That Old Cartoon In The New Masses

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When I watch P support the hospital closings
which he had previously opposed
as being an unconscionable attack on the poor
but that was when he was running for office
against a Republican
and he appealed in a time of labor defeats
for working class support
and now there is a modest labor upsurge again
and he has to show he is responsible to big business
so he makes his move
1,000 slated to be thrown out on the street
thousands to be denied access to medical care
in the name of fiscal austerity
our picket line and cries of "shame"
as his limousine pulls up in the rain
for a fundraiser at the Hilton
the unions there, the community groups there,
the demand by some among us to break
with the Democrats, a demand which not a few are for,
yet given the lack of a viable electoral alternative
a reluctance to buck the hand
that feeds them, a shiftiness,
and yet at the same time knowing
this embattled balancing act,
this three card monte game,
this blizzard of bankers attacks
on the poor, the workers, the most oppressed,
can't go on forever, something has to change
there has to be a better way of fighting back
I think of that old political cartoon
from the New Masses, showing Labor,
represented by a worker being held down
and a Liberal, appealing on his behalf,
but when that same Labor rises up
by throwing off his shackles
the Liberal joins in trying to push him
back down….