The Nobel Price price notwithstanding, Barack Obama’s presidency, contrary to the hopes of many, has not produced a big political space for the left, let alone “a seat at the table.” Most visibly, it has been the right wing that succeeded in seizing the initiative, in some truly grotesque ways that have thrown a spotlight on the deep paranoia — and straight-up old-style white racism — that persists in this society, and on the ways it can be opportunistically pandered to and manipulated. The tea-party mob phenomenon, however, cannot be dismissed as merely a freak show created by rightwing talk media and massive covert corporate funding, although that is certainly part of the story.
At the same time, we should resist the facile temptation to proclaim a “crisis” for the Obama administration. President Obama continues to have both considerable popular support, which emerges when he’s seen to come up fighting — leaving aside for the moment the miserable substance of what he’s fighting for — as he did with his health care speech to Congress or his October 17 radio address attacking the private insurance lobby. Above all, Obama continues to enjoy the support and gratitude of the capitalist class.
Are the blockages of reform — on health care, on labor law, on corporate plunder, on closing Guantanamo — products of institutional obstruction by reactionary Republicans and conservative Democrats, or of Obama’s own politics? We think the answer is clear: Both.
Solidarity for more