Should U.S. President Barack Obama resign?

Published in Intrepid Report on June 14, 2013
By Larry Pinkney

“Never be deceived that the rich will allow you to vote away their wealth.”
—Lucy Parsons

“What better way to enslave a man than to give him a vote and tell him he is free.”
—Albert Camus

In this nation, we have been ingrained with the notion that ordinary everyday Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people have genuine representative government because we have the right to vote. Yet, elected officials have repeatedly simply lied to the electorate, and once they have been voted into office, proceeded to violate the trust of those who voted for them. Unfortunately, this is not a new or even an unusual phenomenon.

Presently, perhaps the most glaring example of an ongoing and egregious violation of trust, and its concomitant betrayal of everyday people, is that of U.S. President Barack Obama—drone man.

Barack Obama promised transparency in government but has delivered stealth and subterfuge in the form of massive surveillance on millions of U.S. citizens and constant government refusals to be open and honest with the people of this nation. He promised that the U.S. gulag torture chamber at Guantanamo would be closed, but instead has continued the horror unabated—worse than ever before. In violation of both the U.S. Constitution and of international law, Barack Obama has militarily attacked sovereign nations including Libya, Somalia, Pakistan, Bahrain, and Yemen even as he has, in real terms, broadened the U.S. war in Afghanistan.

In addition to acquiring his own secret ‘kill list,’ the wily, corporate-owned, Barack Obama has signed and thereby codified into law the indefinite detention of U.S. citizens—without charge, trial, or due process—by way of provision 1021 of the NDAA (National Defense Authorization Act). He has ushered in an enormous corporate-owned government surveillance police-state. These things are utterly unacceptable.

Should Barack Obama resign from the presidency? Of course he should! It is however, highly unlikely that he will do so unless there is an overwhelming, organized, and persistent groundswell from everyday ordinary people in this nation unrelentingly demanding his resignation. And even if such a reality were to be brought into fruition, there would remain the formidable challenge of bringing about over-all and real systemic change in order to ensure that the avaricious corporate/military power elite would not simply replace him with yet another Trojan Horse puppet.

Therefore, the question really is: Have the everyday ordinary people of this nation had enough of this blood sucking power elite and their treacherous corporate-stream media, and do we have the will and fortitude to see these tasks through? The answer to this question will be determined collectively by the action or inaction of ordinary everyday people.

It appears obvious that Barack Obama’s Democrat and Republican cohorts have a vested interest in maintaining and perpetuating this unjust, hypocritical, and despicable political system. Thus, it is crystal clear that politicians—be they Democrat or Republican—will not bring about the much needed systemic change. Only ordinary everyday people can accomplish this arduous and protracted task.

The 21^st century offers us the possibility of creatively and collectively bringing about a society based upon human needs— not perpetual wars and corporate greed. We ordinary people in this nation have the wonderful and challenging possibility of joining with our sisters and brothers globally, of all colors, in the principled quest for individual and collective human rights. This will not be easy nor will it happen by osmosis. It will take hard, committed, and determined work on all of our parts. On the other hand, the 21^st century could bring about the continued ravaging of our precious Mother Earth and the ultimate demise of most, if not all, of humankind. The choice is ours.

Barack Obama is currently the latest and most dangerous willing pawn of the national and global power elite. He needs to be removed from office, in conjunction with the entire corrupt political system being changed from the bottom up for the benefit of everyday ordinary Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people. Nothing less will do.

We must stop supporting these corporate blood suckers. Stop buying their artificial products of human alienation. You don’t have to have the latest car, wear the latest so-called style, or be a corporate consumer addict/clone/android of this mind-deadening system. You don’t have to do this! Take back your minds. Reclaim your ability to critically think and in so doing regain your humanity! Say NO to the incessant corporate-stream vomit of disinformation, misinformation, and distraction! Say YES to a different, more human and humane future.

NOW is the time! Each one, reach one. Each one, teach one. Onward, then my sisters and brothers. Onward!

Larry Pinkney is a veteran of the Black Panther Party, the former Minister of Interior of the Republic of New Africa, a former political prisoner and the only American to have successfully self-authored his civil/political rights case to the United Nations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In connection with his political organizing activities, Pinkney was interviewed in 1988 on the nationally televised PBS News Hour, formerly known as The MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour, and more recently on the nationally syndicated Alex Jones Show. Pinkney is a former university instructor of political science and international relations, and his writings have been published in various places, including The Boston Globe, San Francisco BayView newspaper, Black Commentator, Intrepid Report, Global Research (Canada), LINKE ZEITUNG (Germany), 107 Cowgate (Ireland and Scotland), and Mayihlome News (Azania/South Africa). He is in the archives of Dr. Huey P. Newton (Stanford University, CA), cofounder of the Black Panther Party. For more about Larry Pinkney see the book, Saying No to Power: Autobiography of a 20th Century Activist and Thinker, by William Mandel [Introduction by Howard Zinn]. (Click here to read excerpts from the book.)