The next four years: still Wall Street vs. Main Street
I thought people would be interested in this analysis of the current elections. I agree with the author that we need to be mobilizing now to make sure our voices are heard this administration.
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The next four years: still Wall Street vs. Main Street
by Megan Cornish
When Barack Obama was declared president elect on the night of Nov. 4, crowds gathered spontaneously in towns all over the country and the world. They were celebrating the end of the Bush era and what they hoped would be a new age in U.S. politics.
While the corporate press trumpeted the historic election of an African American president, Barack Obama immediately struck a somber note. He exhorted his supporters to "be patient" and to dampen the high expectations that his campaign promises of change had raised.
The election brought voters a sense of empowerment after what many believe was the theft of the 2000 and 2004 elections, with their massive disenfranchisement. But despite this milestone, Obama has acted both before and after the election as the representative of the elite, not the ordinary workers who put him in office, who will have to rely on independent action to get their needs met.
People of color and women put Obama over the top. The vote demonstrated a sea change in the consciousness of working people that's worthy of celebration. The groundwork was laid by years of struggle by hundreds of thousands of rank-and-file activists during the civil rights and Black militant movements of the 1950s, '60s and '70s.
In addition to the 97 percent of African Americans who supported Obama, two thirds of Latinas and Latinos and about the same percentage of young voters and union members voted for him. Asian Americans did the same by 63 percent.
Women, although seldom acknowledged, have been key to Democratic Party campaigns for years, and this time they were decisive. Fifty-six percent (vs. 49 % of men) voted for Obama.
Women make up a rising number of the unemployed, have less healthcare coverage, lower wages and smaller retirement income. And, like people of color, they were disproportionately victimized by sub-prime mortgages. The appalling lack of childcare falls hardest on them. Unfortunately, Obama's program offers little concrete aid to women.
The Center for Responsive Politics estimated that the presidential campaigns together would cost almost $2.4 billion, the highest in history. That would cover healthcare for over 1,050,000 children for a year. That's a ringing indictment of both parties.
A win forged by economic crisis. Ultimately, it was the tsunami of economic disaster that created Obama's victory. He pulled decisively ahead after the economic crisis turned into meltdown and he called for "spreading the wealth around." McCain's red-baiting of Obama as a "socialist" — however untrue —may have helped!
Yet despite Obama's eloquent descriptions of the stark problems working people face, his proposals for relief are pale compared to corporate bailouts. He promised a $50 billion economic stimulus package for local governments and work projects. But in the past few months $2 trillion has been given or pledged to the corporations (including the $700 billion from Congress) — with Obama's endorsement. His promises are likely to be deemed unaffordable now. And his tax breaks for the "middle class" won't do much good for the million workers who will lose their jobs this year, especially for Black women and single moms, who are the hardest hit.
Obama's acceptance speech claimed that there is only one America. But the divide between working people and the ultra-rich — the class divide — is nowhere clearer than in Obama's different responses to each.
"Palling around" with his corporate backers. Obama raised the most money for a presidential campaign in history. Three-quarters of it came from donors of more than $200, despite campaign claims to the contrary. His top contributors read like a Who's Who of Wall Street and corporate America.
Obama acted quickly to install establishment politicos and tycoons on his team. His first act was to appoint as Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, a passionate Zionist and unwavering supporter of the Iraq war and endless military spending. As a Clinton staffer, he is credited with a central role in the passage of the NAFTA free trade agreement, the dismantling of welfare, and the Clinton crime bill that was the precursor to the constitution-busting Patriot Act.
Next, Obama met with economic advisors, who include the heads of Google, Time Warner and Xerox, the world's richest man, Warren Buffet, and former head of the Federal Reserve, Paul Volcker.
The needs of working people facing foreclosures, job losses and a plummeting standard of living will not be on the radar screen of these folks. In the worst crisis since the Great Depression, Obama has already chosen between the demands of big capital and the needs of the people.
Workers will get what they fight for. Economic recovery programs like massive job programs, universal health care, extended unemployment benefits, and retooling the economy for clean energy would actually aid the economy by giving people money to spend and increasing consumption of commodities.
But Obama's marching orders from his corporate luminaries will be to persuade working people to go along with the massive transfer of their wealth to the rich, bailouts that are already in full swing.
Whoever won the White House this year would have been faced with the same choices that Obama is. He cannot respond to the needs of both working people and the corporate owners who call the shots. All he can offer is the appearance of change, and that won't last long.
The profit system is reaching the end of its rope. It cannot deliver obscene gain without stealing the livelihoods of workers even in the richest countries. To get what they need, working people will have to mobilize independently, and be ready to change the whole system to one based on people, not profits.
Freedom Socialist • Vol. 29, No. 6 • December 2008-January 2009
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The next four years: still Wall Street vs. Main Street
by Megan Cornish
When Barack Obama was declared president elect on the night of Nov. 4, crowds gathered spontaneously in towns all over the country and the world. They were celebrating the end of the Bush era and what they hoped would be a new age in U.S. politics.
While the corporate press trumpeted the historic election of an African American president, Barack Obama immediately struck a somber note. He exhorted his supporters to "be patient" and to dampen the high expectations that his campaign promises of change had raised.
The election brought voters a sense of empowerment after what many believe was the theft of the 2000 and 2004 elections, with their massive disenfranchisement. But despite this milestone, Obama has acted both before and after the election as the representative of the elite, not the ordinary workers who put him in office, who will have to rely on independent action to get their needs met.
People of color and women put Obama over the top. The vote demonstrated a sea change in the consciousness of working people that's worthy of celebration. The groundwork was laid by years of struggle by hundreds of thousands of rank-and-file activists during the civil rights and Black militant movements of the 1950s, '60s and '70s.
In addition to the 97 percent of African Americans who supported Obama, two thirds of Latinas and Latinos and about the same percentage of young voters and union members voted for him. Asian Americans did the same by 63 percent.
Women, although seldom acknowledged, have been key to Democratic Party campaigns for years, and this time they were decisive. Fifty-six percent (vs. 49 % of men) voted for Obama.
Women make up a rising number of the unemployed, have less healthcare coverage, lower wages and smaller retirement income. And, like people of color, they were disproportionately victimized by sub-prime mortgages. The appalling lack of childcare falls hardest on them. Unfortunately, Obama's program offers little concrete aid to women.
The Center for Responsive Politics estimated that the presidential campaigns together would cost almost $2.4 billion, the highest in history. That would cover healthcare for over 1,050,000 children for a year. That's a ringing indictment of both parties.
A win forged by economic crisis. Ultimately, it was the tsunami of economic disaster that created Obama's victory. He pulled decisively ahead after the economic crisis turned into meltdown and he called for "spreading the wealth around." McCain's red-baiting of Obama as a "socialist" — however untrue —may have helped!
Yet despite Obama's eloquent descriptions of the stark problems working people face, his proposals for relief are pale compared to corporate bailouts. He promised a $50 billion economic stimulus package for local governments and work projects. But in the past few months $2 trillion has been given or pledged to the corporations (including the $700 billion from Congress) — with Obama's endorsement. His promises are likely to be deemed unaffordable now. And his tax breaks for the "middle class" won't do much good for the million workers who will lose their jobs this year, especially for Black women and single moms, who are the hardest hit.
Obama's acceptance speech claimed that there is only one America. But the divide between working people and the ultra-rich — the class divide — is nowhere clearer than in Obama's different responses to each.
"Palling around" with his corporate backers. Obama raised the most money for a presidential campaign in history. Three-quarters of it came from donors of more than $200, despite campaign claims to the contrary. His top contributors read like a Who's Who of Wall Street and corporate America.
Obama acted quickly to install establishment politicos and tycoons on his team. His first act was to appoint as Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, a passionate Zionist and unwavering supporter of the Iraq war and endless military spending. As a Clinton staffer, he is credited with a central role in the passage of the NAFTA free trade agreement, the dismantling of welfare, and the Clinton crime bill that was the precursor to the constitution-busting Patriot Act.
Next, Obama met with economic advisors, who include the heads of Google, Time Warner and Xerox, the world's richest man, Warren Buffet, and former head of the Federal Reserve, Paul Volcker.
The needs of working people facing foreclosures, job losses and a plummeting standard of living will not be on the radar screen of these folks. In the worst crisis since the Great Depression, Obama has already chosen between the demands of big capital and the needs of the people.
Workers will get what they fight for. Economic recovery programs like massive job programs, universal health care, extended unemployment benefits, and retooling the economy for clean energy would actually aid the economy by giving people money to spend and increasing consumption of commodities.
But Obama's marching orders from his corporate luminaries will be to persuade working people to go along with the massive transfer of their wealth to the rich, bailouts that are already in full swing.
Whoever won the White House this year would have been faced with the same choices that Obama is. He cannot respond to the needs of both working people and the corporate owners who call the shots. All he can offer is the appearance of change, and that won't last long.
The profit system is reaching the end of its rope. It cannot deliver obscene gain without stealing the livelihoods of workers even in the richest countries. To get what they need, working people will have to mobilize independently, and be ready to change the whole system to one based on people, not profits.
Freedom Socialist • Vol. 29, No. 6 • December 2008-January 2009
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Comment by Richard on December 21, 2008 at 11:40am -
Hi Margaret
Thanks so much for publishing Megan's article from Freedom Socialist, (Great Paper and Party everyone.) I am so glad that I wrote in Brian Moore and Stewart Alexander Socialist Party USA for President and Vice President as I don't have to start with the baggage of Obama and the Demoncrats on my back.
Megan hit it the nail on the head with the above essay. I am proud to be standing with other progressives who haven't been swallowed up by the trickesters and their followers. Some of the LGBT people that Queers Without Borders associate with are now stopping in their tracks when they see the right wing make up of Obama's executive staff and cabinet. Guess these guys and gals do not remember the job Clinton did not only on us but on many others. Such a shame.
So we fight on!!! Glad to be fighting on, modilizing, and standing with some of the best.
RA sent us this article and when we published on QWB it got a lot of hits.
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