A young Black American man, 30-something at the time, told me something about himself and, most importantly, about the conditioning of Black Americans, although I didn�t realize it at the time. Both of us (along with a few others) had recently arrived in Ethiopia in 2002 as part of a teacher�s organization, and both of us were assigned to work at the same university. One day, he came by my apartment and after a brief conversation, we walked toward the door of my apartment. Near the door was my poster of Zora N. Hurston. And from nowhere, it seemed at the time, the young man pointed to the poster. �You,� he said without looking back at me, when end up like her.�

Hurston �ended up� poor, buried in an unmarked grave until writer Alice Walker began the search for her remains (�Looking for Zora�).

Many people died who were born in the year of Hurston�s birth; many died in the year of her death or before or sometime just after. People do die, eventually.

But fear didn�t control Zora N. Hurston while she lived between the date of her birth and the date of her death. For many, fear controls, and as a consequence, their death arrives long before the visible date placed on a marked grave.

Zora desired to live throughout her life, to explore the possibilities of her humanity, and to record for posterity the existence and struggle of her ancestors. Only a fascist narrative would attempt to reduce her life to an expression of punishment and ultimate erasure.

But this isn�t a thinking young man; something else did the thinking for him. Something else empowered him to speak, to share its thoughts, its knowledge, and its desires with me. Runaways and enslaved rebels have always threatened and endangered the vision of a One World under the foot of American dominance. He knows what it means to be a �good� Black in these days of post-racism, and his desires to �successful� in America. Master will take note and so will great aunt Zora, too! No fascist historian can �revise� that narrative.

But there are others of his elk in mid-stream, dazed and confused, standing before microphones, and sitting before computers. They had a dream! But now something happened after November 5, 2008. Something happened to the dream of change!

They call themselves Liberals, Progressives, and Leftists, and yet, they are stunned! Struggling to recover, ala Naomi Klein, from a disaster, they believe they are awakening to a nightmarish reality: Things have changed but for the worse! Are Bush II and Darth Vadar still at the helm?

Liberals, Progressives, Leftists voted Democratic; they mobilized others to vote Obama. Even Socialists surrendered to the Democratic Party. Historian Howard Zinn, whom I admired and miss, reluctantly noted Obama fever. Vote, Zinn said. But remember Franklin D. Roosevelt�s words to labor leader A. Phillip Randolph when the latter had the opportunity to speak to the president at the White House. Don�t forget the plight of Black Americans, Randolph urged Roosevelt. And the president told Randolph:

That was 1940!

What was articulated in 2008 by the Left - other than silence?

What motivated this silence and Democratic Party flag waving - all of which, some of the recently returned-to-reality crowd now realize is working in favor of the U.S. Empire?

Some of the best organizing strategies for votes took place this past presidential campaign. But what did the Liberals, Progressives, Leftists want to see changed in the U.S.? What course of action was proposed to challenge the U.S. Empire?

Neither Martin L. King nor Malcolm ever considered becoming submerged in the power of the State - in their day. They loved the idea of justice for the people too much, and loved the people above their own personal desires, above their own lives.

Dr. Martin Luther King, misunderstood when he shared his dream - hadn�t he, in his time, witness white backlash to Black inclusion? Hadn�t he dreamt of a destruction of the economic system that limited the majority to poverty, low wages, poor health, and inadequate housing and education? King and Malcolm couldn�t forget the dead, and the thought of the future slaughter of millions terrified them more than did J. Edgar Hoover�s �power.�

What was the �dream� of Liberals, Progressives, and Leftists in 2008? Was it similar to the young man I encountered in Ethiopia?

What desires did they trade off against their knowledge of American Empire? But the Left dare not ask this question. Instead, Liberals, Progressives, and Leftists wonder what happened to the Democratic Party. What happened to Barack Obama? He�s Bush lite!

What does Chalmers Johnson write in Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic (American Empire Project):

It�s not Bush lite; it�s U.S. Empire heavy and the furtherance of American dominance at the expense of democracy.

The �American Empire has always been a bi-partisan project,� writes Zinn. FDR said �make me do it� because Americans didn�t mind seeing Blacks burning while they hanged from trees.

JFK sent advisors and planes to Viet Nam and his brother, RFK, agreeing with the FBI that King was a dangerous man, moved J. Edgar Hoover forward with a plan to wiretap the Civil Rights leader.

Jimmy Carter, writes Zinn in A People�s History, �proposed a $10 billion increase in the military budget, an enactment of exactly what Eisenhower had described� when he warned about the further development of the military-industrial-complex. �Nuclear and non-nuclear forces� were needed against the Soviet Union as the communist state had plans to �invade Western Europe.� Ultimately, Zinn continues, Carter �remained within the historic political boundaries of the American system.� Corporate wealth and power were protected and the military budget continued to drain the national wealth, Zinn writes.

William J. Clinton - the list would be too long! NAFTA! Haiti! Clinton removed the democratically-elected Haitian President Jean Bertrand Aristide from his people and country.

On Clinton�s watch, Turkey received money from the U.S. to wage war against the Kurds.

On Clinton�s watch, the U.S. ignored the slaughter of Tutsis in Rwanda.

With his signing of the 1996 Welfare Act, Clinton continued the war on the poor and, in particular Black and Brown American children. His continuation of the U.S. global �War on Drugs� criminalized Black and Brown non-violent offenders and devastated Black and Brown communities and families just as the �War on Drugs� continues to destroy communities in Latin America.

The U.S.-Mexico border became a military outpost under Clinton.

Weaving in between the Nixons, Reagans, Bush I and Bush II, the Democratic Party complimented and advanced the U.S. military-industrial-complex. It strengthened corporate personhood while depressing the personhood of Black and Brown citizens.

McCain and Palin, as many have declared, would have the U.S. in war with Iran - actually dropping bombs. The Republican face of the U.S. Empire proceeds without wavering. But the Empire�s war against Iran is in progress with a Democratic face. Similar to the Obama administration, McCain and Palin would ignore workers, the poor, and the Red, Black and Brown.

The Democrats and Obama are �doing it� - but not to the Republicans!

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates didn�t have to pack his boxes when his previous boss left the White House. The new boss, Peace Man, announced an escalation of troops in Afghanistan to fight the �just war.� The new boss approved for the Pentagon a $708 billion budget, the highest amount for defense ever. More drones fly over Pakistan and kill more civilians than under the previous administration. The U.S. is still the biggest arms dealer in the world, and these weapons usually make their way to undemocratic regimes to kill the poor and the working class. And receiving even less attention from the Obama administration: the CIA is permitted to assassinate American citizens! Close Gitmo but maintain other known and unknown Black sites because, rendition is moving forward!

Domestically, Bush, Cheney, Gonzales, Rice, Rumsfield and all others from the previous administration did a job well done! Hands off! We move forward, says the new president.

Moving forward, Wall Street bankers, prominent Americans, successful Americans, threatened the government and received bailout funds which, in turn, produced the largest profits ever for the banks and the CEOs.

Cable companies are protected from the American people and other whiners complaining about civil liberties. So the new president signs on the dotted line to retain the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). A record number of Americans watched the winter Olympics, the democratic lead Congress voted to extend the Patriot Act, signed by President Obama. All eyes on ski jumpers and ice skaters, but there�s the Peace Man, smiling: two new nuclear plants for you America! What a great sources of jobs for the American people! Over $8 billion more for the nuclear plants and notice the American people�s objection is ignored. In the war between the American people and the insurance companies, the American people lose again.

Obama knows Arnie Duncan is good for privatizing and militarizing schools! They are both from Chicago! But Duncan has an era-appropriate name for the recruitment of the masses: Race to the Top! Top of what for the masses of American children? Al Sharpton won�t ask. He�ll get to stand on the side of billionaire Bill Gates!

On the hunt for failed students and fired teachers, the Obama administration is closing schools and selling the education of American children to the highest bidder. Its democracy at work or, as the Republicans would say, it�s good business. Who needs teachers� unions and accountability?

Even the devastation and death of useless people from earthquakes and climate change works to the advantage of former presidents, corporate partners, and, of course, military expansion.

People who call themselves Republicans know who they are and what they want. They attend to their interests with steadfast dedication. Those who call themselves Democrats champion their expertise on Republican interests, but they resemble hustlers, ultimately selling junk bonds labeled hope to the people during the day and, when loosening ties and kicking off the heels in the evenings, they count their take at the dinner table.

But hush!

Liberals, Progressives, and Leftists eagerly join in this current Democratic regimes charade: Give the people a little cake to chew on: Randolph and Roosevelt. Then take the old folks back to the Pettus Bridge. Urge the young to remember Pettus Bridge and VOTE! Liberals, Progressives, and Leftists believe in moving forward with the Democratic side of the Empire, too. Hold out the carrot and see how fast they run forward toward the donkey or elephant! Lacking the larger vision of a Rev. Martin L. King who saw power in the poor, the workers, the Black janitors and who rejected imperialism, Liberals, Progressives, and Leftists wait to be the next Frederick Douglass or A. Philip Randolph strutting to the White House.

Is that Right lite?

It�s the duty of the Republicans as well as the Democrats to keep troops moving forward toward a government that merely facilitates the control of what Chalmers Johnson calls the �tyranny of the majority.� There�s no end to manifestos proclaiming the destiny of American dominance from the Empire. Where�s the anti-Manifest Destiny; the anti-Wolfowich Doctrine?

Yes, something happened. Liberals, Progressives, and Leftist, confused and adrift for the last 40 years, finally became downright delusional in 2008. They perceived in Barack Obama an easy way out of their dilemma: They are choking on the carrots they desired to eat.

In the end, Barack Obama doesn�t care. He envisions himself hailed as a great president - the greatest. History will record how Obama saved the U.S. Empire. That�s the history of a fascist State in the making!

Do we want fascist historians to write that we never exited?

BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board member, Lenore Jean Daniels, PhD, has been a writer for over thirty years of commentary, resistance criticism and cultural theory, and short stories with a Marxist sensibility to the impact of cultural narrative violence and its antithesis, resistance narratives. With entrenched dedication to justice and equality, she has served as a coordinator of student and community resistance projects that encourage the Black Feminist idea of an equalitarian community and facilitator of student-teacher communities behind the walls of academia for the last twenty years. Dr. Daniels holds a PhD in Modern American Literatures, with a specialty in Cultural Theory (race, gender, class narratives) from Loyola University, Chicago. Click here to contact Dr. Daniels.