Intimidation and silence.

Editor,

A community organizer empowers the powerless and provides an environment in which the voiceless can be heard. But the community Mr. Obama is organizing as president -- banks, "health" insurance corporations, "defense" contractors, media conglomerates, oil companies, coal companies, etc., and Congress -- are not powerless and are not voiceless.

In fact, these are the voices in the American political economy who have the power, all the power; and the role of a president is to bring these powers to heel, to stand up and fight for the everyday people who are supposed to be his constituency.

Corporations do not "do the right thing," and they do not reform themselves. Senators and Congressmen do not represent the voters; they work for the extremely powerful and extremely wealthy people who pay them. Washington is already a community, a community of the self-appointed elite, and it does not need community organizing. It needs a shrewd, tough fighter who calls a spade a spade and *presides* over the business of this country.

The voices Mr. Obama has invited to the table need to be intimidated into silence because intimidation and silence are the only rules they understand.

re: "As the Nation’s Pulse Races, Obama Can’t Seem to Find His" (12/30/2009)