Obama’s “left” cheerleaders and the right-wing transition 22 November 2008
The increasingly right-wing character of the transition being organized in preparation for President-Elect Barack Obama’s inauguration in January has elicited expressions of concern from the middle-class “left,” which played a significant role in promoting Obama’s candidacy and the Democratic Party as vehicles for fundamental political and social change. http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/nov2008/pers-n22.shtml On Nov 24, 12:59 am, "\"Lone Wolf\"" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > The decline of the United States is the most concentrated expression > of the crisis of world capitalism. The colossal industrial might and > financial resources of American capitalism enabled it to resurrect > world capitalism after World War II. The post-war system of > international relations and the economic expansion which it fostered > were organized by the American bourgeoisie to prevent a relapse into > the conditions of disequilibrium, depression, war and revolution that > had prevailed since 1914, and create a framework favorable to the > expansion of American capitalism. The United States was the major > factor for capitalist stability internationally. The loss by the US of > its industrial supremacy and financial solvency has made it impossible > for it to play such a role. On the contrary, American capitalism has > become the greatest factor in the destabilization of world capitalism. > > The epicentre of the economic crisis that produced the world > Depression of the 1930s was the decline of European capitalism. Europe > never really recovered from World War I. As a result, the US lacked > sufficient markets for its surplus goods and surplus capital. The > crisis in the US was overcome only by the immense stimulus provided by > war production for World War II. In the war, the US demonstrated the > superiority of its advanced production methods, far outstripping the > capacity of Germany and Japan to turn out planes, ships, tanks and > bullets and feed and equip their soldiers. At the end of the war, the > supreme power of American capitalism was rooted in its industrial > might, more than its military supremacy. > > To give some indication of the preponderance of American industry in > the decade following the war: four out of every five cars sold > throughout the world were produced in the US; America, which had 6 > percent of the world's population, produced and consumed one-half of > the world's goods. America's gross domestic product rose from $100 > billion in 1940 to $300 billion in 1950 and $500 billion in 1960. > > The post-war boom rested, in the final analysis, on the increased rate > of profit resulting from the use of American production methods. By > the end of the 1960s, however, profit rates started to fall. This was > to lead to a major global recession in 1974-75--the deepest to that > point since the 1930s. > > The 1970s was the period when Keynesian deficit spending policies > broke down in the face of "stagflation." It was also the decade that > saw a sharp growth of European and Japanese imports of industrial > goods into the US and a rapid deterioration in the share controlled by > American companies of both the global and US markets in autos, steel, > electronics and other sectors. The US share of auto production fell > from 65 percent in 1965 to 20 percent by 1980. The United States > produced 39.3 percent of the world's steel in 1955. By 1975 that > percentage had fallen to 16.4 percent. In 1984 it was just 8.4 > percent. What BusinessWeek at the time dubbed the "deindustrialization > of America" marked a decisive shift of American capital from > productive forms of investment to purely speculative forms of wealth > accumulation. > > The indices of the growth of financial speculation in the US economy > are staggering: In 1982, the profits of US financial companies > accounted for 5 percent of total after-tax corporate profits. In 2007, > they made up 41 percent of corporate profits. Between 1983 and 2007, > the share of the financial sector's profits in US gross domestic > product rose six-fold. The United States, by far the world's largest > debtor nation, with a current account deficit of nearly $800 billion, > is today sustained by the importation of $1 trillion in foreign > capital every year, or over $4 billion every working day. > > There is an organic connection between the colossal growth of economic > parasitism and the ever more brazen concentration of wealth at the > pinnacle of society. CEO compensation exploded in an environment of > uncontrolled speculation and political reaction. > > An ever-greater share of the social wealth was funneled from the > working class to the financial elite. The collapse of the unions > deprived the working class of any organized means of resisting the > plundering of the national wealth. > > Hedge fund president John Paulson took in $3.7 billion in 2007 (by > betting on a collapse of the subprime mortgage market) and the top 50 > hedge fund managers netted a combined sum of $29 billion. The latter > sum is about the same as the annual GDP of Kenya, a country of 32.5 > million people, and a billion dollars less than the GDP of Sri Lanka, > the home of 20 million people. If one takes Paulson's income for 2007 > and divides it by 365, one arrives at a daily intake of $10,137,000. > This breaks down to $422,374 an hour, $7,040 a minute, and $117 per > second. If one were to assume that Paulson worked a 40-hour week, 52- > week schedule, his hourly "wage" would be 24,136 times that of the > average worker in the US. > > Is it any wonder that, in terms of its prevailing social principles, > the US has become the most backward and irrational of all major > capitalist countries? The malignant state of social relations is > expressed in the soaring prison population in the US, whose 2.2 > million inmates by far outnumber those of any other country. More than > 1 in 100 American adults were incarcerated at the start of 2008. > Another indicator of social decay is the fact that more than 40 > percent of high school students in America's 50 largest cities fail to > graduate. The United States today ranks 42nd in life expectancy, > behind Singapore, Costa Rica and South Korea. > > In the figure of George W. Bush, the semi-literate scion of a wealthy > and politically well-connected family, one sees the political > personification of the criminality that has come to characterize so > much of the corporate-financial elite. But it is impossible to find > figures of much greater intellectual or moral stature in any section > of the American political establishment. > > The internal rot of the ruling class and the rise to its summit of the > most predatory and criminal elements has affected foreign policy > decisions and the methods employed to carry them out. The > recklessness, shortsightedness, ignorance and, one might add, > incompetence exhibited by the American bourgeoisie in the management > of its economic affairs has found a reflection in its foreign policy. > The following is a list of direct US military interventions > (invasions, air strikes, occupations, etc.) over the past quarter > century: Lebanon (1983), Grenada (1983), Libya (1986), Panama (1989), > Iraq (1991, followed by twelve years of continuous air strikes), > Somalia (1991-93), Haiti (1994), Afghanistan (1998), Sudan (1998), > Serbia (1999), Afghanistan (2001 to the present), Iraq (2003 to the > present), Haiti (2004), Somalia (2006), Pakistan (ongoing). In > addition there have been dozens of US proxy wars and covert actions, > including in Afghanistan, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, > Cambodia, Mozambique, Angola and the former Yugoslavia. As in the > domestic sphere, the American ruling elite has conducted itself on the > world arena with increasing brutality and lawlessness. > > Obama and the degeneration of American liberalism > > The Obama campaign is the logical outcome of historical, political and > ideological processes bound up with the decay of American liberalism. > Obama is the end result of the assiduous promotion of identity > politics over a period of nearly four decades-precisely the period of > the visible and rapid economic decline of the United States. > In the course of its protracted degeneration, American liberalism has > increasingly sought to obscure the question of social class. After > World War II, liberalism virtually dropped its Depression-era advocacy > of structural reform of capitalism, along with its critique of > monopoly, its denunciation of "economic royalists" and its advocacy of > greater economic equality and some form of industrial democracy. Post- > war liberalism placed its emphasis not on production and the producers > of wealth, but rather on consumption and the consumer. The Democratic > Party no longer styled itself as the party of the "working man," but > rather as the party of the "middle class." The well-being of the > middle class was to be ensured by providing an environment in which > the corporate world could flourish and the market economy could > provide full employment and rising living standards. The trade unions > adopted this new liberal perspective and abandoned any struggle for > serious economic reform. > > The Kennedy and Johnson administrations marked the denouement of > American Cold War liberalism. The attempt of the Democratic Party to > combine populist rhetoric and limited social reforms at home with > counterrevolution abroad collapsed. The Vietnam War, which involved a > level of savagery and violence without parallel since the heyday of > the German Wehrmacht, exposed the counterrevolutionary essence of Cold > War liberalism. It dealt a blow to the political credibility of the > Democratic Party from which that party has never recovered. > > The impact of the Vietnam War, the civil rights struggles, the urban > riots and the strike wave fueled by worsening economic conditions > undermined the New Deal coalition that had been formed under > Roosevelt. The credibility of post-war American liberalism and the > "middle class" consumer society it espoused had depended on a > continuation of the economic expansion that followed the war and ever- > rising prosperity. But by the late 1960s, the boom was beginning to > unravel. Within a few years the Democratic Party was openly distancing > itself from New Deal social reform policies. > > As it moved away from even the attenuated social reform policies of > the post-war period, the Democratic Party sought to refashion itself, > beginning with the McGovern campaign of 1972. In what was presented as > a far-reaching democratic reform, the party organization was decked > out with layer upon layer of "participatory" structures, and racial > and gender diversity increasingly became the watchword. The party > incorporated into its very structure the principle of identity > politics. "Affirmative action" and similar policies were employed to > dispense privileges to elite layers among various racial and ethnic > constituencies and among women, while the living standards of the > broad mass of working people, African-American and Latino as well as > white, stagnated or declined. > > The Democratic Party assumed the form of an inchoate alliance of > competing interest groups, including the civil rights establishment > and more privileged layers of blacks and other minorities, feminist > organizations, gay rights groups, environmentalists, etc. The unions, > which had played a central role in the old New Deal coalition, became > one among many interest groups allied to the Democratic Party. The > embrace of identity politics by the Democratic Party was part and > parcel of its further movement to the right. The elevation of race and > gender as the touchstones of "progressive" politics corresponded to > the repudiation by American liberalism of any conception of democracy > that included economic equality and a curtailment of the power of the > corporate-financial elite. > > The democratic and egalitarian impulses that had animated the movement > of the African-American masses in the historic civil rights struggles > of the 1950s and 1960s were undermined by the shift in political focus > from the fight against segregation and poverty to a policy aimed at > securing preferential treatment and privileges for a few. > These processes of a reactionary character underlie the campaign of > Obama. Barack Obama, a man of boundless opportunism and a certain > measure of political dexterity, learned in the course of his > apprenticeship in the corrupt and ruthless ways of Chicago Democratic > Party politics to play the angles of multiculturalism and utilize his > multiracial parentage to his advantage. In his candidacy, the attempt > to use identity politics to conceal the class nature of American > society, confuse and divide the working class, and give American > imperialism a more "democratic" visage finds its consummation. > > Whatever the outcome of the election, the working class is already > making important experiences with Obama. The breathtakingly rapid and > brazen lurch to the right by Obama since he secured the nomination is > dispelling illusions and providing a salutary lesson about the social > interests served by the Democratic Party and identity politics. The > emperor of hope has no clothes. He has nothing to offer the working > class, except more war, poverty, fear and repression. > > On Nov 23, 4:26 pm, killer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:> I THINK HE HAS THE > CONTEXT INWHICH TO BE A GREAT PRESIDENT.HE HAS AN > > ECONOMIC AND A WAR TIME CRISIS TO DEAL WITH.THE TIMES NOW ARE VERY > > ANALAGOUS TO 1932 WITH A GREAT DEPRESSION AT HOME AND FASCISM ABROAD > > THE VERY FABRIC OF AMERICAN SOCIETY WAS BEING TORN APART.IT TOOK THE > > OPEN MINDE, INNOVATIVE POLITICAL GENIUS OF FDR TO PUT IT BACK > > TOGETHER.ALL OF THE SIGNS THUS FAR ARE ENCOURAGING AND I THINK OBAMA > > CAN DO MANY OF THE SAME THINGS AND GET THE COUNTRY BACK ON A HOPEFUL > > ROUTE.HE MUST END THE WAR IN IRAQ, GET OSAMA,AND REFORM THE FINANCIAL > > SYSTEM, AND FUNDAMENTALLY CHANGE THE FOCUS OF AMERICAN INDUSTRIES > > CONCENTRATING ON IMFASTRUCTURE REPAIR AND GREEN ENERGY.THIS IS A TALL > > ORDER BUT I THINK THIS GUY HAS THE LARGENESS OF PERSONALITY TO GET IT > > DONE.I SURE PRAY HE DOES. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. 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