Rosenberg Fund for Children

Why I won't vote for Obama in November

I have no intention of voting for Obama in November. Based on what I’ve learned about environmental sustainability and the military industrial complex, as well as a series of discussions I’ve had with my wife, Elli, about this over the last year, I’ve come to understand that:

1. We are careening towards a series of environmental catastrophes in the next 50 years which will substantially diminish our planet's ability to support human and many other forms of life. These disasters we face are likely to cut the productive power of the planet by more than a factor of ten. (Deep Green Resistance, Aric McBay & Lierre Keith, Seven Stories Press, 2011, Pp 207-211.)

2. The United States military is the largest single source of pollution on the planet. The military is exempt from environmental regulation. Tightening clean water and air regulations is fine, but it will accomplish relatively little if the military is not subject to these limits. The demands of maintaining our empire pose the greatest environmental threat to the earth. (The Green Zone: The Environmental Costs of Militarism, Barry Sanders, A.K.Press, 2009)

3. In order to prevent the looming planetary climate disaster, environmental reality must take precedence over our military and security concerns. This shift will never take place unless we pull back from our empire and dismantle the military industrial complex.

4. President Obama will do neither because he is a defender of our empire and allied with the military industrial complex.

The next few generations face grave danger from drastic climate change and resource depletion. Right now there are seven billion people living on the planet. According to the authors of Deep Green Resistance and other leading environmental scientists, this number is already well beyond the sustainable carrying capacity of the planet. I suspect many of those reading this will discount this last sentence, but I fear such rejection stems from wishful thinking rather than informed analysis.

This isn't just about politics, it is intensely personal. My granddaughter was born in 2008. If this analysis is correct, the lives of over 90% of her generation will be jeopardized if we maintain the current primacy of the military industrial complex.

Even if Obama appoints better Supreme Court Justices, halts the Tar Sands Pipeline, and extends unemployment benefits, four more years of unfettered domination by the military machine trumps it all. Nothing in President Obama's record indicates that he will deviate from the dictates of empire. How could I possibly vote for someone to run the country whose policy priorities place my granddaughter's life, as well as those of your children and grandchildren, in such danger? Given this reality, it is of little consequence to me if the Republican alternative is worse.

I'm standing outside the two-party system because neither Democrats nor Republicans will challenge the military industrial complex and take on the direst threat to us all. I hope it isn't too late, and I will act as if it is not even if it might be, because despair serves no one. The last year has demonstrated the rapidity with which masses of people can transform the debate, become ungovernable, and even bring hope of a new world order.

My generation took on the military industrial complex during the war in Vietnam. We were the first to recognize the threat to our world’s environment. We held the first “Earth Day.” Now, young people all over the world are taking action. It is their turn to direct the path of this new endeavor to revolutionize our priorities. An innovative effort to change the world is underway and it is time for all of us who care about peace, social justice and our environment to get re-engaged. Whether it be organizing or third party activities, I hope we won't waste this opportunity by working, contributing or voting for Obama when there are so many better things to do with our time and money.

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Is Your Priority this Year to Make Political Contributions?

The RFC’s income is down this year. For instance, our June mailing is on track to raise $5,000 less than it did last year. Yes, the economy continues to be bad, and too many people are having a hard time making ends meet, let alone maintaining their donations to progressive causes. But we did much better last year, even though last year the economy was equally lousy. What’s the difference?

A couple of weeks ago we received a smaller than average donation from a stalwart supporter. He wrote: “Sorry this is small. My priority this year was to political contributions.” Even though a majority of our supporters do not reduce their donations to the RFC in response to the presidential campaign, some do, and others get caught up in Senatorial and Congressional contests, as well as state or local races or ballot questions. This is why the RFC has no receptions scheduled this fall. We simply can’t compete with the electoral clamor.

Even if we are able to raise 90% of the funds in 2012 that we raised in 2011, this will work out to a shortfall of tens of thousands of dollars for us and our beneficiaries. This hasn’t caught us by surprise. We’ve been around long enough to have seen this pattern every four years. We knew we’d have to tighten our belts and dip into our reserves to meet our granting obligations this year, but that doesn’t make it less painful.

The timing is also unfortunate because of the explosion of activism we’re experiencing. If anything, these mass protests are overdue, but we all know that the demonstrations have been met with increasingly brutal repression. When activists turn to the RFC for help, we don’t want to send them away.

I also don’t want to reduce our granting further, no matter how difficult that is for us. The RFC granted $400,000 for three years in a row (2006-2008), because the children of targeted activist families really needed it. When the financial bubble burst we had to cut back to $350,000 in 2009, and despite clawing our way back, have remained short of $400,000 since. As you can imagine, this wasn’t because the demand shrank when the economy tanked.

Moreover, in these lean times we’ve had to go all out holding extra events and making more grants (although for smaller amounts), without sufficiently increasing our staffing. I write this not to complain, but to let you know how essential it is for our contributors to maintain their support even in an election year.

I know RFC backers are committed people with many demands to juggle. For most of us it boils down to priorities, and of course, we must all set our own. But I want to make sure that you factor our circumstances into your consideration of those priorities.

We at the RFC pledge to do our best to provide as much support as possible to the children of targeted activists this fall, and with your help, we will.

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The Day After: More of the Same at the RFC

The endless electoral campaign is finally over and Obama won. As far as I can tell, while the Senate is slightly more liberal, the overall political configuration is similar to what existed before the election. How does that impact the Rosenberg Fund for Children?

The RFC’s principal purpose has not changed since its founding more than 20 years ago. We provide for the educational and emotional needs of the children of targeted activists in the United States. Since the parents of our beneficiaries have engaged in a large array of progressive activism, and their targeting can range from loss of a job to physical harassment, arrest or even assassination, the relationship between social unrest and the number of new applications we receive is complex.

One indicator that, while not precise, can hint at whether we’ll see an influx of new applications during a coming year is the number of those arrested at protests during the previous year. While it may surprise some of our supporters that we’ve seen a steady increase in the number of new applications since Obama was first elected in 2008, it has not surprised us. That’s because number of people arrested at demonstrations has increased dramatically since the 2008 election. While I do not have exact figures for 2012 yet, as far as I can tell several thousand protestors have been arrested so far this year. Thus, it is not startling that we’re reviewing more than 80 applications for our aid this fall.

Despite hopes for the contrary, the level of repression experienced by those protesting the growing gap between the rich and the rest of us, the continued despoiling of the environment by fossil fuel companies, the targeting of the undocumented, and the profiling of Muslims grew during the Obama administration’s first term. With the economy remaining bad, the corporations still dominating our government, the police having been militarized, and local, state and national law enforcement agencies remaining intent on branding dissenters as terrorists, we are likely to see an escalating demand for our help.

We’ve received many new applications this fall. They range from Grand Jury resisters to anti-war war protesters to a worker fired for attempting to organize a union. This reflects the ongoing agitation of an aroused populace that has endured five years of economic privation. Obama’s actions in early 2009 may well have prevented a total economic meltdown. However, most of us have seen precious little improvement since then, and there is scant indication that Tuesday’s results will turn things around.

From its start the RFC’s purpose has been to aid the children of targeted activists over the long haul. The day after Obama’s victory it still looks like we’re in for a marathon. I’m not saying that the costs of continuing dissent have increased because of the election. Rather that they already were high and I doubt they will be reduced any time soon. Simply put, what we face is more of the same.

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