The true realities

"I don’t like or trust Obama.”

"Why?”

"Because of his socialist policies.”

"Which ones?”

"Well, his health plan.”

"But, economic analysts say it is just about the same as installed in Massachusetts by Gov. Mitt Romney — the man who will likely be the next Republican candidate for the presidency. And not as strong and extreme as the plan proposed by Republican President Nixon before Watergate shot him down. So, what else?”

"I dunno.”

Well, I do. How about trying he has, in general, followed in the footsteps of Bush/Cheney on the terror scene, Guantanamo prisoners and has increased the number of troops in the Bush/Cheney initiated war in Afghanistan? How’s about that he has promised the CIA agents he would not expose them for prosecutions for the policies they were instructed to pursue during that same administration and kept that promise despite strong attacks from the left? How about risking the support of Israel supporters in the United States by trying to rein in settlements in occupied territories? How about that he has reversed the worlds hatred of the United States under Bush/Cheney and is now able to bring world leaders into agreement on such things as reducing nuclear stock piles and has gotten China and Russia in on supporting the sanctions against Iran? And he has been able to bring more world leaders to the United States for conferences than at any time since the creation of the United Nations in San Francisco after World War II.

And this next week one of the bailed-out auto companies is paying their government loan back in full, with a profit to the national treasury. But, the slanderers won’t publish or rant on that.

And how about not comforting one’s self that he has declined in public approval more rapidly than any other president, because with 49 percent approval at this point in his presidency he has beaten out Ronald Reagan, arguably the most popular president in the last half of the 20th century at 40 percent and statistically matched Clinton at 50 percent.

How about dropping more of the "sound bite” political opinions and looking for the true facts?

"But, more importantly, on a moral level, how about looking into your own unconscious prejudices and cutting the guy some slack? He is only in the second year of his presidency.

Above all, please read up on what socialism really is. Not what Mr. Dwight L. Schwab Jr., Belmont, thinks it is.

I, frankly, don’t really give a damn what he or anyone else calls me politically. I have never been a dittohead, as Rush calls it, to any political party or ideology. I have always put my view of the welfare of the country first, although, I do need to say, it is rather a long stretch from being a supporter and advisor to Republican Tom Campbell in the current election cycle to what he calls me. But, dear Lord, I would never gainsay Mr. Schwab’s so obvious intellectual brilliance in political analysis and theory.

Actually, my thoughts and political philosophy all come from my own experiences from the days of the Great Depression through my 60 years working in the corporate sector and six months as a financial broker in 1986, through the disastrous Reagan laissez-faire and deregulation policies to the financial meltdown I had been predicting ever since. It may be of no comfort for many to hear that I believed my own predictions and structured my portfolio in such a way as to not lose a single penny during the inevitable financial meltdown.

In my humble view, the national Republicans are committing what psychiatrists call focal suicide. Killing themselves off, piece by piece.

This time, as I predicted in my last column, they are resisting the reform of those detestables in the financial world who almost dragged us down into a financial apocalypse. Aside from the Republican members in the SEC voting against suing Goldman Sachs’ alleged fraud upon its own investors, the Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell, has announced he has gathered all of his troops, the 41 who will be able to assure a filibuster against any legislation and regulations designed to save the nation from another financial tragedy.

Along with their policy of "No!” votes on every Democratic initiative, they could be losing political capital with enough independents to assure the Democrats will hold in the 2010 elections and assure Obama a second term in 2012.

If they are looking with comfort at Obama’s current overall 49 percent approval rating, they are deluding themselves. That will not translate into a win for them. According to the Gallup Poll, the actual breakdown at this point is Democrats ranging between 80 and 90 percent approval since the beginning of his term and, more importantly, the independents this past year have ranged between 44-50 percent approval. With almost all of the Democrats and even half of the independents voting with them, it could be a loss for you, Mitch. So you would be wise to rethink much of your dedicated opposition and the risk of losing any more independents. At this point, I don’t think that would be good policy.

As a matter of fact, the conservatives have always been a ‘pie in the sky’ party, believing such things as one is able reduce taxation and continue adequate services. Or that one can deregulate and find that every enterprise is honest and will not do what the financial industry did to all of us this last time that caused the Great Recession.

Economics is called the dismal science because you can’t mess with reality and come out ahead. And if you cut spending, as is happening in California these days, service cuts ensure a social reaction and rebellion that will play against the Republican minority in the Legislature that held up the budget this past term.  

The only hope at the national level is to cut out no longer relevant programs, such as the agricultural subsidy program that was created to help the small farmers during the Great Depression. Those monies now go to massive agribusiness corporations that have bought out the small farmers. Collaterally, that will reduce the hatred for the United States from desperate small emerging nations who cannot compete with our subsidized products. On the other hand, just try to get that through the farmland legislators.

And try to cut through the money and lobbyists to end subsidies to major corporations of all kinds that are called welfare for the rich.

Or try to cut out the profusion of earmarks that feed the reelection of incumbents.

Yes, it is a dismal science and if Obama has the courage to act on these, some may call it socialism but I will call it an attempt to save the nation from rule by the oligarchs, the moneyed ones whose largess is persuasive in the halls of Congress.

Since they are now being served by the law firm of Scalia, Roberts, Thomas, Alito and Kennedy, who have endowed human attributes upon inanimate and fictional corporations, I don’t really see it becoming less dismal during my lifetime.

Keith Kreitman has been a Foster City resident for 24 years. He is retired with degrees in political science and journalism and advanced studies in law. He is the host of "Focus on the Arts” on Peninsula TV, Channel 26. His column appears in the weekend edition.