With simple slogans such as “Hope” and “Change,” Barack Obama assumed power in January. His promises gave hope to some progressives that the country would enter a new age of peaceful cooperation with other nations and that our people would progress beyond racial politics. However, after the first one hundred days of his administration, Barack Obama has revealed himself as just another Washington puppet.

The first and foremost of his campaign promises was the immediate withdraw of all US combat troops from Iraq—an excellent change of pace after the seven years of war under the Bush administration, but sadly this was not to be. Not even one month after his inauguration, Obama stated that the combat mission would not end until August 31^st of 2010. This is a perfect example of just another Washington politician breaking his promise to those who elected him and showing his timidity when it comes to making any real political changes. If Obama can break one promise, then who’s to say his latest “2010” promise carries any weight?

Even if he does decide to reduce the armed presence in Iraq, he will leave a “residual force” numbering between 35,000 and 50,000 troops. No doubt, this “residual force” is the result of pressure by the more bloodthirsty members of government, to whom Obama has shown little will to stand up against. This lack of backbone is an example of what we will continue to see over the next four, perhaps eight years of this man’s rule. Because Obama has been using the guise of “liberal” and “progressive” this will turn the non-political members of American society against the left, and they will once again be fooled by four to eight more years of Republican rule that will further alienate the country from the rest of the world while internal problems continue to go unresolved, or ignored for that matter. The only thing Obama seems to be accomplishing is giving the true left a bad name, something that must not be allowed to continue.

Obama’s critics ceaselessly label him a “socialist” or “Comrade Obama,” which is merely an attempt to distort the working peoples’ view of what socialism really is with McCarthyist tactics (think Red Scare) and furthermore is an insult to true socialists everywhere. After his first one hundred days in office, the number of socialist or communist policies Obama has enacted, whether domestic or foreign, social or political, remains at zero, while the number of Obama’s grandiose plans for nationalized health care or any number of his schemes for reducing unemployment are impossible to effectively implement while the country remains under the yoke of capitalism.

Now that he is in office, Obama will not even attempt to implement pitiful reforms within the framework of capitalism, such as nationalizing health care or fighting unemployment by any effective means. He is a timid and weak man who will continue to lead the country along the road of an unchanging status quo where the politicians and capitalists grow rich and the rest of us, liberals and conservatives, communists, and capitalists unwittingly continue to suffer in this failing economy, this depraved and selfish society, in a country that continues to alienate itself from the world community.

Categories: Elections, Government, Imperialism, Imperialist War, U.S. News