I’ve hesitated in posting a reaction to Obama’s victory to this point because I wasn’t – and I’m still not – sure how I feel about it. Of course I am glad that he won, because he was the candidate that I voted for, but I do not share in all of the hoopla and fanfare that has surrounded his victory. My father said that he is going to purchase a little American flag to put on his desk, because for the first time he feels like this is his country too. Given that I see my father as the main person from which I inherited my cynicism, his newfound nationalism strikes me as bizarre. And I don’t share it. I am as skeptical and cynical as ever, if not more so.
There are many reasons. First is that during the Bush administration, which has run roughshod over the rights of Americans and citizens of the world, there was really no sense of hope. People organized and spoke out, but in the end we still had to endure 8 years of awful, and all it may have done was ensure that Bush goes out with a dismal approval rating. Now with Obama, however, there is that inkling of hope, that possibility that the world could really change for the best. The bad thing about this, though, is that should the change we want fail to come, then it will be that much more painful because we dared to hope.
Second is that Obama has consistently moved towards the political “center”, against the ideology of many of the people who supported him, to maximize his electability. From a purely political standpoint I understand it, but I can only hope that he returns to his liberal roots. Furthermore, as many progressive commentators have observed, Obama got the vote of the left by default. He did not have to work for it, and so he was not held accountable BY the left.
Just because it was the people in the center – those ever hard to define “independents” – who may have pushed Obama over the line, he would not have even been a contender were it not for the the people on the left who voted for him in huge numbers. The left MUST hold him accountable after he has taken office, MUST have his ear more than the lobbyists.
The economic and political climate changed dramatically during the Presidential campaign, and in a way that no doubt gave Obama the edge where he previously might not have had it. Because of that, we can expect him not to be able to deliver on all of his campaign promises. There is one promise that he MUST keep, however, and it is one of his first – to not succumb to “special interest groups”.
As of now, I am concerned about his choice of Rahm Emmanuel for chief of staff, given that man’s background and history as not only a quintessential Washington insider, but a member of the pro-Israel lobby. While I am not someone who thinks that “pro-Israel” always has to mean “anti-Palestinian” or “anti-justice” – I’d like to see peace for all people in that region – that is what it has amounted to historically. The choice of Emmanuel represents – especially to the people of the Middle East – a maintenance of the status quo instead of any real “change”.
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