Guess WE’RE “Sister Souljah” now…

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According to Wikipedia, a “Sister Souljah moment” (referring to candidate Bill Clinton’s public scolding of the hip-hop MC and political activist) “is a politician’s public repudiation of an allegedly extremist person or group, statement, or position perceived to have some association with the politician or their party. Such an act of repudiation is designed to signal to centrist voters that the politician is not beholden to traditional, and sometimes unpopular, interest groups associated with the party, although such a repudiation runs the risk of alienating some of the politician’s allies and the party’s base voters.” Candidate Barack Obama is making some of his previously most enthusiastic supporters feel like Sister Souljah lately.

After supporting Barack in the primary over the seemingly more war-hungry and corporatist Hillary, what are we progressive patriots who care about a sane foreign policy, just economics, and a moderate judiciary going to do now, vote for a spoiler like Nader, McKinney or Bob Barr, and risk four more years of Bush policies?

First, last week Obama reneged on his promise to filibuster any FISA bill that includes retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies who helped the government spy on us illegally, and far from filibustering it, is now supporting such a bill, on very flimsy pretexts. Then yesterday he repudiated the very reasonable remarks of General Wesley Clark (for whom I had had veep hopes) that McCain’s war service does not especially qualify him to make foreign policy decisions. And now, in today’s “patriotism” speech in Independence MO, he’s attacked the huge anti-Iraq-War group MoveOn.org – one of his biggest groups of supporters – for their silly “General Betrayus” ad of a few months back.

I want to ask you Independents and wavering Republicans who frequent the OJ blog, is this working for you? I hope so, because I think you’re the intended audience…


About Vern Nelson

Greatest pianist/composer in Orange County, and official political troubadour of Anaheim and most other OC towns. Regularly makes solo performances, sometimes with his savage-jazz band The Vern Nelson Problem. Reach at vernpnelson@gmail.com, or 714-235-VERN.