Carl Hitchens - tracking the self …
Carl Hitchens - tracking the self …
2011
Feeling cynical about change and Obama the change bringer? The reason for such cynicism is all around us. There would have to be a dramatic, and I mean dramatic shift in the political landscape, other than direct spiritual intervention, for the "green revolution" to remove the fossil fuel barons’ thumb off of American energy policy.
I never, until now, would have believed that President Obama's timidity in taking on the powers-to-be would be his only recourse to get anything done, albeit paltry, to improve the plight of the majority of Americans, sinking under the weight of Wall Street-Corporation hegemony squeezing the life out of us, under the gambit of "fiscal responsibility."
I've heard Lib-Progressives bemoan O's "selling out" of his Yes we can "Roosevelt-ian"campaign message. Certainly, there are aspectual components of his presidency that seem demonstrative of this accusation. On the other hand, early on in his presidency, there were signs that the American Camelot dream vision, despite its provocative intellectual attraction, might be vulnerable to the dilutive forces tied to
racial, creed, and cultural disparities that characterize America's so-called melting pot national identity. The disharmonies related to opposing elements within this plurality of views, ideas, and conditioning made the selling of the "socialism" threat by Wall Street and industry more cogent than during than during Roosevelt's time.
After all, Roosevelt represented a more familiar status quo, at a time of legal segregation, than O does today. The specter of "socialism" and its peddled threat in the hands of a member of a historically marginalized race, with an "hidden agenda" to equalize disparity in the American dream through big government redistribution of wealth and power, has played very well in leveraging allegiance from the dominant race's working class population. The fear of losing additional ground in gaining the top of the life, liberty, and happiness mountain, by siding with those of more common circumstance, has kept many in their place from pursuing redress from Wall Street's accesses and recklessness. Choosing to fight their counterparts over the crumbs, instead of the crumb purveyors in Manhattan, who speculate dreams before them that go hand in hand with possible ruin.
Obama would appear to be have decided that the nation was not really ready for him or transformation, that the current Congress proves that. His refereeing of the cat and mouse class-struggle going on now, making moral comment, while not taking sides—even as his political base is fired up for him to do just that—suggests a change in how O figures on getting the "change" done he promised as a candidate. Perhaps he is wagering on tiptoeing between morally "pointing out" and actually advocating in hope of remaining in office for another term. Having succeeded thus, he could finally get back down to the business of "change we [really] can believe in."
Will his gamble pay off remains to be seen. But rest assured, O is more of an asset to Lib-Progressives than any idealistic, unelectable vote of conscience alternative on the political horizon right now. With the resurgence of open class warfare, union-bashing, defunding of education, political corruption, and antebellum nostalgia for the good old days, we cannot afford to wine and cry our way into reactionary surrender to the wrong side of the right.
Carl
Cynicism of Yes We Can
3/21/11