President Elect Barack Obama
By Mikhail Saavedra
Barack Obama is now the president-elect of the United States. After surmounting one of the dirtiest campaigns in recent US history, blatant appeals to racist instincts, militaristic talk, the barely hidden anger of the ultra-right, fear was the only true message of the defeated McCain campaign. This plethora of dirty tricks made people around the world consider the possibility that the “dark side” of American politics could triumph. That did not happen and today we find ourselves staring at the possibility of a new age in US politics, a new hope, if you will. What are progressives to do?
While it’s clear from looking at Obama’s platform that he will not be the next Karl Marx anytime soon, such clear landslide has changed the political life of the US, it will give fuel to the progressive aspects of Obama’s platform/program (Iraq, cutting taxes for the middle class, raising them for corporations, social programs, health care, less hawkish foreign policy) which will impact people well beyond the borders of the United States.
We should not deceive ourselves with the idea that Obama will be able to implement all his progressive agenda without the powers that be attempting to undermine him at every turn. It is of profound importance that while progressives should remain fiercely critical of the Democratic Party (corporate ties, general lack of courage, unwillingness to challenge the status quo in any meaningful way) that they remain mindful of the current alternative to them, Republicans. Merely attacking Obama for not being “progressive enough” ignores the fact that Republicans merely keep moving further and further to the right; making them a true danger to the US and the world.
Keep an eye out as well for who might be the true enemy in this new and fully Democratic controlled Congress, pro corporate and pro war Democrats, who will undoubtedly attempt to co opt Obama to play it safe, to not ruffle any feathers.
This is a new opportunity for the forces of progress and it’s a struggle that we should all welcome. In this fully globalized world a new internationalist approach to hope, hope based on real pro people policies, is the only option in the face of the pro war/pro corporate alternative.
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