Kabuki democracy: the system vs. Barack Obama

225 Pages·2011·0.956 MB·English

by  Obama, Barack, Alterman, Eric, Obama, Barack

Current events / Politics e
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“[Alterman is] the most honest and incisive media critic writing today.” a
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in Kabuki Democracy, bestselling author and Nation columnist eric Alterman asks
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why President Barack Obama has been unable to deliver on the promise of his
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2008 campaign. he argues that while Obama’s compromises have disappointed
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many of his supporters, his failure is primarily due to a political system that stymies u
democracy when voters choose progressive change. K
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Brilliantly blending incisive political analysis with a clear agenda for change,

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Kabuki Democracy cuts through the clichés of conservative propaganda and lazy
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mainstream media analysis to demonstrate that genuine transformation will come
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to America only when enough people care enough to challenge the system.
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“The only hope of staying sane in the lockstep stereotyped reporting . . . was to look a
up eric Alterman.” —Sir haroLD evaNS, Wall STReeT JouRNal c
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eric aLTermaN is a Distinguished Professor of english and
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h Copake Beast, a senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, a Fellow ySTeThe NATION
ora at the Nation Institute, and the author of seven books, including the m PB
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© national bestseller, What Liberal Media? he lives in New York City. v
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Cover design by Nicole Caputo a
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Cover image © Brooks Kraft/Corbis $14.99 US / $17.50 CAN ama FINISH:
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ISBN 978-1-56858-659-5 aK Gritty Matte
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a L T e r m a N
A Member of the Perseus Books Group
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KABUKI DEMOCRACY
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Also by Eric Alterman
Why We’re Liberals:
A Handbook to Restoring America’s Most Important Ideals
(Viking, 2008, Penguin, 2009)
When Presidents Lie:
A History of Official Deception and Its Consequences
(Viking, 2004, Penguin, 2005)
The Book on Bush:
How George W. (Mis)Leads America.
(Viking, 2004, Penguin, 2005 co-author)
What Liberal Media?
The Truth About Bias and the News
(Basic, 2003, 2004)
It Ain’t No Sin To Be Glad You’re Alive:
The Promise of Bruce Springsteen
(Little, Brown & Co, 1999, Back Bay, 2001)
Who Speaks for America?
Why Democracy Matters in Foreign Policy
(Cornell University Press, 1998)
Sound and Fury:
The Making of the Punditocracy.
(HarperCollins, 1992, 1993, and Cornell University Press, 2000)
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KABUKI
DEMOCR ACY
The System vs. Barack Obama
ERIC ALTERMAN
NEW YORK
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Copyright © 2011 by Eric Alterman
Published by Nation Books, A Member of the Perseus Books Group
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To my father, Carl Alterman,
in his eightieth year on the planet and his fiftieth year as my dad,
with deepest gratitude and admiration.
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CO N T E N TS
INTRODUCTION
You’ve Got a Lot of Nerve To Say You Are My Friend 1
CHAPTER 1
When the Autumn Weather Turns the Leaves to Flame 7
CHAPTER 2
Don’t Know What I Want But I Know How to Get It 17
CHAPTER 3
If That’s All There Is, My Friend, Then Let’s Keep Dancing 27
CHAPTER 4
What It Don’t Get, I Can’t Use 33
CHAPTER 5
I Read the News Today, Oh Boy 73
CONCLUSION
It’s Here They Got the Range and the Machinery for Change 115
EPILOGUE
The Thrill Is Gone 145
Notes 159
Acknowledgments 203
Index 205
About the Author 215
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INTRODUCTION
You’ve Got a Lot of
Nerve To Say You Are My Friend
Few liberals or progressives would take issue with the argument
that, significant accomplishments notwithstanding, the Obama
presidency has been a big disappointment. As Mario Cuomo famously
observed, candidates campaign in poetry but govern in prose. And,
yes, the achievements are, when judged in comparison with those of
his immediate predecessors, undeniably impressive. There are health
care reform, financial reform, the economic stimulus, tobacco regu-
lation, student loan reform, credit card reform, and equal pay, all of
which unarguably put Barack Obama in the company of Lyndon
Johnson and Franklin Delano Roosevelt as one of the most conse-
quential Democratic presidents of the last hundred years. Yet when
one examines the fine print on these bills, it becomes equally undeni-
able that Obama voters have been asked to accept some awfully
“prosaic” compromises.
This turn of events is particularly disheartening when one recalls
the powerful wave of progressive support Obama rode to the White
House, coupled with the near total discrediting of his conservative
Republican opposition, owing to the disastrous consequences of
George Bush’s presidency. In order to pass his health care legislation, for
instance, Obama was required to specifically repudiate his pledge to
prochoice voters to “make preserving women’s rights under Roev.Wade
a priority as president.” That promise apparently was lost in the same
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