In the Red: Abandon all hope

By Joe Richard

In November 2008, President Obama was elected in a massive outpouring of energy, enthusiasm and high hopes for the change that this country so badly needs and was so arrogantly deprived of in the eight-year nightmare of the Bush administration. Roughly 2 million people traveled to Washington, D.C., to watch his inauguration. Professors showed the event in classrooms. People paused at work to watch or listen to the news coverage. Drawing on the symbolism and rhetoric of some of the greatest social upheavals in American history, like the civil rights movement and the struggle for farm worker justice, Obama rode the wave of popular anger against Washington straight into the halls of power in a truly historic moment that was more beautiful in its symbolism than it proved to be in reality.

Now, little more than a year later, we ask ourselves: what the fuck happened?

A horrific debacle over a health care “reform” that was a bogus, ineffective sellout in the first place? Sending 30,000 more troops into a violent imperialist occupation of Afghanistan? Maintaining a tremendous troop presence in Iraq? The bailout of the very same crooked money changers that wrecked the financial system in the first place (and are again set to receive billions of dollars in bonuses this year, as well)? Supporting the privatization of public education? There’s much talk about how “Washington is broken” and “Washington doesn’t work.” But looking at the track record of the two dominate parties in Washington, we can only honestly come to one conclusion: the system actually does work well, but only for the rich and powerful. And if you expected anything else, you’re shit out of luck.

Just follow the money trail. Where does the money come from to pay for elaborate, extensive and very expensive election campaigns? Mom and Pop down the street stuffing a crumpled $10 bill into an envelope and sending it off to Democratic headquarters to help get the latest champion of poor and working people elected? Hell no.

Election campaigns are financed in the corporate boardrooms and back rooms of the halls of power. This is why Obama will not go to war against the banks and corporations that are responsible for turning millions of people out of their homes and their jobs. Because he owes them. He’s their man. And the piper always gets paid. Every once in a while, the populist fury gets so cranked up that they have to find a patsy: remember Bernie Madoff? You gotta have some sympathy for the guy who took the fall for the entire capitalist class of America. Think about it. Financiers wreck our economy. Millions out of work. Millions more homeless. And only one guy does time. How could this even be possible if both parties weren’t controlled by big money?

In some ways, the enormous disappointment of the Obama administration will serve as a good lesson to our generation in the sense that, with the sad exception of people who still shill apologies and justifications for Obama (oftentimes because they’re planning on careers in the Democratic Party in the future), many of us already have very little faith in the establishment and the Democratic Party. This is a healthy step forward.

If we can remove the veils from our eyes and realize that the Democratic Party is and has been a party dominated by big corporate money for a long time, we can step forward with a clearer mind and an understanding of U.S. politics that is not perverted by a faith in the Democrats to change much of anything for the better.

We just need to distinguish the difference between voting and politics. They’re not necessarily related. Disillusionment with voting should lead us toward more engagement with politics, not away from politics. Do we really think stuffing a ballot into a box every four years is going to win us the change we want?

We are the first generation in a very long time that will witness falling standards of living, that won’t do as well as or better than our parent’s generation. We will work multiple part-time jobs, even with college degrees. Right now there is one job opening available for every six applicants. Do the math. Things look pretty bleak. But at least we know that voting Democratic won’t do us any good. So let’s start looking at other options. Let’s study politics and engage in politics. Let’s stop putting our hope and trust in some “great” man to lead us forward. Let’s start putting our hope in trust in each other in order to build a movement in this country to organize, fight and ultimately destroy the power of the bankers, the CEOs, the generals and the “leaders” of this country who have sold our futures and are now laughing all the way to the Federal Reserve.

It’s a painstaking and difficult thing to build a movement, of course. But we shouldn’t shy away from it. Indeed, it’s the only thing that has ever really changed American society for the better. The civil rights movement built an independent power base that pressured government in its own right and with its own might. And legislation followed. Labor built its own unions and attracted millions of members under its banners before any member of Congress or president of either party created workplace safety laws or legalized the 40-hour work week. And this is the question we should be asking right now: how can we build an independent movement of people’s struggles against homelessness, against hunger, against war, against police brutality or against corporate greed to win a power base for ourselves so that we can fight back in a really effective way?

There’s no truly national movement doing this right now. But we can get started for damn sure. Read about organizing. Start a study group. Go to a protest. Organize a protest.  Seek out other folks who are doing the same thing as you. Network. Talk with your neighbors. Talk with your coworkers. Take a stand. And if no one else is doing anything: lead.