The Door Is Open.

Well, Obama has been elected.
Now the continued mobilization from below must begin.

Obama can't be allowed to think he was just OWED his votes.

The work will be tough. But it must be done.
And now it can be done.

It appears that fewer than 1% of the voters voted for either Nader or McKinney. Leftist voters were swept up in the Obamania and once again threw their votes away on the Democrats.

This is a body blow to the project for building a real party of the left in the USA, and it makes it unlikely that any meaningful organization of leftist social movements can be achieved during the O-bomb-a administration.

The O-bomb-a juggernaut has set back the process of independent working class political action by many years. Thus the Democrats have achieved another of their major objectives - the marginalization of the US left. They have proved that they can take the left for granted and don't need to listen to them. They have successfully promoted the message that There Is No Alternative to the Democratic Party.

Yes, but what an empowering victory for flight attendants everywhere!

I guess, I feel that is something at least, and that in itself might have some value. Generally, I have been with your take on this issue. But I also really kind of think the prospect of creating a genuine third party in the USA is not possible. Or only possible after substantial upheaval. So I am not that disappointed.

In the mean time I think the symbolic victory has some value, and certainly probably emotionally important to marginalized persons in the USA, so in that regard, I have been tacitly behind Obama in this. Certainly McCain would be no better.

That said, this mandate is frought with some serious dangers, especially because Obama will enjoy a special privilege to act with distain for international law, and in the interests of the ruling powers of the USA, partly because of the progressive halo that surrounds his election, and because his supporters are so enamoured of him.

It is a very strong mandate and can do some serious damage.

[ 04 November 2008: Message edited by: Cueball ]

You think? Or will the attendant pilot the plane away from the houses and crash on the outhouse?

[ 04 November 2008: Message edited by: Cueball ]

I am not going to argue it. As I said, my position is one of tacit support. I am not going to second guess the needs, objectives and feelings of millions of people who are facing some very serious challenges, nor am I going to allow myself to get caught up in the glitz and glamour of US presidential politics, and allow myself to be carried away by slogans like "hope" and "change we need."

I personally don't know what is needed, and what can be done. It's all very intangible.

Obama has said some things that suggest he is not above being influenced by the powers that have straighjacketed the presidency.

I feel quite optimistic tonight, even though I know he's not left enough for my liking. Because as Ken says, at least there has been space created for left-wing activism and movement-building.

Hopefully those who organized on his behalf will hold him to task on the issues most important to them.

Fact is that there has been generally a clear consensus of foreign policy objectivea of all US presidents, Democratic and Republican since the end of WW II. US foreign policy is continuity. Kennan was a Truman's foreign policy advisor, not Ikes.

"I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures."

-- H. S. Truman

It may even be that Obama will need to be even more hawkish in order to make progress on any dometic reform. Perhaps this will be of some good for Americans... but the rest of us?

Who knows...

[ 04 November 2008: Message edited by: Cueball ]

Sad.

President Obama: Change the world can believe in?

quote: Senator Obama seems resolved to end the Iraq war quickly. But it appears that he plans to escalate the Afghan war by sending in more American troops. This has the makings of a disaster that could well bog down his Administration in a quagmire.

American, British and Canadian forces have been unable to provide security to Afghans, or stabilize the Karzai regime. Anger is mounting in that country at the ongoing occupation. As a number of top military commanders, including the British Commander, Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith, have acknowledged, the Afghan war is militarily un-winnable. The only exit strategy is negotiation with the Taliban for a political solution. The sooner the Obama Administration does this, the quicker the mounting of casualties can be stopped.

That's purely conjectural. Any student of US history will see clearly that US foreign policy is a continuum of policy. Any suggestion that Repbulicans are inately more hawkish is supercilious image politics.

The Republican's posture more agressively, while the Democrat's posture as diplomats. There is nothing new here. The results and actions are the same.

For example. A big deal is often made about Reagan facing down the Russians in the eighties by requipping and updating NATO's forward based intermediate range nuclear missile systems by introducing GLCM and the Pershing II. The fact is that Carter had already undertaken the "modernization" of NATO forces, on the basis that it was a reaction to the introduction of a large number of intermidiate range SS-20 systems by the Warsaw Pact. This argument was co-opted by Reagan as a justification for modernizing the NATO nuclear strike force in Europe.

Both the GLCM and the Pershing II were already on the drawing board under the Carter administraion.

All reagan did was rip up SALT II. In fact, Carter was already leveraging the SALT II negotiations from a "position of strength" by threatening to introduce the GLCM and the Pershing II to Western Europe. Reagan did some posturing, tore up SALT II, did what Carter had already said he was going to do by deploying the missile systems Carter had funded, and then restarted talks with Gorbacheov on the same basis.

These negotiations were just called something different: INF and START.

I have to work tomorrow... again. Pleasant dreams. [img]smile.gif" border="0[/img]

[ 04 November 2008: Message edited by: Cueball ]

Don't read Rosie Dimmano's column today unless you want to lose your breakfast... it start like this: "A bro is the prez."

[ 05 November 2008: Message edited by: Cueball ]

I think the most encouraging thing about this election is the increased voter turnout, and the fact that so many first-time voters were compelled to come out (and vote Obama). Although, when people were saying that 'this is the most important election of my lifetime!', I was thinking, 'the most important election of your lifetime was eight years ago, and you blew it'.

I mostly agree with the cynical view that Obama's victory might give neoliberal politics a new lease on life, but I think we can be encouraged at the fact that so many people seem to know that they reject the politics of the last thirty years--they simply don't know what a viable alternative might look like.

quote:Originally posted by Cueball:
Don't read Rosie Dimmano's column today unless you want to lose your breakfast... it start like this: "A bro is the prez."

Well, I had to go look at the train wreck. The worst part is that, of course, but second-worse is all the sentence fragments and poor grammar. I guess she was going for "conversational style" but it doesn't read well at all.

At least the tone was congratulating, despite the first line. It could've been a lot worse!

People,

PEOPLE. . .

Look I KNOW it isn't all sunshine and roses but for Goddess sakes THE USA JUST ELECTED A PERSON OF COLOUR PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

I STILL don't quite believe what I saw last night and I'm about the most cynical American leftist you'll ever see (and Michelle can vouch for that).

Do you not think that progressives will hold Obama to certain principles? No one down here is going to relax one bit. There's a lot of work to be done and we're going down a dangerous road.

But at least for one day, one very special day,

I feel good about it all.

So what? We Canadians have a person of colour - and a female to boot - as our acting head of state. It's no biggie, believe me.