CounterPunch, July 28, 2011. Consider the following quote from Progressive Magazine editor Matthew Rothschild last October: “With economic pain at the highest level ever seen by most Americans, and with minorities especially hard hit, we’re seeing a revolt not by people of color, not the unemployed, nor the foreclosed upon. Instead, we’re seeing a revolt by the white middle class. It’s a revolt against the very notion of a positive role for government in helping people. It’s a revolt against Latin American immigrants. It’s a revolt against Muslim Americans. And it’s a revolt against our black president.”
Written before the Wisconsin uprising and its offshoots would have compelled Rothschild to qualify his judgment by noting the rebellion of Midwestern public sector workers and their sympathizers in February and March of 2011, this passage offered a useful perspective on the significantly racist Tea Party phenomenon and the nothingness of the Democratic Party and the United States’ “progressive movement” in 2009 and 2010.
But why did Rothschid feel compelled to say “our black president?” Barack Obama has belonged to Wall Street, corporate America, and the Pentagon from the beginning. Read further….