ESPECIFISTA
What’s Left after
one year of Obama?
Ian Martin
The failure of Obama to live up to
expectations can be disempowering to
many on the Left, even those who under-
stand the limitations of the current political
system and how it truly serves only a
wealthy elite. We must fight against this
tendency with all of our might. Now more
than ever, those who are committed to a
just society must put forth a viable alterna-
tive to the present
system, both
through
words and deeds.
Obama's charisma and oratory
was all too achingly reminiscent of fallen
civil rights leaders, playing on people’s
longing for a time free of today's suffocat-
ing cynicism, when change seemed not
only possible, but tangible.
So-called “ordinary” people were
more free of illusions than the left-wing
Obama activists when they voted, looking
for a candidate who would provide more
jobs, health care, and an end to the war in
Iraq, rather than believing that he would
magically usher in a one-man revolution.
Even by these modest standards,
Obama has failed. He has
been uncom-
promising in
bailing
out
Page 3 * Issue 1
the rich, while timid in
doing anything of sub-
stance for the working
class, or tackling racial
“But by working with
justice or rights for the
LGBT community.
others to grapple with the
He doesn't aim
to end the “war on terror” problems we face, by
whereby troops, mostly
working class youth, es-
pecially those of color, are
discovering how sweet
made into killers of other
poor people so that cor-
and exhilarating is the
porate profits are safe.
Rather, he wishes to “do power we can exert as a
it right”, by shifting focus
from Iraq to Afghanistan.
Obama’s health care sim-
collective, we can expose
ilarly protects the inter-
ests of insurance the lies about ourselves
companies, while provid-
ing the illusion of that we have been told all
progress.
The Democratic
party is fundamen-
our lives.”
tally tied to the cap-
italist system that shapes our Palin, and Glenn Beck masquerade as
society, and serves the interests populists, stirring disaffected, largely white
of an elite, just as the Republi- citizens into a frenzy. There can be no
cans do. They differ in tactics denying that these attacks play on thinly-
and strategy, in the specific veiled racism.
mechanics of oppression rather But the real threat are groups
than anything of essence. such as the Minutemen and Tea Party,
While these differences whose verbal attacks on marginalized
can mean tangible results for groups such as immigrants and people of
the working class and people color could easily turn to violence.
of color that should not be dis- We must also resist the urge to
missed out of hand, the par- cast large sections of America as hope-
ties have grown closer to lessly reactionary and racist. There are
each other over time. many angry people out there who see that
The social programs fol- big business and government are corrupt,
lowing World War II, im- and who feel that their lives is threatened
plemented in response and that the future of their children is be-
to pressure from below coming bleaker.
and the fear of revolution, Unfortunately, right-wing forces
were built with the record have been far more successful in tapping
profits of American corpo- into this sentiment in rural areas and
rate exploitation throughout amongst working class white people, while
the globe. In the America of the Left has never made a genuine attempt
today, this is no longer possible. to do the same in the last few decades.
The (relatively) high-paying union It is all too easy to turn class re-
jobs in the manufacturing sector sentment, mixed with anxiety from the per-
have largely been outsourced, as ceived loss of white privilege into hatred for
have much of the highly-touted information people of color, immigrants, women, and
and high-tech jobs, leaving a large portion the LGBT community. Instead, the Left
of the economy to low-wage service sec- could use this opportunity to seize the mo-
tor jobs. The reality of waiting tables, serv- ment to confront the real issues of the day.
ing drinks, working the drive-through, and People are not monolithic, and
being a health attendant is not that these hardcore reactionaries are a minority;
are “student” or “teenage” jobs, but the true rather there are many disparate influences.
jobs of the present and future. For many This is why in a recent Gallup poll, 17% of
others, unemployment has remained the Republicans had a favorable view of so-
rule. cialism (a mind-boggling statistic), with
Many on the Left see the need to about 30% of conservatives having an un-
defend Obama, as he has been sub- favorable view of capitalism!
jected to unprecedented attack by Defending Obama may be the
virulent right-wing forces. Corpo- natural tendency, and I am not suggesting
rate-backed ideologues
such as Rush Lim- Continue in Page 7
baugh, Sarah