OntheWilderSide

On January 20, George W. Bush’s presidency will end.  President-elect Barack Obama will take office, having been elected on a platform of “change”.  Many Americans are eagerly waiting to see what the new Obama Administration will do; but we already know from his Cabinet picks that “change” is not really on the agenda.

• Hillary Clinton, Obama’s choice for Secretary of State, ran a hawkish campaign and will continue her husband’s aggressive pursuit of “free trade” agreements which have undermined human rights and the American economy.
• Robert Gates, Obama’s pick for Secretary of Defense, is a carryover from the Bush Administration, and has overseen continued human rights abuses at Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere.
• Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s new Chief of Staff, is an extreme military hawk, whose presence on Obama’s staff, combined with Clinton’s, undermines any serious potential for Middle East peace.
• Tim Geithner, Obama’s selection for Secretary of Treasury, has been heavily involved in the ongoing bailout of financial firms, and began his career working for Henry Kissinger’s firm.

These choices for the most critical of Cabinet positions make it clear that the only “change” Americans can expect on the major issues of the day out of the Obama Administration are that different people will be in charge of selling out the poor and middle class.

And get this:  with an administration in place that is pro-war, pro-bailout, pro-nuclear power, anti-equal rights, and anti-universal health care, the so-called “opposition” party in Washington will be the Republicans.  No “opposition” party will have ever had it so good.  But, of course, we know that come January 20 there will be one real opposition party:  The Green Party.

With your support, an invigorated Green Party can reach new heights in the number of candidates we run and elect in 2009 and 2010, candidates who will be fighting the Democrats in control of Washington on issues that matter to people:

• Bringing our troops home. The Green Party opposed the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan before they began.  Now Obama wants to move troops from Iraq to Afghanistan, without pulling the plug on either war, while simultaneously rattling the sabres at Iran and Pakistan.
• Demanding single-payer universal health care – now. The Obama plan might well insure more Americans, but most of those benefits will go to the insurance companies, not to the people who have been economically crippled by a corrupt health care system.
• Legalizing marriage for all people. While the Obama Administration opposed same-sex marriage, the Green Party remains in staunch support for extending equal rights to all people
• Bailing out working Americans, not fat cat executives. As unemployment rises, the same corporations who have been responsible for costing so many Americans their jobs whine about needing more money to keep their doors open.  Greens have long opposed corporate welfare and trickle-down economics as practiced for the last 28 years, and want to see an end to free trade agreements and other mechanisms which pad executives’ pockets at the expense of working Americans.
• Insisting on a real green energy policy. There is no place for mountain top removal or nuclear power in a serious 21st Century energy policy based on renewables and efficiency.  Greens have long understood this.  But Democrats waffle because they receive so much cash from electric utilities and other corporations.

Without serious, sustained, principled opposition from the Green Party, the Obama Administration will have a blank check to continue to push the “political center” to the extreme right, just as Bill Clinton did.  The Green Party needs your support to stand up for Americans and keep America from inching even closer to energy and economic catastrophes.

Filed under: 3rd party, Action Alert!, activism, Green Party Websites, Green Presidential Campaign 2008, Political Websites, president, presidential, Press Release Tagged: | Barack Obama, hillary clinton, Rahm Emanuel, robert gates, Tim Geithner