He's To Stab You In The Front, Suckers
But, of course, to the extent that you see or feel the stab at all, you'll think it's in your back. Because, frankly, you're a bunch of idiots: the man has made himself plain. So many times you were told that Obama is and will be a centristy, Clintonoid neoliberal. So many times you were outraged at the suggestion, and then stupidly pointed to Obama's identity as "proof" of his leftism/radicalism.'But he's black!' you'd splutter, as if that fact coupled with his electoral win meant social democracy was on the march.
Actually, minorities can do the dirty work of the typically white Wealthy Criminal Class just as well as those who resemble the class's original membership. Witness the stockpiling of hacks, villagers, and pseudo-liberals in Obama's cabinet:
In Cabinet, Obama goes for experience, pragmatism
WASHINGTON – Barack Obama has wholeheartedly embraced experience in choosing his Cabinet. That may seem at odds with the president-elect's campaign theme of "change we can believe in."
[...]
More so than his recent predecessors, he has drawn heavily from the Senate for top advisers. His choices for secretary of state (Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York), interior secretary (Ken Salazar of Colorado) and vice president (Joe Biden of Delaware) were fellow senators. Tom Daschle, named health secretary, was the Senate Democratic leader from South Dakota until he lost his seat in 2004.
From the House, Obama has plucked Reps. Rahm Emanuel of Illinois as his chief of staff, Hilda Solis of California for labor secretary and just-retired Republican Ray LaHood of Illinois for transportation secretary.
[...]
Obama also came down on the side of experience in filling other Cabinet posts. Defense Secretary Robert Gates is a holdover from President George W. Bush's administration and a former CIA director under Bush's father. Attorney General-designee Eric Holder was deputy attorney general under President Bill Clinton.
Oh but never mind all that; everything's okay! Because it's a multiculturally conservative cabinet:
By most counts, Obama has fulfilled his promise to have the most diverse Cabinet in history. Of his nominees for jobs generally considered "Cabinet level," fewer than half are white men.
Three are Latino (Richardson, Salazar and Solis). Four are black (Kirk, Holder, U.N. Ambassador nominee Susan Rice and Environmental Protection Agency pick Lisa Jackson). Two are Asian-American (Chu and Eric K. Shinseki, Obama's pick for veterans affairs secretary).
But Obama fell short, Baker said, in picking full-throated Republicans for his Cabinet. Gates, staying on as defense secretary, has not confirmed that he is a Republican, and LaHood often annoyed GOP leaders by refusing to walk the party line on key issues.
All in all, however, Obama has put in place a diverse team in which almost no one appears to have been chosen mainly to fill a gender or ethnic slot, said Norm Ornstein, a political scientist at the American Enterprise Institute.
"To be able to get that mix of Hispanics and African-Americans and Asians and women is really impressive," he said.
The overall team, Ornstein said, "is a collection of very strong individuals and people known for their pragmatism."
It may not please liberal activists who want sweeping change in Washington, he said, but it reflects a pragmatic new president facing some of the toughest challenges in modern times.
One day perhaps the special interest/identity politics uber alles wing of liberalism will finally understand that it's not what/who one is but how one thinks and what one believes that truly matters. But then that's just common sense -- it's also very, very socialist.
posted by RETARDO MONTALBAN @ 5:19 PM
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