‘Progressives for Obama’ Fool Themselves -- Glen Ford

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Portion below; whole thing here:
http://www.blackagendareport.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=689&Itemid=1

What "Progressives for Obama" have collectively done, is to allow Obama to "pass" for what he is not: a progressive. It was a foolish project from the start, since it required the candidate's ongoing collaboration. How could the organizers have imagined that a politician like Obama, who takes such great care to speak the language of ambiguity (a form of lying), would feel an obligation to protect progressives from ultimate embarrassment of their own making?

Bill Fletcher, the former TransAfrica president and current executive editor of BlackCommentator.com, was a founder of "Progressives for Obama." Although Fletcher declared that he was not an Obama supporter on January 17 of this year, by March 24 he and others were hallucinating a "movement."

"Even though it is candidate-centered, there is no doubt that the campaign is a social movement, one greater than the candidate himself ever imagined."

If the candidate isn't aware if the nature of the "movement" he is leading, then who is? If the "movement" that Obama is supposedly at the head of is essentially "progressive," does that mean Obama is a closet progressive - so closeted it is a secret to himself? Or are there progressive Rasputins furtively whispering progressive thoughts in the ears of the candidate and his key people?

"Not only are Hayden's and Fletcher's peculiar ‘movements' without political content - they emerge like magic."

Apparently, all that is necessary to have a movement, is to declare one.

Tom Hayden, another "Progressives for Obama" founder, also imagines a kind of donut movement, a progressive circle with a non-progressive middle, where the candidate stands:

"I first endorsed Obama because of the nature of the movement supporting him, not his particular stands on issues. The excitement among African-Americans and young people, the audacity of their hope, still holds the promise of a new era of social activism. The force of their rising expectations, I believe, could pressure a President Obama in a progressive direction and also energize a new wave of social movements."

Nothing of that nature will occur, because Hayden and other progressives are not organizing to make it occur. They are too concerned with remaining "for" Obama. Not only are Hayden's and Fletcher's peculiar "movements" without political content - they emerge like magic, requiring none of the hard work of organizing.

And just how were those popular "rising expectations" that Hayden speaks of supposed to express themselves? Progressives waited until it was far too late to bring these "expectations" - to whatever extent they exist - to bear on the candidate. Obama coasted through the primaries with virtually no dissent from his loyal progressives, and now sees his way clear to publicly dismiss them, so as to never again be "tagged as being on the Left."