Upstream | June 18, 2012 | 223 comments

Former Obama professor: The president ‘must be defeated’ in 2012

source: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/06/18/former-obama-professor-the-president-must-be-defeated-...

KB723
By Stephen C. Webster
Monday, June 18, 2012 9:16 EDT

Harvard Law School professor Roberto Mangabeira Unger hopes that his former student, President Barack Obama, is defeated at the polls this November — and he’s calling for that defeat to come at the hands of the very people who elected him.

In a little-noticed video published online last month that became the subject of reporting by The Associated Press over the weekend, Unger explains that while Republicans threaten to remake America, Democrats offer no alternative and must significantly or risk further stagnation.

“The Democratic Party has no new direction,” he warns. “[Obama] has failed to advance the progressive cause.”

Unger admits that Obama’s defeat would cost the nation in “judicial and administrative appointments,” but those costs, he said, aren’t so great as those of an Obama victory. “He has spent trillions of dollars to rescue the moneyed interests and left workers and homeowners to their own devices.”

He concedes, however, that if Obama rival Mitt Romney wins, it’s likely to make income inequality “even greater than it is now.”

Still: “Unless he is defeated, there cannot be a contest for the reorientation of the Democratic Party as the vehicle of a progressive alternative in the country,” Unger concludes.

“Only a political reversal can allow the voice of democratic prophecy to speak once again in American life,” he says. “Its speech is always dangerous. Its silence is always fatal.”

Unger, an author, philosopher and two-time Brazilian presidential candidate, supported President Obama in 2008.

This video was published to YouTube on May 22, 2012.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/06/18/former-obama-professor-the-president-must-...

"Interesting video, but with all elections. the people are always left with:" "You are Damned if you do, and Damned if you don't!!!" =(
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223 comments // Former Obama professor: The president ‘must be defeated’ in 2012 // Video

  • bailey78
  • gump
  • maasanova
    • -1
      maasanova  

    • “He has spent trillions of dollars to rescue the moneyed interests and left workers and homeowners to their own devices.”

      No he didn't. He just rubber stamped demands and blank checks for special interests groups, written by special interest groups that he owed political favors to.

      Obama is nothing and Romney will just do more of the same.

      About the only thing that the President and his administration has done right during the term is kept the US out of Iran, but I think that has more to do with opposition from the military.

      The presidency is a joke and a distraction at this point. It's even worse than reality teevee. Americans should just forget the office of the presidency and focus on getting rid of the do-nothing rats in House and the Senate.

    • 11 months ago
  • cztheday
    • +4
      cztheday  
    • maasanova:

      When Obama took office, the economy was in free-fall and we were engaged in two wars with no end in sight. The U.S. and the Russians each had 10,000 nuclear weapons pointed at each other - which has now been drawn down to 5,000 each with a solid warhead destruction verification program in place. I could easily list 100 more accomplishments by this Administration. Hell, I could even list a dozen pretty good accomplishments by the Bush Administration in the midst of that 8-year disaster. Off-the-cuff analysis is useless.

    • 11 months ago
  • MSII
    • +3
      MSII  
    • maasanova:

      "focus on getting rid of the do-nothing rats in House and the Senate."

      Problem is there's no one to replace them with! The system is corrupted with money from the same 1% corporate-fascist sources. Until the cancerous money is taken out of the process it'll just be different names and faces serving the same masters ( who are NOT the american PEOPLE). There has to be serious campaign finance reform, with complete transparency. No more of this purely EVIL "corporations are people" insani-tea, no more "money is speech". Revolving door government-to-lobbyist garbage needs to end also!

    • 11 months ago
  • OlBlue
  • KB723
  • Mark701
    • +10
      Mark701  

    • I understand what he's saying. But an analogy would be "this baseball manager sucks so let's hand the team back to former manager who put the team in last place the year before and was caught stealing towels."

      I'm sorry but this is no answer. Handing the country back to delusional Republicans will pretty much put the final nail in the coffin. Their are no moderates left in the GOP anymore to protect them from themselves. Handing this country back to the GOP would be giving it to freshman teabaggers, some of who literally don't know how the US government or the economy functions. There is no Republican in the country that I could support. Obama might be a disappointment but he's still light years ahead of Romney.

    • 11 months ago
  • KB723
  • MSII
  • cmc101
  • KB723
  • MSII
    • +5
      MSII  

    • I understand what he's saying. Yes the Dem's are in definite need of a major revitalization. With how deeply the system has been perverted by money I'm not at all certain it's possible for the Dem's to evolve. Only way any party can get elected is by serving the same big-money corporate-fascist 1%. They have a agenda that is NOT in the interests of the citizens in any respect.

    • 11 months ago
  • KB723
  • mik661
  • KB723
  • attilatheblond
  • cpad
  • KB723
  • KB723
    • +2
      KB723 [removed]  

    • Former Obama professor: The president ‘must be defeated’ in 2012

      "Interesting video, but with all elections. the people are always left with:" "You are Damned if you do, and Damned if you don't!!!" =(

    • 11 months ago
  • grammabet
  • KB723
  • budsnews
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