Bill Fletcher Jr. (2008-11-06)
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/51786 <http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/51786>
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With Barack Obama safely elected to his country's highest seat of
power, Bill Fletcher Jr. discusses the sense of fear and anticipation
to have gripped him as the votes came in. As the wave of post-
election excitement inspires the world, the author reviews the key
issues revealed by the electoral process requiring attention in the
immediate future, and argues that the tide of expectation around the
Obama presidency will only be sustained by the regenerative role of
grassroots organisational structures capable of educating and
mobilising the millions of people seeking a new political direction.
I found myself facing a peculiar choice. Because I was taking
election day off to do election work, I could have submitted an
absentee ballot. In fact, that would probably have been the most
logical thing to do. It would have saved me a lot of time. I kept
procrastinating in filing for such a ballot until it was too late.
On election day I realised why I did not file the absentee ballot.
Like millions of other voters, and particularly African-Americans, I
had to physically touch the voting machine. In my case, it was a
touch-screen computer, but it would not have mattered whether it was
that or an old-style lever that I had to push. 4 November 2008 was a
moment when I had to make physical contact with the voting machine
and actually see my vote counted. I had to know that it was actually
happening. And I needed to stand in line - in our case for two and a
half hours - with hundreds of other African-Americans and wait
patiently for a moment to influence history.
Irrespective of any reservations one might have regarding the
proposed policies of President-Elect Obama (yeah, I get a kick out of
writing and saying `President-Elect') there is no question but that
the election victory had a profound emotional impact on black America
specifically, as well as this country generally. I can honestly say
that I never expected to see a liberal black person elected president
of the USA, and I was not sure that a conservative black person would
be elected either. As the election returns were coming in my stomach
was tied up in knots unlike anything that I have experienced since my
daughter was born. I did not make predictions and I do not trust
polls. More importantly, I did not trust the white electorate.
WHAT TO MAKE OF THE ELECTION?
In reviewing the stats from the election, the results are quite
interesting. Obama won the popular vote by 52% compared with McCain's
46%. This is extremely significant and has not been replicated by a
Democrat since Lyndon Johnson won the presidency in 1964.
Nevertheless, what it also shows is that the USA is quite divided.
That 46% of the vote that McCain won represented more than 55 million
people. What is noteworthy is that while Obama won only 43% of the
white vote, whites under the age of 30 backed him by a 66-32% margin.
Latinos voted with Obama at a rate of 67% (an important increase over
those who went with Kerry in 2004). Women voted with Obama at a rate
of 55%, though he lost white women by 5% points (though this was
better than Senator Kerry in 2004). It is also noteworthy that though
Obama only received 45% of the veterans' vote, compared with McCain's
54%, this remains significant in light of the red-baiting and
terrorist-baiting that was being targeted at him. Additionally, union
voters went with Obama at 60% compared with McCain's 38%, a lower
percentage than should have sided with Obama in light of the current
economic crisis but which probably reflects racial divisions within
the house of labour.
In my view, the election reflected several important concerns and
tendencies:
- The economy: there is no question that the economic crisis had a
significant impact on the electorate. 63% of voters indicated that
the economy was a priority issue. McCain was never successful in
crafting a message on the economy that resonated with the public
- Concern about the perception of the USA overseas: there was a sense
among Obama supporters that there needed to be a change in the
relationship of the USA to the rest of the world. This was, however,
very unfocused
- A decline in the importance that voters attached to both the Iraq
war and terrorism: with regard to Iraq this probably reflects a
growing sense that the war is coming to an end and that the
occupation is not a critical issue
- The next Supreme Court appointments: for 47% of the electorate this
was a critical issue. This was a hot-button issue with liberals and
progressives who have been watching the Supreme Court make
increasingly indefensible decisions that reflect its right-wing course
- Race matters...sort of: particularly among younger voters, race was a
less significant factor in influencing voter behaviour than among
older voters. It is also apparently the case that the economic
meltdown led many white voters to put racial concerns on the back
burner. That said, the `racial neutrality' of the Obama campaign took
matters of racist oppression largely off the table for any
significant discussion, a fact that may return to haunt the incoming
administration.
Without question the Obama victory needs to be understood as a
tribute to exceptionally good organisation, the initial positioning
of Obama as, at least in the primaries, an anti-war candidate, the
onset of the economic crisis, the candidate's continuous message of
optimism, and Obama's ability to remain cool under fire.
ACT II: BEGINNING RIGHT NOW
The implications of the Obama victory will need to be unpacked over
the coming weeks and months. That said, there are a few points worth
noting because they will have strategic implications:
Obama's mandate is vague yet identifiable: the mandate he has
received is to address the economic crisis immediately in a manner
that favours regular working people. This is evident from the polls
and from plenty of anecdotal information. In addition, the mandate
involves changing the relationship of the USA to the rest of the
world. This particular point is very unfocused but it is evident that
the US voters are increasingly concerned about the perception of the
USA overseas and what that means for matters of national security.
Most people were unfamiliar with the actual programmatic steps Obama
is advocating on the economy, yet they were unwilling to be swayed by
the red-baiting rhetoric of McCain and Palin. This may offer an
opportunity for progressives to advance one or another variant of a
redistributionist approach toward the crisis.
With regard to foreign policy, this is extremely complicated and
quite troubling. While Obama has emphasised the need for negotiations
as a first step in international relations, when confronted by forces
to his right, he has tended to back down and often suggest highly
questionable military and crypto-military options in handling crises,
e.g., unilateral attacks on al-Qaeda bases in Pakistan. Some people
around Obama seem to be advocating a get-tough approach towards Iran
which itself could lead to hostilities. While the people of the USA,
by and large, are not looking for more war, the ability of the
political Right to manufacture the ever-present threat from right-
wing Islamists (including but not limited to targeting Iran) has
successfully promoted a climate of fear. This will, more than likely,
be a weak point for the president-elect and a place where pressure
must be placed by anti-war forces.
The world is expecting a great deal from an Obama administration: all
corners of the earth erupted in glee upon news of the Obama victory.
Obama will more than likely reach out to traditional US allies in
order to repair the damage done by the eight years of the Bush
administration. There will more than likely be outreach to Africa,
though the character of that outreach is as yet to be determined.
Obama, while Senator, expressed a great deal of interest and concern
with Africa, and developed legislation focussing on the ongoing
crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He will probably try
to alter the relationship of the US to Africa, though it is not
entirely clear how thorough such an alteration will be. One should
expect outreach to the African Union to offer support in cases of
humanitarian disasters and crises, but unless Obama is prepared to
break with the whole `war against terrorism framework' there may be
continued militarisation of the continent (through vehicles such as
AFRICOM and the Trans-Sahel Military Initiative).
Progressives will need to perfect an approach of `critical support'
towards the Obama administration: the corporate backers of President-
Elect Obama have no interest in a transformative agenda. They are
interested in stabilising capitalism generally, but especially
stabilising the financial sector. They are open to selective
nationalisations as long as such nationalisations do not bring with
them significant popular accountability. In light of this,
progressive forces will need to be organised in such a way to mount a
challenge from the left side of the aisle. President Obama will need
to be pushed on many areas, including foreign policy, healthcare,
housing, jobs, and in general, the need for a pro-people approach to
addressing the economic crisis. Taking this approach of critical
support means, tactically, pointing out what has not been
accomplished in the Obama agenda on the one hand, and, on the other,
challenging the new administration when it advances policies that are
regressive, e.g., threatening Iran or Cuba, or compromising with the
insurance companies on healthcare.
Critical support also means raising issues that the Obama
administration may tend to shy away from or avoid altogether, such as
race and racism. Race is fused into the US system. Racist oppression
and the differential in treatment between people of colour and whites
remains a major part of the US reality. For that reason, progressives
must push the Obama administration to address the continuing impact
of racist oppression. This may lead to clashes that at one and the
same time appear to be tactical, i.e., matters of timing, but are
actually quite fundamental, that is, about whether there needs to be
a systemic challenge to racist oppression.
None of this happens in the absence of organisation. Those who
rallied to the Obama campaign came from various political tendencies
and experiences, and many of them will seek to return to
their `everyday life.' At the same time, there are those who
mobilised that are looking to be part of implementing the `dream' and
they will be unable to do this as individuals operating alone. If one
really wants to advance an approach of critical support for the
incoming administration, it will mean creating the grassroots
organisational structures around the country that are capable of
educating and mobilising the millions of people who are seeking a new
direction. This approach, what I have described elsewhere as a neo-
rainbow approach, can be used to exert pressure to ensure that the
incoming Obama administration lives up to its full potential.
So many of us cried with joy and amazement on the evening of 4
November with this historic breakthrough. Our excitement cannot rest
with the electoral success but must be fused with a genuine effort to
create a new politics.
* Bill Fletcher Jr. is the executive editor of BlackCommentator.com
and a senior scholar with the Institute for Policy Studies. He is the
immediate former president of the TransAfrica Forum and the co-author
of `Solidarity Divided' which analyses the crisis in organized labour
in the USA
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