Press Action ::: Protesting Obama's Inauguration

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Protesting Obama's Inauguration

Protesting the inauguration is about protesting two things.

(1) First, it is a protest against the policies being inaugurated, which have been quite clearly spelled out and articulated, so this idea that we need to “wait and see” is grossly misguided. Obama has stated in no uncertain terms where he stands on key issues such as Israel and Jerusalem, Afghanistan, gay marriage, unions and teachers and education, “Rubinomics”, expanding the military in size and mission, and many other issues. If our principles and our willingness to stand up for them are subject to the whims of “propriety,” they aren’t really principles at all.

The idea that because a large number of people are hopeful doesn’t change the facts about where Obama clearly stands on many issues, and when in the past has widespread public support for a particular leader or bad set of policies served as a supposedly legitimate reason for us to set aside our beliefs and actions for the sake of appearances? At best, it’s disingenuous and seems to suggest a degree of embarrassment over how we truly feel and our willingness to fight for what we believe in.

(2) Second, it is a protest against a specific institution and position of great power that has always been wielded with a heavy hand and little regard for the harm and damage it causes—indeed, that harm and damage are usually intentional. The presidency, no matter the name or color of the person sitting in the office, is part of a hierarchical structure of leadership and dominance with the intent of enforcing U.S. interests and expanding the national security state.

Obama is the natural progression of ascendancy, and has fully embraced the expansion of the national security state and the enforcement of U.S. hegemony and strategic interests around the world. He’s demonstrated that he absolutely understands, accepts, and intends to exercise to the fullest extent the powers and “duties” of the presidency. It is a position of power inherently at odds with the principles and politics of the left, and in it’s existing state always will be.

Protesting every inauguration, regardless of who is being crowned, is a symbolic gesture to speak out on that day of national torch-passing. It’s important that among the throngs of cheering Kool Aid drinkers and other such benders of knee, that the left stand up against the position itself and all that it represents.

There is absolutely no reason whatsoever to think we are not capable of articulating within our protests the fact that we don’t fail to recognize a subtext to this election. Yes, it is indeed surprising to see this nation electing its first black president, a man named Barack Hussein Obama and who had a Muslim father, in just the second election since the Sept. 11th attacks and just 4 years after an election filled with fear-mongering and hatred. Yes, it is indeed miraculous that there are people who watched the election returns who had parents who were once slaves, or grandparents who were once slaves. The deep emotional impact is not something we are oblivious to. We can see and understand these subtexts, and we can make clear that we don’t seek to undermine those aspects that have such meaning for so many people.

But we need to also make clear why we are opposed to Obama’s positions, why he represents policies and beliefs that we strongly oppose, why those policies and beliefs are horrible and a continuation of the same oppressions and are devoid of true justice.

It does not make us irrelevant. We become irrelevant the moment we stop acting on our beliefs, the moment we line up with the liberals and progressives who are already clamoring for the left to sit down and shut up, and who have already forsaken any notion of real progress and change when they dismiss our concerns and anger regarding Obama’s terrible policy positions.

If the single fact that Obama is black in and of itself is a supposed reason to turn our backs on our principles and to fail to take an action that we clearly WOULD take if he were white but held the same positions, then it seems the values and hopes and goals of the left can be bought pretty cheaply, indeed. And then we are irrelevant.

-Drew Poe