emergency, sense of urgency. I’m a blues man in the life of the mind, a jazzman in the world of ideas, and the blues is an autobiographical chronicle of a personal catastrophe, expressed lyrically and endured with grace and dignity. How do we deal with catastrophic circumstances of our children, catastrophic circumstances of our workers, catastrophic circumstances of our gay brothers and lesbian sisters? Let us not forget Proposition 8 in other states that denied the rights of our gay brothers and lesbian sisters, even as we celebrate Brother Barack Obama. The catastrophic ought to be our focus. That’s what blues people are about. For Christians, it’s the cross as a catastrophic—what kind of sensitivity do we have for people wrestling with catastrophic circumstances? And how do they resist? How do they endure? How do they persevere? How do we democratize and embrace all of humanity so that the wretched of the earth are able to live lives of decency and dignity? ...

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/11/19/cornel_west_on_the_election_of

[yurbud]

96. sad but true on the Obama part. His goal seems to be just enough change to placate or at least

confuse those who see the fundamental changes we need, like only talking to Goldman Sachs execs if you are prosecuting them.