Grats to ya boy.
Last night around 8pm I was at a house party here in Oakland getting ready for my band’s set when somebody across the room shouted out “Obama won! he did it!” and the whole room broke out in cheers and clapping. I pulled out my cellphone and sent a text message to my friend Labrie (who’s been pulling hard for an Obama victory and recorded a couple songs supporting him and his candidacy) saying “Grats to ya boy” and went back to working on getting our sound set up. Later that night as we closed our set with ‘None of the Above’ several of the Obama supporters, including my bandmates wife, waged a bit of a counter-insurgency, shouting out “Obama!” every time the chorus of “Which one? None of the Above!” came up.
Such is the fate of an Anarchist among Liberals.
Seriously though, I know this is a big day for a lot of folks who’ve put time and energy into getting dude elected, and in particular – as even McCain acknowledged – it’s a big day for black folks in America. For over 200 years black folks have watched white Presidents completely ignore their issues and support policies that hurt them. Now, thanks to Obamas historic win, poor and working class black folks get to have their issues and their needs ignored by a person with the same color skin as them. That’s an honor that poor and working class white folks have enjoyed in isolation for far too long. It’s only fair to spread the joy around a bit.
Ya’ll may accuse me of cynicism. And you’d be right. I’m eternally optimistic about the power of ordinary people of all colors to come together and organize and build at the grassroots level to solve our problems ourselves and eternally cynical about the never ending line of politicians who promise us that if we abandon our own independent movements and instead pour our time, money, hearts, and souls into their electoral bids they’ll deliver pie in the sky. And why shouldn’t I be? Bill Clinton got elected on a platform of “Change” and he turned around and gutted social safety nets, maintained murderous sanctions on Iraq for 8 years, did less then nothing to make healthcare affordable and accessible to working class people, supported death squads and mass murder around the globe, and allowed the rich to keep getting richer. Bush replaced him, also on a platform of “Change” and did all the same things only more so – as David Rovics put it a few months into his first term “Things are a lot like they were before, only a bit sped up”. Now Obama’s been elected, also on a platform of “Change” (it’s the slogan that keeps on giving!) and – forgive me for being skeptical here – but I can’t help expecting more of the same.
Am I the only one who notices a trend here? Really?
Maybe some good will come of it though. Maybe with a young black man as President all the folks who go on and on about how the problem is that America is run by “old white men” will realize that their age and their color aren’t the things that really define the people who run the global Capitalist system. It’s their wealth. It’s Class. It’s always been Class. Racism is very real – of course – but at root Racism has never been more or less then a tool to divide the working class and get us to fight each other instead of our common enemies. The economic elites who run this country are more then happy to put black and brown faces in high places if doing so will allow them to maintain their own control, as the Bush administration proved by appointing Gonzales, Rice, and Powell. This is just the next step in that same process.
The people who pull the strings, the men behind the curtains, have taken a gamble here. They’ve put a black puppet out on stage instead of a white one for the first time ever in the hope that doing so will get all the folks who are pissed off and cynical and disenfranchised to buy back into the system and start believing in the puppetshow once again. Obama’s acceptance speech was a call for exactly that – for all us who’ve been outraged at the sadistic brutality of Bush & Co. and by the Democrats utter failure to even pretend to oppose that brutality to buy back in and take Obama’s ascension as proof that the system does work after all. Like the New Deal, which he referenced in his acceptance speech, this is a ploy by the ruling class to get the rest of us to buy back into the system. Back then the capitalists tried and failed to crush Radical movements by force before finally allowing Roosevelt to throw the working class a few crumbs, buy off the majority, and then crush the remainder of the resistance. This time they haven’t even offered us crumbs, just the opportunity to have a different colored puppet whose strings are pulled by all the same corporate interests.
I’m not buying it. Not even for a second.
So go on, celebrate & enjoy yourselves. And when ya’ll finally realize that it’s not the color of a mans skin but the contents of his bank account that determine where his interests really are I’ll see ya in the streets. Maybe then we can get this revolution back on track and finally win this thing. Just don’t take too long, the planet can’t stand many more years of Capitalism and we’ve got a lot of work left to do before we can put any real viable alternative into practice.
Posted: November 5th, 2008 under political theory, politrix, race & racism.
Comments: 7
Comments
Comment from jackie
Time: November 5, 2008, 6:34 am
I have to have hope. Obama gives me a bit of hope for America. A bit of hope for the UK too, who have far too long walked in Bush’s shadow.
Progess is always slow… we will find nivarna someday.
love you so very much.
jackie
xx
Comment from Scott R
Time: November 5, 2008, 9:17 am
I told my brother this is a social experament. I held my nose and voted against the war and the patriot act. Its a lot like believing in witchcraft [I'm an existentialist and athiest].
History has shown that the power behind the throne in this plutocracy will have a lot to do with what happens in the next 4 years.
My expectation:
“Los ricos mas ricos. Los pobres mas pobres. Movilizate!”
The VAF is organizing with local communities of interest against a proposed ICE detention center [concentration camp] in Farmville, VA.
The min. wage is low, rents are increasing, and jobs are dissappearing. Still, the antibellum south voted for the ‘publicans.
“La lucha continua!”
Scott R.
WSA and VAF (personal capacity)
Front Royal, VA
Comment from Seanimal the Humanimal
Time: November 5, 2008, 12:33 pm
Good write there mate! Honestly I feel really sorry for anyone who puts hope in Obama. A lesson to those who do have hope in Obama “None are more hopelessly enslaved then those who believe they are free” Johann Von Wolfgang Geothe……
I feel about the same way as ye about this whole situation. I wonder when the sheeple who have hope in a politician instead of placing hope in themselves will wake up and realize Obama and McCain are just Rothchild puppets and the election is nothing more then a game show. “The price is right” ironic game show no?
I hate to say , even though I do not like the guy (or any politician for that matter) I wish no harm to him yet im afraid something tragic is going to come down. It will create race riots, then TPTB can declare bush’s favorite tactic “martial law” disarm the american public. Prisoners in our own country.
One last thing, I found this hillarious. Yesterday I saw a guy holding a sign saying “Obama is a commie” shows how stupid humans are, Obama is no Communist, A Communist with privilege is no communist at all. He might however be a Stalinist, well McCain is a Stalinist as well.
Hey AMERICANS FOR OBAMA! You have two choices for president!
WOOHOO SO MUCH HOPE! Please get off the dope!
Two choices, thats one more choice then a dictatorship, ahh so good to see demonacracy has came so far.
Comment from itsalljustaride
Time: November 5, 2008, 1:30 pm
“sheeple”
Yeah, because that word doesn’t make you sound like a 13 year old wannabe revolutionary.
“who have hope in a politician instead of placing hope in themselves”
Who says we don’t have hope in ourselves? Now we can at least feel like the forces that are generally out of our own direct control are not going to pile on too much more bullcrap. Maybe. I mean, that’s what hope is about, a maybe.
This is what pisses me off about anarchists and the “none of the above” mentality. They use cynicism and jadedness as an excuse to basically do nothing but bitch and complain (and act like those two things are constructive activities) that things aren’t exactly like they want them to be. Are you telling me you didn’t want to vote for the Green party? Libertarian? I mean, if you really want to change anything you have to participate. “None of the above” is just a concession to forfeit your agency to effect any kind of change at all, regardless of how superficial it is in the end. It all adds up. Like the guy above said. Change comes slowly. That’s how it works. Societies don’t generally like swift violent changes. Revolution by the gun or by violence is a destabilizing force for nearly every facet of society. That’s why we built in the prospect for peaceful revolution and transfer of power to our system. If it seems like mere continuity that’s because that’s the point. Stable societies need continuity.
Comment from lynx
Time: November 5, 2008, 4:18 pm
you wrote
“This is what pisses me off about anarchists and the “none of the above” mentality. They use cynicism and jadedness as an excuse to basically do nothing but bitch and complain (and act like those two things are constructive activities) that things aren’t exactly like they want them to be.”
You assume that people who vote are typically politically active and engaged during the rest of the year and that people who refuse to buy into the electoral system are not. In my experience both assumptions are false.
“Are you telling me you didn’t want to vote for the Green party? Libertarian?”
That’s exactly what I’m telling you. I have fundamental disagreaments with both those parties, as well as the dems and the gop, on a long list of issues – starting with the esistance of the Nation State. I am fundamentally oppossed to the political system that they are running for seats in. Anarchists don’t refuse to vote for politicians because we’re whiny, we refuse to vote for politicians because we believe that the changes we seek cannot and will not be implemented by politicians.
You assume that the plantation would be better run if only the slaves were more vocal in demanding better overseers. We say that the fact we are living on a plantation and have overseers at all is a problem. Electing lesser evils does nothing to move us towards the ultimate goal – abolishing the owners, the overseers and the plantation itself and setting up a coperative democratically run community of equals in its place – so it doesn’t make sense to put energy into attempting to do so.
Incidentally, it’s also false to assume that the only two choices are voting for politicians or picking up a gun and shooting people. There may well come a time when violent revolution is the only option left, but at this particular place and time I’m much more in favor of building strong, independant and a-political working class organizations that are completely independant of political parties and the State and can provide a vehicle for change that doesn’t rely on either of them. At the point where such organizations exist and can provide viable alternatives to the State we can begin the long hard work of rendering the existing authoritarian institutions irrelavant and then ddismantling them. That’s not going to be easy, but it’s far more empowering and productive then pouring time, energy, and money into endless campaigns for politicians who – at the end of the day – represent themselves far more then they represent the rest of us. I think it’s safe to assume Seanimal was referencing when he said we should put faith in ourselves – and our own independant autonomous institutions – instead of in politicians.
That’s not an easy proccess. As I said in my original post “we’ve got a lot of work left to do before we can put any real viable alternative into practice.” But very few things that are truly worthwhile are easy.
Comment from Terry
Time: November 6, 2008, 2:18 pm
Re: “This time they haven’t even offered us crumbs, just the opportunity to have a different colored puppet whose strings are pulled by all the same corporate interests.- lynx”
Reply: Punchy article and as you so adequately sum it up, the power brokers behind the scene will probably find Mr. Obama just as useful as a tool as has been done for so long before.
Comment from Terry
Time: November 6, 2008, 2:27 pm
RE: “Revolution by the gun or by violence is a destabilizing force for nearly every facet of society. That’s why we built in the prospect for peaceful revolution and transfer of power to our system. If it seems like mere continuity that’s because that’s the point. Stable societies need continuity.
Reply: I love the whole idea of the 10th Amendment. If much more were decided at the state level, we would have 50 controlled experiments going at all times for any given concept. The people of each state could take notice of how their governance was going compared to that of other states and make need corrections. With us relying so heavily on the Federal Government to decide what is best for all of us, we miss out on having more choice and to be cynical about it, we allow the power brokers the opportunity to control our law making and revenue use at the national level. I call this a big mistake. All we have to do to improve our stake is to accomplish getting more decisions made at the state, county, city or citizen level.
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