Full at
http://blog.cheapmotelsandahotplate.org/2010/11/14/change-we-were-foolish-to-believe-in/
This is an excerpt from near the end of the post:
"Now that the Republicans control the House of Representatives, will the
Democrats stand tall and fight them off with progressive principle? Will they
move to the left? Only a fool like Katrina vanden Heuvel could believe this.
What is being played out here is as old as the rise of modern U.S. capitalism.
The Democrats and the Republicans take turns serving the interests of capital.
The Republicans rule with such disdain for the working class that a public
backlash drives them from power. Then the Democrats promote capitalism with a
human face. Business and its allies go wild and scare the people with stories
about incipient socialism. These days, with a moribund labor movement and
limited public political sophistication, the scare tactics work pretty well.
The Democrats respond by moving to the right; the Republicans regain their lost
political power; the Democrats shift further right; and then the Republicans
win absolute power, and the whole sorry process starts over again. Watch now
as Obama gravitates to the right. Watch as he parrots vanden Heuvel and
babbles on about civility and calm debate. Watch as he caves on rescinding the
Bush tax cuts for the wealthy. Watch as he turns up the heat on Iran when the
next presidential election gets nearer. Watch how he champions every kind of
environmental degradation, from offshore oil drilling to hydraulic fracturing.
Watch how the liberals and their more thoughtless radical allies tell us that
this is the most important election of our lifetimes."
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