Cornel West And Tavis Smiley On Poverty And Why Obama Is Not A Progressive
Yesterday Obama gave a speech on his first payback agenda item for his corporate masters. Well, the second. The first was to bomb Yemen. His second will be to cut social programs to ensure the criminal banking syndicate gets their payback, cutting the national debt, while ensuring there remains plenty of money to pay for corporate welfare. Gotta keep those campaign contributions rolling in. Poverty has nothing to share with the ruling neoliberal elite. Politician’s corporate masters pumped six billion dollars into this past election. Six billion dollars that could feed, clothe and provide shelter for hungry children or homeless citizens or health care for those unable to afford it. But our political masters never once blinked an eye while spending that money for the benefit of the self.
I have found as a general rule that the less one if focused on material wealth, the richer one is in spirit. The old saying that one cannot serve two masters is most definitely a universal truth. The only people who have ever offered me the proverbial last shirt off of their back had almost nothing of material wealth. That includes my mother. And, I have also found that the more material “stuff” one acquires in life, the more one becomes worried that someone is going to take something from them. But the reality is those people who are so focused on what-they-have-as-opposed-to-who-they-are really have nothing for anyone to take. They have already taken everything worthy from themselves. They have taken their own humanity and their soul.
How great is the loss our nation has experienced by marginalizing those who seemingly have nothing to share as measured by politicians and our corporate masters? Who, for countless reasons, aren’t able to buy a politician. Who, for countless reasons, aren’t wealthy in the measurements of this world. Who, for countless reasons have been thrown under the bus. How much has our nation lost by not experiencing the richness of spirit from so many while exalting those who are consumed by their own self-importance, vanity and greed?
Our nation suffers from a great sickness. Our political and corporate masters remain silent while millions and millions of Americans become more and more marginalized. More and more invisible. More and more unable to share the richness of their spirit with our nation. Jill Stein wrote on her blog a few days before the election that neither Obama nor Romney uttered the words poverty or homelessness once during the campaign. And Obama, Democrats and Republicans are getting ready to make poverty even worse with coming cuts to social programs. Obama, Democrats and Republicans tell us this is what the American people want. To have both political parties come together on behalf of our corporate masters to bludgeon our government’s services and instead hand that money to banking criminals. Actually, how do Americans know what they want when no one has ever explained what our choices are or taken the time to consider suggestions from the citizenry on how to deal with this crisis? They don’t. It’s not about what we want. It’s about what our masters want. And, as Democrats and Republicans come together on behalf of their corporate masters to take money from the poor and give to the rich, they call it compromise and portray it as valiant and noble when it is truly criminal.
These are some of the greatest crimes in the history of our nation. Who is willing to testify and stand to account? Apparently, almost no one since the only two candidates to ever utter a word on poverty received less than one percent of the final presidential vote. Will we ever be forgiven? One thing is certain. Karma is indeed a bitch.
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