Why I’m Not An Obama Fan: Or, Why You Should Keep Politics Out of Yoga

by Jego Galter

I’m a libertarian yogi. Oh, I know what you’re thinking…he’s has a beard and really good abs and carries a gun! And in fact, you’re right–I have firearms, facial hair and pretty good abs. Anyway, the studio is full of bright shining souls who would give you the shirt off their backs and want peace and justice for all–and do something about it. I love and admire so much about them. And amazingly: they are Obama fans (!) , and I’m not.

This causes some surprise–after all, I’m a nice guy, love my child, use cloth diapers, have a wonderful marriage, I’m a good cook–how could I not be an Obamist? Here’s a quick reference that addresses that question. And a reminder to yogis out there: no politics in the studio!

Why I’m Not An Obama Fan

1. The Peace Candidate increased the size of the Pentagon’s budget by 4%, taking us to over $800 Billion and committed us to an unwinnable war in Afghanistan that is not relevant to our national security. He has placed former Joint Special Operations Commander Stan McChrystal in charge in Afghanistan, though an extremely high rate of personnel under McChrystal’s command were disciplined for torture and abuse of prisoners. Obama is bombing Pakistan directly, just as Bush II did, and killing civilians while killing ’suspected’ terrorists.’ He has grotesquely argued, as Bush II did, in the same speech, for the ‘Rule of Law’ and the necessity to build a new legal regime to make it OK to keep people in what he euphemistically calls “prolonged detention.” In other words, it’s not OK now with that pesky bit in the Constitution about habeas corpus and us not having insurrection nor rebellion, but we’ll make some new documents to let us say it’s OK since obviously it is even though right now it’s not. Or something.

This is not a Peace President.

2. The Change Candidate, apart from his desire to engage in expensive foreign military adventures, has handed trillions of dollars without oversight to investment banks and large corporations, and has allowed the Treasury Department to usurp the Constitutional role of Congress in legislation: only Congress is supposed to make the laws. But now Treasury can (and DHS….) His economic adviser is Larry Summers, who, as Clinton’s SecTreas prevented Congress from overseeing financial derivatives. That’s unlike the saintly Bob Rubin who as Clinton’s other SecTreas , got Glass-Steagall repealed and then went to join Citi and profited mightily thereby. Lil’ Timmy Geithner was supposed to be watching the henhouse as head of New York Fed but apparently missed all the warning signs for the financial crisis (not to mention the instructions for Form 1040)–though with all those banking guys on his board, who could blame him. Oh, he’s SecTreas under Obama.

This is not a Change President.

3. The Prosperity Candidate, apart from his desire to engage in expensive foreign wars and buy off Wall Street, has allowed the money supply to increase dramatically (about double at time of writing) which will lead to horrific inflation the likes of which has not been seen in the United States in decades. This will mostly hurt the poor and middle class, the very people he vowed to help. Witness that the ethanol subsidy has threatened food security for many Americans and people around the world, and Mr. Obama has done nothing to eliminate it. He is violating the Fifth Amendment protections against seizure of property with bailouts. Additionally, the nationalization of the auto industry and the fact that GM’s creditors have been offered 10% of the new company, while the UAW gets 17.5% plus warrants for another 2.5% indicates a lack of understanding of the role of creditors in a financial system and the worst of political pandering, simultaneously.

This is not a Prosperity President.

4. The Intellectual Candidate, in addition to his expensive militarism and fellating of the banking-industrial complex and various fiscal and monetary stupidities, decided to repeat some of the worst mistakes of the Great Depression (including protectionist tariffs, tax hikes, and the myth of government jobs being ‘productivity’). He’s preserving horrid and unfair so-called Free Trade agreements which are actually Heavily Managed Trade and typically bad for the poor and middle class. Further, he’s recapitalizing the IMF which has had a history of negatively serving the aims of peace and justice.

This is not an Intellectual President.

This is why I do not like Obama.

There is a mindless defense of Obama which is rooted in the idea that “Hey, he’s better than John McCain. I’m a liberal, he’s a liberal–he’s well-spoken, he’s charming…” What this defense ignores is that it willfully ignores reality. Yoga is a practice in service of the self and in service of the world. While consciousness and bliss are yogic, there is nothing yogic (nor patriotic) about blissful ignorance that allows one to believe comfortable lies.