THOUGHTS ON THE OBAMA PRESIDENCY
I haven't posted a blog in well over a year, so perhaps it's time to put my keyboard back into the game. I offer here a note I wrote to myself on the morning after Thanksgiving in a friend's house in Atlanta. I'm posting this note because I sincerely think it is a fair assessment of where things stand with Obama, or did six weeks ago, and his statements and actions since then have only served to confirm my impression of how he will conduct the presidency.
Although I enthusiastically supported Obama's candidacy after Edwards dropped out, given that Nader and Kucinich had no chance of winning, and indeed rejoiced in his victory, I have since learned that criticizing Obama, post-election, among my fellow liberal and lefty friends brings a response similar to my criticizing Israeli action in Gaza among my Jewish friends, namely swift and vociferous condemnation. Nonetheless, here are my thoughts on Obama from Thanksgiving, which I stand by today.
POLITICAL NOTE TO MYSELF THE DAY AFTER THANKSGIVING REGARDING THE SOON-TO-BE OBAMA PRESIDENCY
This note constitutes an observation, not a lamentation. I write to make a personal record of where I stand 53 days before Barack Obama's inauguration. I have always considered myself a stranger in a familiar land, but never moreso than now, when I am somewhat critical of Mr. Obama's seeming transitional direction. Friends on the “lunatic” left, where I comfortably reside, think me a fool to have ever expected any good to come from an Obama Administration, which I have and do expect, while friends – most of mine, indeed – in the so-called liberal Democratic camp (which I do not believe any longer exists) range from frustrated to excoriating in their condemnation of my “unconscionably premature”criticism of the incoming president's seeming direction.
A few brief points to explain my percpetual context, for I believe America has lost its grip on humane sanity, and so I point out that I remain committed to the belief that it is not only reasonable, but morally incumbent to, in this increasingly insane country, oppose the following: murderous wars of aggression, whatever packaging they are sold in; abandonment of the destitute and disenfranchised of this country (and the world); near total indifference to irreversible destruction of the environment and concomitant extirpation of its nonhuman animal inhabitants; destruction of the middle class; an ever-expanding military budget and national willingness to undertake military ventures guised under the rubric of national security, but almost exclusively conducted for the financial gain of multi-national corporations, and a seemingly endless list of like-spirited enterprises, however popular they are.
Given that, I expect no president on a white horse, whatever the hue of his skin (although I am thrilled that we have taken the significant step against racism that electing a black president entails), nor a utopian democratic socialist parliamentary system of governance to be implemented here in the Corporate States of America. I do, however, expect reasonably critical analysis of the policies projected by an incoming president, the personnel he is gathering to implement said policies, and the overal tenor of a soon-to-be Administration, rather than blind honeymoon-eyed numbness and support for a dream that is clearly not, in my meager opinion, taking shape under the banner of Obamania.
Perhaps my brief following remarks will be proven wholly ill-founded, in which case I will beat my friends to the draw in calling myself wrong and Cassandra-like in my inexcusable pessimism and delighted for things to be better than I expected. However, while neither my energy level nor inclination allow for a lengthy discourse explaining my concerns about Mr. Obama, I would like to place “on the record” my basic take on the promise of his presidency.
To begin with, I am confident Obama will place decent people on the Supreme Court, which is crucial, given that Stevens, Ginsburg and Souter will all likely resign within the next year. I do not think he will apppoint a Larry Tribe or any other brilliant and genuinely leftist constitutional scholar, but he will likely appoint decent people of moderately liberal persuasion and moderately skilled abilities. This is a sine qua non of continuing an American enterprise with any semblance of democracy, for the right wing bloc on the Court, Scalia, Thomas, Alito, Roberts and for all practical purposes, Kennedy now as well, shall certainly continue to move us in an ever-increasingly reactionarily fundamentalist direction in every facet of societal life.
I am also convinced Mr. Obama will halt the catastrophic anti-environmentalism of the Bush Administration, an endeavor of such moral obscenity and practical stupidity that it defies words. However, I do not believe Obama will invest his “capital” in aggressively reversing most of the Bush wrongdoing. He will move in an improved direction, but I see no signs that he plans to undertake the necessary slogging that reversing the Bush eco-horror and setting us on a sane course will require.
Since they say God is in the details, however much it irks my friends who choose not to be burdened with the particulars of governance, I shall suggest a few things we might watch to gain a barometric reading on Obama's understanding of and commitment to improving the environment. Will he take any serious steps to create a political climate conducive to tackling the monumental and long-term task of slowing or halting global warming? I am skeptical, but this is a problem of such magnitude that we can't realistically expect tangible results in the short-term, although we can look to see if non-carbon energy alternatives are being pushed, today's equivalent of Kyoto is rejoined and tax-incentives for research, development and implementation of non-warming technology and processes are called for, legislatively promoted and implemented.
In the shorter term, sparing readers the legal minutia, we can look to see if Obama presses for reversal of egregious administrative modifications of the Clean Water Act and other laws and regulations that have facilitated the acceleration of mountain top removal mining, one of the worst eco-horrors of our time. Further, will he halt anti-environmental efforts of a broad coalition of fools, whose banner is now championed by Sarah Palin, to weaken or eliminate the Endangered Species Act, the first consequence of which would be the slaughter of wolf populations in the Yellowstone and Rocky Mountain areas, now thriving, all things considered, since reintroduction of the grey wolf to that region almost fifteen years ago (and not to be confused with Alaska's promotion and allowance of shooting wolves from airplanes)?
Further, will Obama reinforce the New Source Review on mercury, sulfur and carbon-emitting factories that the Bush Administration is desperately trying to weaken in its final days rush to commit ever more ecological obscenities? In short the rule requires greater pollution controls on substantially upgraded and enlarged utility plants and the Bush Administtration is trying to terminate such requirements. Quick action, or lack thereof will give us strong indications of how seriously Mr. Obama will take environmental issues and how high they will be on his list of pressing priorities.
Finally, Obama's picks for heads of EPA and Interior will be very telling. Will we have more industry executives or altruistic individuals inclined to represent and protect the public trust? If he picks Bobby Kennedy, Jr. at EPA, that will be a hugely good sign, not only because Kennedy is superbly suited for the job, but also because it will show Obama's willingness to enter a difficult confirmation battle in trying to do the right thing.
I also think Mr. Obama will improve the civil rights situation in this country. However, what will that improvement look like? Will he take proactive steps to restore those portions of the first, fourth, fifth, sixth, eighth and fourteenth amendments that have been eviscerated by the fascists running the Bush Administration (I do not use that word for inflammatory and hyperbolic effect, but because I find it the only accurately description to apply to this administration), or will he engage in window-dressing? Detailed consideration of this topic would require a book-length tome, but it will be interesting to see how aggressively Obama pursues resuscitation of civil liberties in America, including a re-institution of the barrier between church and state, protection of open dissent (e.g., not putting political protesters in cages, far-removed from the venue being protested), pursuit of rights for gays, and on and on.
I confess to not expecting Mr. Obama to wage aggressive campaigns for the restoration and expansion of civil liberties, given his vote in support of maintaining warrantless wiretaps and granting prosecutorial immunity to telecoms, as well as his seeming but admittedly not yet ascertainable distaste for seeking just prosecutions of Bush Administration personnel. Could I be wrong? Of course, and let us hope I am. But I doubt it.
What are my biggest concerns about an Obama Presidency, matters not exactly popular in current public and media discourse? I shall limit my list to two things.
First, Mr. Obama has given every possible indication that he plans to expand the military and spending for said expansion and that he intends to substantially increase our involvement in Afghanistan. One would think the supposedly most brilliant president we've ever had might take an hour or so to read what former Soviet generals had to say about a large military enterprise in Afghanistan, but in matters such as this, to the surprise and scathing condemnation of friends (so be it, no complaints), I consider Mr. Obama's attitude on foreign policy and the military to be potentially neo-con in nature (based on both his own remarks and the personnel choices he has made thus far), but he may prove to be far more judicious and diplomatic than signs indicate, possibly now “laying low until the time counts.”
He has talked a good negotiating game, but I see no inclination on his part to negotiate in Afghanistan, leave Iraq in the near or forseeable future, or curb the defense industry's immoral and psychotic longing for ever more wars from whence to obtain ever more billions of taxpayer dollars, removing such funds from revenues to help the needy, homeless and all other unfortunates voguely now frowned upon in an almost Calvinistically predestinationist manner, thereby dismissively and efficaciously condemning the economically disenfranchised to a status of unworthiness beneath the merit of government assistance. Again, perhaps I am wrong, but I expect a more sophisticatedly propagandized continuation of the American Empire, repleat with its hegemonistic domination of the globe, focused upon the developing world and its vast natural resources, necessary components in continuing America's terribly disproportionate consumption of the world's treasures, so far beyond ecological carrying capacity that the phrase hasn't been publicly uttered in the past eight years.
Secondly, especially in light of his not yet having in any serious way called for accountability or transparency in the 1.2 trillion dollar corporate socialist giveway euphemistically labeled the “bailout for the benefit of all (read: All the wealthy people),” I am incapable of fathoming Mr. Obama's taking on the corporate stranglehold over the American government. I see him as a well-intended fellow who has brilliantly earned his way into the hallowed halls of power, maintaining such positions in this country demanding inseparability from at least passive complicity in the perpetuation of the Corporate State, with understandably little proclivity to challenge the power base that in almost indecipherably complicated ways provides him with the power to “govern.”
As for helping the needy, perhaps Jesus best understood the hopelessness of alleviating that situation when he said two thousand years ago that the poor will always be among you. I haven't seen the American government make any concerted efforts to prove him wrong and I'm not expecting to under the Obama Administration.
We've reached the point where my friends become apoplectic and begin throwing stones so I shall cease and desist. They may be right, I may be insane and terribly wrong in my assessment of Obama and all things political. I sincerely hope that is the case, but I see no profound insight or grasp of reality in the conventional wisdom being disseminated to convince me that the pundits have a more accurate read on what is to come than my pessimistic reservations and expectations.
As that great philosopher Doris Day sang long ago, que sera sera, what will be, will be, but I cannot yet find the disingenuous humility with which to agree with the many who insist in harmonious concert, that I don't know what I'm talking about. Meanwhile, I must simply, as Adam Clayton Powell counseled so long ago, keep the faith.
Peace.
David Hoch
Atlanta, Georgia
November 28, 2008
Although I enthusiastically supported Obama's candidacy after Edwards dropped out, given that Nader and Kucinich had no chance of winning, and indeed rejoiced in his victory, I have since learned that criticizing Obama, post-election, among my fellow liberal and lefty friends brings a response similar to my criticizing Israeli action in Gaza among my Jewish friends, namely swift and vociferous condemnation. Nonetheless, here are my thoughts on Obama from Thanksgiving, which I stand by today.
POLITICAL NOTE TO MYSELF THE DAY AFTER THANKSGIVING REGARDING THE SOON-TO-BE OBAMA PRESIDENCY
This note constitutes an observation, not a lamentation. I write to make a personal record of where I stand 53 days before Barack Obama's inauguration. I have always considered myself a stranger in a familiar land, but never moreso than now, when I am somewhat critical of Mr. Obama's seeming transitional direction. Friends on the “lunatic” left, where I comfortably reside, think me a fool to have ever expected any good to come from an Obama Administration, which I have and do expect, while friends – most of mine, indeed – in the so-called liberal Democratic camp (which I do not believe any longer exists) range from frustrated to excoriating in their condemnation of my “unconscionably premature”criticism of the incoming president's seeming direction.
A few brief points to explain my percpetual context, for I believe America has lost its grip on humane sanity, and so I point out that I remain committed to the belief that it is not only reasonable, but morally incumbent to, in this increasingly insane country, oppose the following: murderous wars of aggression, whatever packaging they are sold in; abandonment of the destitute and disenfranchised of this country (and the world); near total indifference to irreversible destruction of the environment and concomitant extirpation of its nonhuman animal inhabitants; destruction of the middle class; an ever-expanding military budget and national willingness to undertake military ventures guised under the rubric of national security, but almost exclusively conducted for the financial gain of multi-national corporations, and a seemingly endless list of like-spirited enterprises, however popular they are.
Given that, I expect no president on a white horse, whatever the hue of his skin (although I am thrilled that we have taken the significant step against racism that electing a black president entails), nor a utopian democratic socialist parliamentary system of governance to be implemented here in the Corporate States of America. I do, however, expect reasonably critical analysis of the policies projected by an incoming president, the personnel he is gathering to implement said policies, and the overal tenor of a soon-to-be Administration, rather than blind honeymoon-eyed numbness and support for a dream that is clearly not, in my meager opinion, taking shape under the banner of Obamania.
Perhaps my brief following remarks will be proven wholly ill-founded, in which case I will beat my friends to the draw in calling myself wrong and Cassandra-like in my inexcusable pessimism and delighted for things to be better than I expected. However, while neither my energy level nor inclination allow for a lengthy discourse explaining my concerns about Mr. Obama, I would like to place “on the record” my basic take on the promise of his presidency.
To begin with, I am confident Obama will place decent people on the Supreme Court, which is crucial, given that Stevens, Ginsburg and Souter will all likely resign within the next year. I do not think he will apppoint a Larry Tribe or any other brilliant and genuinely leftist constitutional scholar, but he will likely appoint decent people of moderately liberal persuasion and moderately skilled abilities. This is a sine qua non of continuing an American enterprise with any semblance of democracy, for the right wing bloc on the Court, Scalia, Thomas, Alito, Roberts and for all practical purposes, Kennedy now as well, shall certainly continue to move us in an ever-increasingly reactionarily fundamentalist direction in every facet of societal life.
I am also convinced Mr. Obama will halt the catastrophic anti-environmentalism of the Bush Administration, an endeavor of such moral obscenity and practical stupidity that it defies words. However, I do not believe Obama will invest his “capital” in aggressively reversing most of the Bush wrongdoing. He will move in an improved direction, but I see no signs that he plans to undertake the necessary slogging that reversing the Bush eco-horror and setting us on a sane course will require.
Since they say God is in the details, however much it irks my friends who choose not to be burdened with the particulars of governance, I shall suggest a few things we might watch to gain a barometric reading on Obama's understanding of and commitment to improving the environment. Will he take any serious steps to create a political climate conducive to tackling the monumental and long-term task of slowing or halting global warming? I am skeptical, but this is a problem of such magnitude that we can't realistically expect tangible results in the short-term, although we can look to see if non-carbon energy alternatives are being pushed, today's equivalent of Kyoto is rejoined and tax-incentives for research, development and implementation of non-warming technology and processes are called for, legislatively promoted and implemented.
In the shorter term, sparing readers the legal minutia, we can look to see if Obama presses for reversal of egregious administrative modifications of the Clean Water Act and other laws and regulations that have facilitated the acceleration of mountain top removal mining, one of the worst eco-horrors of our time. Further, will he halt anti-environmental efforts of a broad coalition of fools, whose banner is now championed by Sarah Palin, to weaken or eliminate the Endangered Species Act, the first consequence of which would be the slaughter of wolf populations in the Yellowstone and Rocky Mountain areas, now thriving, all things considered, since reintroduction of the grey wolf to that region almost fifteen years ago (and not to be confused with Alaska's promotion and allowance of shooting wolves from airplanes)?
Further, will Obama reinforce the New Source Review on mercury, sulfur and carbon-emitting factories that the Bush Administration is desperately trying to weaken in its final days rush to commit ever more ecological obscenities? In short the rule requires greater pollution controls on substantially upgraded and enlarged utility plants and the Bush Administtration is trying to terminate such requirements. Quick action, or lack thereof will give us strong indications of how seriously Mr. Obama will take environmental issues and how high they will be on his list of pressing priorities.
Finally, Obama's picks for heads of EPA and Interior will be very telling. Will we have more industry executives or altruistic individuals inclined to represent and protect the public trust? If he picks Bobby Kennedy, Jr. at EPA, that will be a hugely good sign, not only because Kennedy is superbly suited for the job, but also because it will show Obama's willingness to enter a difficult confirmation battle in trying to do the right thing.
I also think Mr. Obama will improve the civil rights situation in this country. However, what will that improvement look like? Will he take proactive steps to restore those portions of the first, fourth, fifth, sixth, eighth and fourteenth amendments that have been eviscerated by the fascists running the Bush Administration (I do not use that word for inflammatory and hyperbolic effect, but because I find it the only accurately description to apply to this administration), or will he engage in window-dressing? Detailed consideration of this topic would require a book-length tome, but it will be interesting to see how aggressively Obama pursues resuscitation of civil liberties in America, including a re-institution of the barrier between church and state, protection of open dissent (e.g., not putting political protesters in cages, far-removed from the venue being protested), pursuit of rights for gays, and on and on.
I confess to not expecting Mr. Obama to wage aggressive campaigns for the restoration and expansion of civil liberties, given his vote in support of maintaining warrantless wiretaps and granting prosecutorial immunity to telecoms, as well as his seeming but admittedly not yet ascertainable distaste for seeking just prosecutions of Bush Administration personnel. Could I be wrong? Of course, and let us hope I am. But I doubt it.
What are my biggest concerns about an Obama Presidency, matters not exactly popular in current public and media discourse? I shall limit my list to two things.
First, Mr. Obama has given every possible indication that he plans to expand the military and spending for said expansion and that he intends to substantially increase our involvement in Afghanistan. One would think the supposedly most brilliant president we've ever had might take an hour or so to read what former Soviet generals had to say about a large military enterprise in Afghanistan, but in matters such as this, to the surprise and scathing condemnation of friends (so be it, no complaints), I consider Mr. Obama's attitude on foreign policy and the military to be potentially neo-con in nature (based on both his own remarks and the personnel choices he has made thus far), but he may prove to be far more judicious and diplomatic than signs indicate, possibly now “laying low until the time counts.”
He has talked a good negotiating game, but I see no inclination on his part to negotiate in Afghanistan, leave Iraq in the near or forseeable future, or curb the defense industry's immoral and psychotic longing for ever more wars from whence to obtain ever more billions of taxpayer dollars, removing such funds from revenues to help the needy, homeless and all other unfortunates voguely now frowned upon in an almost Calvinistically predestinationist manner, thereby dismissively and efficaciously condemning the economically disenfranchised to a status of unworthiness beneath the merit of government assistance. Again, perhaps I am wrong, but I expect a more sophisticatedly propagandized continuation of the American Empire, repleat with its hegemonistic domination of the globe, focused upon the developing world and its vast natural resources, necessary components in continuing America's terribly disproportionate consumption of the world's treasures, so far beyond ecological carrying capacity that the phrase hasn't been publicly uttered in the past eight years.
Secondly, especially in light of his not yet having in any serious way called for accountability or transparency in the 1.2 trillion dollar corporate socialist giveway euphemistically labeled the “bailout for the benefit of all (read: All the wealthy people),” I am incapable of fathoming Mr. Obama's taking on the corporate stranglehold over the American government. I see him as a well-intended fellow who has brilliantly earned his way into the hallowed halls of power, maintaining such positions in this country demanding inseparability from at least passive complicity in the perpetuation of the Corporate State, with understandably little proclivity to challenge the power base that in almost indecipherably complicated ways provides him with the power to “govern.”
As for helping the needy, perhaps Jesus best understood the hopelessness of alleviating that situation when he said two thousand years ago that the poor will always be among you. I haven't seen the American government make any concerted efforts to prove him wrong and I'm not expecting to under the Obama Administration.
We've reached the point where my friends become apoplectic and begin throwing stones so I shall cease and desist. They may be right, I may be insane and terribly wrong in my assessment of Obama and all things political. I sincerely hope that is the case, but I see no profound insight or grasp of reality in the conventional wisdom being disseminated to convince me that the pundits have a more accurate read on what is to come than my pessimistic reservations and expectations.
As that great philosopher Doris Day sang long ago, que sera sera, what will be, will be, but I cannot yet find the disingenuous humility with which to agree with the many who insist in harmonious concert, that I don't know what I'm talking about. Meanwhile, I must simply, as Adam Clayton Powell counseled so long ago, keep the faith.
Peace.
David Hoch
Atlanta, Georgia
November 28, 2008
posted by david hoch at 8:50 AM
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Someday you will, learn to be still. (Eagles, circa 1975)
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