Austerity protests, Wikileaks, South Sudan, Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain…this is definitely a new decade. One where the scorched earth left behind by the failed international capitalist system has given way to potent, however fledgling, yearnings for a revival of global society. Latin America is has been on a left-leaning nationalist bender for the past decade with appropriated industries in Bolivia, continued Bolivarian social change in Venezuela, narrowly escaped coup attempts in Ecuador and an economically commanding, debt-free Brazil. Europe’s streets and boulevards have swelled with a popular response to austerity measures, with the UK even joining in the rumble. The robust and now mature Asian economies have for the most part weathered the financial storm of 2008 and look stronger than ever. And last, but most importantly, popular revolutionary revolt of unprecedented proportion and character has exploded in the Middle East to revive a Pan-Arabism that is sure to restructure an international order where the region has been subject to authoritative governments, foreign aggression and resource hijacking. As a proud member of not only the most powerful economic, military and political country in the world but its leading vanguard in global political change, what I want to know is, how the hell did we miss the party?
With the laughable approval ratings and disgust at an unrepresentative and disgraceful president, the stage was set for what seemed to be unprecedented change in the political landscape of the United States. We were on the brink of the extraordinary. For a majority white, conservative country with historic roots in racism, big business and isolation the prospects for the election of a populist, black, son of a Kenyan immigrant, and business outsider seemed almost ridiculous at one time. The rest is history, historic grassroots mobilization, galvanization of the youth and minorities, popular discontent and a social media extravaganza paved the way for the first black president of the United States. As each of us sat in front of our television screens watching that speech on that cold Chicago night, there was an honest feeling that times were changing.
Two years on from there where do we find ourselves? Many among my peers say it is premature to judge the impact of the president so early in the game. And I do agree that reform among bureaucracy take time and two years is hardly enough to make profound change to a ragged and filthy government. All this is true, however the first two years of the Obama administration has shown us a lot; especially for a public official with little or no track record that the population could draw upon. More specifically, the attitude, company kept, and fights within these two years have demonstrated the kind of administration that was so effectively and inarticulately marketed to us in 2008. Laughable health reform, a pathetic fight for unemployment and tax policy, a non-existent immigration reform strategy and an administration full of the same thieves and con-artists that put our great country into the sad place it is today has, on the contrary, been a very visible look into what’s in store for us to come.
What the election of Obama has done for American politics, and the well-played response and back-from-the-dead revival of the radical right, has done is create an environment where the progressive and leftist American elements are completely caught off-guard. After the impressive mobilization and unification of the left during the election, the betrayal of the Obama administration to the promises made has left us dumb-founded and unprepared for the future. While the radical right capitalizes on the horrific economic and employment impasse in which our country finds itself and manages to sell the image of the American president as a radical socialist, when he is everything but, the left finds itself paralyzed in a predicament between criticizing our one great hope and reviving the grassroots movements developed during the election period.
What the lesson of Egypt should hold for us is that in truth and justice and freedom there are few divisions between religion, race and to some extent socio-economic status. Additionally, a popular movement can be effectively carried out by the people without any sort of savior figure. The break from Obama may be a hard one sentimentally, but if not action is made now to provide a response to the poor management of the financial crisis, the radical right will take back the White House, as they did congress. And with the same slight of hand which is being used to turn Obama into a socialist, reinstall the agenda of the economic elite who were the source of this shameful situation in which the United States finds itself today.
The ultimate question posed in this note is why and how has the American public managed to stay basically silent in light of the one of the worst bank heists in history?! Billions of dollars have been lost by people who have worked for their entire lives to buy houses, invest in retirement funds, start business and send their children to school, not to mention the poorest echelons of society whose unemployment have been turned into a bargaining tool and services are evaporating into the carbon-flushed wind. For a nation with a legacy of fighting and risking immediate discomfort when the chips are down in order to provide for the generation that follows, how have we gotten to the place where, among this radical international upheaval, we have resigned ourselves to the role of church mouse? Cairo, Dublin, Paris, London, Tehran, Algiers, Tunis, and Sana are in flames and where is America? O, we are waiting for our president to return from his little trip to the dark side, or for the Holidays to be over, or to get job. Our world and our country are slipping out of our hands as we speak and it seems like we don’t even know it. The country that was built by trade unions, blacks, latinos, disenfranchised communities, returned war veterans, feminists, and others was not done with ‘free-speech zones’ and acquiescence to a crooked elite. Will we go quietly into the night or pick up what remains of our torch and fight?
