> Marvin Gandall wrote:
>[...]
> ...from the perspective of unionized workers
> seeking card check, women trying to protect choice in abortion,
> environmentalists pushing for a more sane energy policy, homeowners
> looking
> for relief from foreclosures, immigrants seeking amnesty, the uninsured
> and
> underinsured seeking affordable health care, etc. - all of the varied
> needs
> reflected in the different programs developed by thousands of mass-based
> organizations - legislative attainment of even a fraction of their goals
> represents more than "crumbs".
>You're fooling yourself if you believe that he
> will act to further the reformist laundry list you present above.
==================================
I've nowhere suggested that. In the paragraph you quote above, I only
indicated "legislative attainment of even a fraction" of the goals of the
unions and the other social groups would represent more than what you deride
as "crumbs". Whether there will be reforms and how modest or far-reaching
they will be will not primarily depend on Obama's will or lack of it, as you
suppose, which makes your exasperated criticism of him as a "con artist"
somewhat beside the point. He will act, not as a free agent, but mostly in
response to the interplay of pressure from above and below.
Whether it is he or McCain, the next American president will have to take some measures to address the current crises in US foreign policy, the banking system, housing, health care, and the decaying infrastructure, and may also be faced with having to dig the country out of a deepening recession. But the scope of any such reforms can't be predicted in advance, by ourselves or even the candidates, and will largely depend on whether these crises have been contained or are becoming more acute when either of the two takes office in January.
That makes the promises, threats, and compromises each makes on the campaign trail a not very reliable guide to policy, hardly worth getting that exercised about. What we do know with some degree of certainty, though, is that the Democrats are more susceptible to potential pressure from the unions and the social groups they rely on for election than are the Republicans, who respond to pressures from entirely the opposite direction. In defining itself to the campaign, it seems to me it is that - not Obama's perceived personal failings - which should be the salient starting point for the US left.