Simon wrote:
<snip>
My point was that for people on the left to castigate Obama for not living up to their expectations ignores the fact that any candidate from the two main parties is going to be part of the system not apart from it. Black or white, any candidate in such a position isn't going to apologise for reasserting the economic order. Obama may be black, but above all he's a Democrat - a person operating in the established order.
[...]
Note this thread's title; it's "Dennis Perrin on the ecstasy of the Dems" not "Dennis Perrin on why Obama is awful" or "Obama disappoints me because he isn't Noam Chomsky dammit!".
Where's the emphasis? On the faithful and their sad, sad faith in "change". Who's being "castigated"? The lib dem opinion shapers, such as Ezra Klein of the American Prospect, who describe Obama as the savior of everything good. What's being analyzed? The modified racism on display - i.e., the insistence that by merely saying 'we're past race' that we are, in fact, past race.
All of that is the focus here, not Obama's failure to be anything else than what he is: a standard issue Democrat in a shiny, 21st century tommorowland suit.
Good god. This isn't that subtle a point! Why is it so easily lost?
Re: the isn't it nice white people will vote for a black guy meme which has emerged as a sub-thread...
Yes, yes, a thousand times yes! That's sweet but almost completely beside the point. Hell, my employer gave a black guy - me - a very awesome job my grandparents would've marveled at. That's nice for me and those like me - it means that the civil rights movement enjoyed some measure of success.
But beyond that what else can be said? I have a feeling that for many of you 1960s left vets this white folk voting for a black guy thing is huge. So huge it tends to obscure the elephant crapping in the room.
.d.