Reflections on the so-called "first 100 days"

Why do different organizations and individuals speak of "mixed messages" coming from Obama's "first 100 days" in office? Obama's time in office thus far has played out almost exactly as I expected. He made perfunctory gestures toward fulfilling campaign promises, introduced initiatives to pacify the working and middle classes, and attempted to increase government transparency without upsetting the establishment. The Right also behaved almost exactly as expected by opposing almost every initiative with a flurry of rhetoric and pro-corporate propaganda. The only two surprises to me were that the Right didn't learn enough from their humiliating defeat to cut down their open and belligerent hostility toward the people and that Time Warner Cable wasn't able to move forward with its plans to further restrict Internet access. In a political system composed of two purportedly different parties who're both ultimately run by large corporations to ensure that wealth and power remains with the aristocracy, expecting anything more than superficial progress on anything that concerns labor or social justice is rather naive. That the mainstream media lends any more credibility to proclamations by US and its client states' officials than it does to those by the heads of official "enemy" states is merely testament to how thoroughly mainstream journalism has prostituted itself to the ruling class. True progress in this nation will only come through the same channels it has historically come, namely through labor's relentless and organized struggles with those in power. History has shown us that justice and freedom are not granted voluntarily by the state; they are won through courageous and innovative campaigns to force the ruling class to accommodate the demands of its subjects or face an outright rebellion. While lobbying and advocacy play a role in these campaigns, such initiatives will only succeed when they're backed by the only currency that the elites truly understand, which is power.