Could
Obama Transcend
The Iron Cage Of The White House?
By Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi
14 NOvember,
2008
Countercurrents.org
The
short answer to the question is a simple no! I hoped with all my might
that Obama would win the presidency and end the reign of terror that
the Bush Administration has inflicted on the world. Much more needs
to be said about the historical significance of a
White House with black residents, but not here. I am jubilant that
he has won and apprehensive about how soon he and his administration
will capitulate to the habitual politics of the District of Columbia.
Obama has the power to resist the current, but he won’t. To
do that, he would have to launch a paradigmatic shift in the way politics
is taught, thought of, and practiced in this country.
Obama ran
a presidential campaign with an inherent contradiction between its
form and substance. In its form––the ways his campaign
mobilized different constituencies, the way he appeared in rallies,
and in the very intonation of his oratory––he presented
himself as a populist candidate advocating radical change. Substantively––in
his economic plan, in his understanding of global conflicts, and in
his political vision––he differentiated himself by a hair’s
breadth from Clinton-era center-right doctrine. History tells us that
substance is enduring and
form is ephemeral.
In America,
the real polity consists of a small community of elites
whose interests and those they represent entangle and overlap.
President-elect Obama with all good intentions intends to erect a
wall between lobbyists and elected or appointed officials, but he
will soon realize that the foundation that could support such a wall
does not exist. DC operatives, the political elite and corporate lobbyists,
have been engaged in an incestuous relation for too long for any sense
of taboo to remain in force, even weakly. No one is stunned these
days at the sight of a CEO of a financial giant being named as the
chief regulator of the nation’s stock market. No one questions
the lobbyists of multinational industries running the office of the
Environmental Protection Agency. No eyebrows would be raised if yesterday’s
corporate lawyer is today’s Secretary of Labor. No one detects
a conflict of interest if big military contractors devise a national
security plan at the Pentagon and the State Department. In the way
politics actually gets done in Washington, can Obama find people who
meet his criteria without stepping outside the conventional norms
of the American political machine? I’m skeptical.
Obama also
needs to learn a lesson from the leaders of populist
movements, particularly in Latin America. I am not a fan of populism.
It thrives on creating a mass society, which in turn, typically engenders
authoritarianism. In the last four decades, populism has always been
associated with the American Right, religious and otherwise. This
association has caused many of us to connect populism unconsciously
to simple mindedness and gullibility. The McCain-Palin campaign adopted
this right-wing populism rather successfully in mocking Obama’s
plan to “spread the wealth” through a “socialist”
agenda. Whereas protecting the
“authentic” American community from the tyranny of the
interventionist state defines the right-wing populism, the cause célèbre
of left-wing populism has been “redistributive justice,”
often associated with socialism. To be true to his constituents, Obama
has to defuse the socialist associations of the old slogan, and transform
the notion of redistributive justice from being a near-treasonous
heresy to a viable policy direction for America.
The scarecrow
of socialism lost its political appeal in Europe almost a century
ago. But it continues to stifle meaningful debate about the foundational
problems of the American economic order. Latin American populist leaders
on the left understand -- in a way that American politicians don’t
-- that people respond to their genuine fears (cultural, communal,
familial, etc.) as well as their core economic interests. Which one
will dominate on Election Day depends on which political discourse
becomes hegemonic. The masses are neither inherently right, nor historically
left. This was an important oversight in the Barack Obama’s
campaign. The precondition of rallying the masses and becoming hegemonic
is not a move to the center-right, but a strategy to use language
to dominate politics, to introduce not only new faces, but
also new concepts to American politics. A strategy that Republicans
have deployed successfully for decades.
For the
longest time during the past year when Obama was “accused”
of being a Muslim, I wondered why nobody in his campaign stood up
and said what eventually Colin Powell said in his endorsement: “what
if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country?
The answer’s no, that’s not America.” Obama needs
an appointed person to do with social democracy what Powell did to
Muslims. He needs to appoint somebody with enough audacity and hope
in his administration to
transform redistributive justice from political suicide into a debatable
agenda. Even with his centrist agenda, this will be good for his administration.
The time is right for such a discursive and political move. The election is over and Obama does not need to blame only the Bush Administration for all the ills of deregulationism. This policy began in the mid-1970s, found its official voice in the Reagan Administration, and has been followed since by Democrats and Republicans alike. And let us not forget that the economic team that the President-elect has put together looks a lot like the deregulation team of Bill Clinton. Obama is making a historical mistake. His hope should not be to bring back the Clinton regime back minus Lewinsky. If we all agree that the scope of this economic crisis is comparable to the Great Depression, then we cannot simply write off extraordinary social provisions as politically untenable.
This is
turning into a vicious pattern that at points of crises all
parties scoff at long-term solutions in favor of quick fixes. If we
are
in Iraq, we don’t need to talk about the political responsibilities
for
this travesty: we need to fix the problem now. If the stock market
has collapsed: rush for a bail out, and address reform later. These
kinds of solutions perpetuate injustice and inequality, and negate
accountability and the feasibility of new visions. We need immediate
remedies tied with written and sealed regulatory guarantees. The banking
bail out should have come with stern restrictions on financial and
industrial capital. Remember that the collapse of the economy has
universal repercussions. If the economic elite uses the threat of
the economic collapse to get what they desire, shouldn’t Obama’s
administration of hope and change ask for the same on behalf of the
disadvantage? President Obama should not retreat from higher taxes
and tighter regulations on the industry. In times of prosperity investors
exploit the mobility of their capital to avoid regulatory regimes.
Today, they do not have that luxury.
On national
security and the so-called Global War on Terror, Obama needs to take
a radical discursive shift. Does he have the power to do it? Yes.
Will he? No. The main objective of a sound international relation
is the discovery of the ways through which the United States can reconcile
its national interests with the national interests of other nations.
The Cold War mentality of irreconcilable American interests with other
nations has already taken millions of lives around the world, during
the proxy wars in Africa, Asia, and Latin America to stop the spread
of communism, and now in “war on terror” to eradicate
militant Islam. Obama must take advantage of the excitement and energy
that
enveloped the entire world, from the celebrations in an Indonesian
grade school to the ritual sacrifices of lamb in his honor in Istanbul,
to show in practice that the era of American bullying is over and
his administration is ready to engage the world with mutual respect.
But before we gloat out of our minds and ask the rest of the world
that instead of celebrating “show us the money,” as Thomas
Friedman suggested in his Sunday editorial, Obama needs to deliver.
Unlike what the likes of Friedman would like to think, the world is
not indebted to America, it is really, truly, the other way around.
Respect for the dignity of others and the sovereignty of nations is
not delivered in a speech. Obama as the President needs to institutionalize
that rhetoric and turn it into a lasting policy. “The money”
would follow. Mr. Friedman don’t rush, the world cannot afford
to give a blank check to any American president, be it the decent
Obama or the gangster Bush.
Obama knows that the key to a sustainable peaceful coexistence in the world today is held in the Middle East. Again the first signs are not promising. In his official Afghanistan policy, which was rightly described by John McCain as a replica of the surge in Iraq, Obama has shown little understanding of the political dynamics of the conflict. His solutions appear to be variations on the same “war on terror” theme. The US cannot defeat the Taliban and annihilate al-Qaeda by introducing more troops to the war front. Obama must take the option of war off the table; nothing terrible would happen if he takes this courageous step. Not only would taking war off the table afford the respect that the US desires in the region, but more importantly it will instantly delegitimize the militants’ violent solutions. There is no shame in talking, there is shame in sending innocent people to their death.
This must
also be the guiding principle in dealing with Iran. The US has no
right or responsibility to solve Iranian domestic problems. Obama
should stay clear from the Israeli lobby on dealing with Iran. Although
that option might already have been checked by the appointment of
Rahm Immanuel, a hawkish pro-Israel advocate, as the Chief of Staff
and choosing Dennis Ross as a senior advisor on the Middle East policy.
Since September 11, 2001, the neocons have successfully manufactured
a crisis with Iran based on unfounded allegations and regime change
policies. It is true that the Bush Administration pulled the rug from
under the Iranian reformist President Khatami’s feet and paved
the way for the inauguration of an equally hostile administration
in Iran. President Obama needs not buy into this manufactured crisis.
Iran’s nuclear technology is not an irresolvable predicament.
While solving the problem with Iran might ease the situation in Iraq,
it is doubtful that it would have any impact on the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict. The Iranian influence in Palestine is greatly exaggerated.
This too is another part of America’s fabricated crisis in Iran.
As hard
as it might be, the Obama Administration must face the
possibility of decoupling its interest in the Middle East from the
Israelis. One can hope. The US cannot operate as a peace broker while
it unconditionally supports Israeli policies. There are more critical
voices inside Israel on their own state policies than in any American
administrations or mass media. Being critical of Israeli settlement
policies and the illegal occupation of Palestinian territories will
neither endanger Israeli security and its right to exist nor is it
a sign of anti-Semitism. No American state official has more credibility
in the Middle East than former President Carter. Jimmy Carter broke
another taboo in American foreign policy by talking to Hamas leaders
and by doing so proved that he indeed has the audacity to hope for
peace. Obama must immediately dispatch a committee under the supervision
of President Carter to layout a plan for a lasting peace agreement
between Israel and Palestine.
My hope is that an Obama Administration would augment the spark of November 4th into a flame that will guide us on a path towards sustainable change. We dared to hope. Obama must now have the courage to deliver. There are many taboos in American political culture that he must break. Many call people who talk about social democracy, peace, justice, equality, and respect for the dignity of others “crazies.” But this is a crazy time, a black man rules over the White House.
Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi is Assistant Professor of
History and Sociology at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
He is the author of Islam and Dissent in Postrevolutionary Iran (I.B.
Tauris/Plagrave-Macmillan, 2008). He can be reached at
[email protected].