[lbo-talk] Obama-mania: where is the true danger?

Dwayne Monroe dwayne.monroe at gmail.com
Tue Jan 8 12:38:53 PST 2008


Thus far, our Obama and Obama-enthusiasm related discussions have centered on questions of 'electability' (will America vote for a black man?), lots of back and forth on his relative and comparative levels of progressivity and debates about the intrinsic value of "hope" to "ordinary people".

While entertaining and somewhat profitable, these heated topics miss the most important thing: the neutralization of genuine left/progressive politics (what Wojtek derides as purist delusion) and near total replacement of that politics - even amongst some of the sharpest thinkers and activists - with a tolerance for pleasant appearance, airy aspiration and feel-goodism.

We see this on list when various members assume - based upon not much it seems - that Obama is 'better' than HRC on various critical issues.

We see it in the wider world when people say that enthusiasm for Obama is politically useful because it creates "hope" and even if that hope is dashed, the savviest argue, the fact that hope once existed means future demands will be made - a soft version of that ancient illusion of "heightening the contradictions".

Since the early days of Obama's national presence, I've thought that his 'blackness' and progressive-esque rhetoric acted as a reality distortion field, hiding the harsh facts in plain sight. My conversations with other blacks and allied non-black activists and friends have become increasingly depressing as, one by one, they fall into step behind the machine.

And, to be clear, this neutralization isn't wholly dependent upon the success of Obama's presidential campaign - though obviously, right now, that's the business end of the weapon. Regardless of the election's outcome, the creation of this heavily corporate funded "post-race" express is creating what Black Agenda Report's Glen Ford calls "incoherence" in black activist circles and represents a threat to what remains of American progressive action and thought. It's a template - a proven media attention grabber and vote getting method. This is a new tactic (or perhaps, the perfection of an old one) and it's seriously troubling.

...

During Doug's recent interview with Black Agenda Report's Glen Ford, this was discussed in detail (transcription done by me - any and all errors found are mine)

<snip>

Glen Ford -

What we've been talking about here of course is just...is he a fraud on basic Democratic Party terms? And that's very, very clear. But that's not why we're getting so upset about him and slap him every time he acts wrong. We at Blackagendareport.com see Barack Obama as a clear and present danger to the coherence of black politics and we see the evidence everyday.

Doug Henwood (after station ID) -

What does the popularity of Barack Obama tell you about the state of black politics in America now?

Glen Ford -

Well, Barack Obama plugs into an ancient current in black politics and it stems from Jim Crow segregation and of course, previous to that, slavery. Barack Obama seems to fulfill a dream, an ancient one in black America of having the ultimate black faces in high places. And it's quite understandable. Until the death of Jim Crow - which was - I was a young adult at that time - white society at large was arrayed against every black aspiration and therefore, any black person who rose to any kind of status through any means at all...that was seen as a victory for the whole, a collective victory for black folks. Then, of course, Jim Crow died, folk got the vote and politics, in black communities, became politics between black folks. But the mentality of Jim Crow - of seeking just black faces in high places and not evaluating them on their performance and accountability to black people still remains 40 years later. So that's a deep current and it's not Obama's fault that it's there but he benefits from it.

That's the general thing.

However, now, with the nation consumed and involved in a campaign with a black figure at the center of it those chickens are coming home to roost. And what we've discovered is the PARALYTIC...paralyzing effect of the Obama candidacy on black politics and I have a little anecdote that I'd like to tell you that I think sums it up entirely.

DH -

Please do.

GF -

About four weeks ago, I was teamed up on Ron Daniels' show on WBAI with Charles Barron - and I'm sure your listeners are familiar with him - he's a former Black Panther, city councilman, quite progressive by any measurement and one of my favorite politicians because he's a black electoral official who is also a political activist so, to me he's the kind of model of what political folks should be if they seek office. Councilman Barron was on the show with me to announce that he had just endorsed Barack Obama for president. Ron Daniels knew our position on that. So I proceeded to outline what we have just talked about on your show point by point to say, how could you [Daniels] support a person who obviously is on the other side of the politicial line from you? And he couldn't answer...any of it. There was no coherent response. And finally, after ten or fifteen minutes of this back and forth - which actually turned into a debate - he finally says "I just wanna give the brother a shot." And that was it. And that sums it up.

It was pitiful, it was inadequate but it really was accurate in terms of Barack Obama's knee jerk support among black folks in general and more critically, among activists, progressives - life long activists and progressives who damn sure should know better.

DH -

White leftists like me depend upon the black portion of the population to provide a reliable base of social democratic and anti-imperialist policies...you guys are letting us down here.

GF -

Absolutely and that is why it is so important to understand that this not just an intra-black affair - that is very important to those of us who are black and care first and foremost about the health of the black polity. But if the black polity descends into incoherence - and this is already happening and Barack Obama has not yet won a primary [stated before Iowa: .d.] - but it is already underway. If committed, life long activists like Charles Barron can be paralyzed, put into a kind of comatose stupor just by the presence of this corporate funded black candidate then we are in real trouble. And if the black polity becomes fractured or just paralyzed then there really is no hope for anything resembling a progressive movement in the United States.

DH -

It sounds in many ways like you're describing what is typical American ethnic politics. Black Americans have been shaped by this country, they are Americans so maybe they're just following a long tradition of this kind of politics.

GF -

If that were so then people like Charles Barron would not have to say "I just wanna give the brother a shot" when he's quite intelligent enough to know that that brother is not on his side.

[...]

full (MP3 audio) -

<http://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html#080103>

.d.



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