Obama has won a decisive victory to become the first African American president of the United States. Terrific! The Democrats have increased their majority in the Senate and Congress. Great! The great conservative philosophy of small government and even less taxes has been rejected by a large majority of Americans. Amazing! So everything’s cool. Not by a long shot. We have a lot of work to do.
The damage done to America and American politics by the neo-cons is severe. Our economy has finally tanked due to eight years of Republican rule and two decades of deregulation, and yet we the people are bailing out the financial industry to the tune of $1 trillion or more. We are involved in two wars in the Middle East, and even if we can finagle our way out of one of them it will only be to shore up the efforts in the other. While these election results have been a step to repair our international reputation, we will still be looked at with skepticism if we try to claim ourselves a superpower amongst a group of global citizens. Health insurance is still a privileged benefit in American society afforded to some but not all. All those outsourced jobs will not be coming back, with India being the 1-800 help center of the world. Until we stop putting gas in cars, oil companies will continue to mount huge profits and get tax benefits in the process. The effects of the last eight years of radical-right rule will still be felt for another two decades if not more— no matter whom got elected.
While this historic election result is a dramatic return to hope, it is not by any means a cure all. We voted for change and projected every hope (and some fears) we had onto Senator Obama. He was a blank slate to reflect whatever we wanted him to be— he said so himself in similar words. He is not the Messiah, nor anti-American, nor a progressive, nor a socialist, nor a radical, a terrorist, a jihadist, a tax-and-spend liberal, a reformist, or an extremist. He is a liberal-centrist politician—a smart, shrewd, talented liberal-leaning centrist. There’s no guarantee of a progressive agenda coming out of this administration. So far a lot of former Clinton staffers and appointees are showing up in Obama’s administration. While that is great news for getting us out of a recession, it is not necessarily the best news on other economic fronts. Keep in mind that Clinton gave us both NAFTA and the Telecommunications Act (which brought us the media conglomeration/take over of the early 2000s). And Lawrence Summers— Clinton era Treasury Secretary on the short list for the job again— is of the free-market deregulation fundamentalist ilk that got us into this economic clusterfuck. If anyone thought this election would change everything, you’re delusional.
What we now have is a better chance to get things done. I went into the voting booth without any misconceptions for whom I was voting for. After eight years of the tyranny of arrogance, I voted for someone who would most likely listen to the public they govern. All the millions of people who donated $250 or less over the last 21 months are official shareholders of the Obama presidency. This is the closest we’ve come to real accountability and transparency in respects to our government. This is not yet truly for the people and by the people, but it’s damn close. However the only way we can make that work and get results out of this incoming administration is if we the public are vigilant. Our democracy is only as strong as the publics’ will to hold their elected officials to account. Now is the time to speak up.
There will be a LOT of organizations to lobby the new president with their platforms. MoveOn.org and other such liberal watchdog groups exist because people have organized on the grassroots level to try and be heard by their representatives and others in government. Already articles and petitions are going up trying to sharpen the focus on a progressive agenda. Even though the Republicans are dealing with their own internal conflicts and schisms, there is obviously going to be a push on the conservative side to have things done their way. This includes efforts to delegitimize Obama’s presidency before it even starts. Some conservative pundits are saying that America is a “center-right” country; others are saying that Obama doesn’t have a mandate (as if losing the popular vote and winning by four electoral votes gives you authorization to shred the Bill of Rights); others are simply ready to pounce on Obama for any incident no matter how slight. We’re hearing a lot of backseat driving about where to steer this country from every critic, liberal or conservative, within ten feet of a camera. Whose voice gets lost in all this—the populace who elected the incoming administration. That is unless we speak out.
We cannot get lazy now. President-elect Obama said in his election night victory speech that his win is not change itself, but the chance for change. The only way to bring that change about is to be vigilant, alert and active. The historian, activist, and veteran Howard Zinn wrote, “historically, government, whether in the hands of Republicans or Democrats, conservatives or liberals, has failed its responsibilities, until forced to by direct action: sit-ins and Freedom Rides for the rights of black people, strikes and boycotts for the rights of workers, mutinies and desertions of soldiers in order to stop a war. Voting is easy and marginally useful, but it is a poor substitute for democracy, which requires direct action by concerned citizens.” We are now entering the thick of a democratic struggle—in terms of small-d democracy. With forces from either side trying to come to bear on this incoming administration, we need to be actively alert to what is happening and call our officials out on it when necessary. And it will be necessary. Every administration will make mistakes, but it will only get away with the most egregious of them if our elected officials fail to hold themselves accountable, and worse if we fail to hold them accountable.
To paraphrase Obama, “don’t believe for a second this election is over. We have to work like our future depends on it, because it does.” We can choose to let other people speak for us on issues we care about, or we can make our own voices heard loud and clear. We can choose to go back to being apathetic, or remain attentive political observers. We can choose to give our elected officials complete free reign over our society, or reinvest ourselves in our world and hold them to standards. We can choose to go back to sleep and dream of a better world, or we can wake up and try to make that world a reality. That’s what’s at stake and what we’re fighting for. If we keep watching the events of the day, pay attention to what those in power do, pay attention to what people do to obtain and/or retain power, speak to your own situations and your own truths, speak out against corruption and malfeasance, fight for your core issues, fight for your beliefs, fight for your rights and those of your neighbors, we will not only pull American society out of the abyss, but we will emerge a stronger country connected to each other and focused on a common good for all Americans and the global community.
So thanks for voting. NOW LET’S GET TO WORK!