On Tue, Jun 14, 2011 at 10:10 AM, G Money <[email protected]> wrote: > > On Tue, Jun 14, 2011 at 12:05 PM, Judah McAuley <[email protected]>wrote: > >> >> RIAA == stupid and evil >> Obama == a lot of corporatist water carrying >> >> Said so in 2008, still true in 2011. Sad. >> > > Is it possible to elect a president who is not corporation-friendly? I mean, > if you don't have at least some big corporations (read: Lobbies) in your > corner....seems like it would be almost impossible to generate the money and > momentum necessary to make it to the presidency.
Tough to say. Obama raised a very large percentage of his money for the 2008 campaign in small dollar donations, far more than any one before had. But given the organizational needs, the media tie ins and now post-Citizen's United, I really don't think our current system would allow for the election of a President who didn't have the backing of large corporations. > And while I understand that some corporate schmoltzing can come at the > expense of the ordinary worker, isn't it also true that stronger and > healthier corporations make for a stronger and healthier economy, and better > jobs for the ordinary worker? No, it isn't true. Quite the opposite, in fact, if you are talking about large multinational corporations. As corporate income has risen sharply amongst large corporations, individual income and government revenues have fallen and our economy is more fragile than ever. Economic power has solidified in the hands of fewer and fewer large corporations to the detriment of the broader economy and the well being of the average citizen. > So just saying that Obama "carries water" for corporations isn't really an > indictment. But if he does so at the expense, or in spite of, the needs of > the ordinary worker, then that would be a problem. Is the latter what you > accuse Obama of, Judah? Yes, it would be the latter. I think that Obama has a number of things going for him and I've appreciated a lot of the things he's done. However, I think that his hawkish tendencies when it comes to defense and a very sweeping notion of "national security" (and the associated defense contractors that it feeds) combined with an overly solicitous approach to large corporate entities (especially in certain industries like Entertainment and Finance) has undermined a lot of the good he's done in other areas, like the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. Judah ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:338880 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
