Diary of a Walking Butterfly

If you’re a liberal and you watched the State of the Union address, you probably heard a lot of things that sounded really logical and progressive. We can all agree, though, that politics is the art of deception. That being said, let’s take a look at the real ramifications of Obama’s proposed plan for the United States.

We can break this down piece by piece, but there’s really no need. It would be repetitive. Obama’s plan is simply a bolder, more aggressive version of his first term. The name of the game is public funding of private entities. Just as he did with the massacre in Iraq and healthcare, the President is poised to hand over public entities to the whims of private ownership. On top of that, he’s willing to shell out taxpayer money.

This doesn’t sound so bad, does it? Public/private partnerships sound like a cute combination of capitalism and socialism. How American. How reasonable. How bat-shit insane.

The problem with public/private partnerships is that they operate according to the rules of the private sector and therefore to the advantage of the private sector. What you have, in effect, is a private corporation that is incentivized and propped up by public funding. It cuts out the average citizen (who theoretically “votes” for “good” corporations with their dollar) and funnels the money directly to whoever holds the contract. This is done with a sort of blanket consent offered by the masses that doesn’t come anywhere near being actually democratic. It’s not just “bad”, it’s atrocious and horrifying.

Many liberals will read this with their jaws hitting the floor, but not for the reason I would hope. They’re aghast that I could openly criticize what they see – and what was presented to them as – reasonable solutions to real problems. They’re not solutions, though. These are issues that were created by the private sector. Using the private sector to fix these problems is not reasonable, it’s downright nutty.

Why?

Private corporations have shown themselves to have:
No regard for the environment.
No regard for workers’ rights.
No regard for creating an anti-oppressive work environment.
No regard for the impacts of their decisions and practices on communities, the country or the world.

These are the people and entities we think should be solving the education crisis in this country? The people who chop down workers should be tasked with lifting them up? The people who unfairly pay women should be liberating them? The people who exploit the poor and sick should be the ones to ameliorate their ills? The fox should guard the hen house. Criminals should judge and punish themselves.

This is not sound policy. This is corporatism. This is not progressive, nor revolutionary.

As a side note, Obama also continued with his jingoistic militarism, open and flagrant support for his vicious deportation scheme (more deportations than under Bush), disgusting support for Israel in the genocide against Palestinians etc.

If you’re a liberal and can still support this murdering fat cat, be my guest. But stop pretending that you (or he) are progressive or anywhere remotely left of center.