Obama and the Leftists
by Michael Simms
Obama was the better candidate for lots of reasons, but leftists and liberals shouldn’t see him as their savior. He’s a fiscal conservative, a militarist who is trying to save the American empire, and a tepid supporter of social reform. I volunteered for his campaign, and I’m very relieved that he won re-election — the alternative was too awful to contemplate — but he’s dead wrong on many of the issues of peace and justice. Leftists and liberals have an important role to play in the next four years; we are his conscience. Our message to him should be: we supported you when you needed us, now we need for you to do the right thing.
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Michael Simms is the founder of Autumn House Press and its editor-in-chief from 1998-2016. Currently he is the editor of Vox Populi, an online magazine of poetry, politics and nature. His most recent collections of poems are American Ash and Nightjar, both published by Ragged Sky Press. He lives in Pittsburgh. Find more at: www.michaelsimms.info