but i'm just sayin.
she gets at a lot of what i've been thinking, re: the likelihood that this guy will disappoint almost everyone and potentially generate serious backlash. and a nice set of solutions at the end. :)
On Wed, Nov 12, 2008 at 2:21 PM, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
> [Thanks to Lou Proyect for pointing this out.]
>
> <http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/11/05/18549195.php>
>
> Uncritical Exuberance?
> by Judith Butler
> Wednesday Nov 5th, 2008 7:19 PM
<snip>
>
> The indisputable significance of his election has everything to do with
> overcoming the limits implicitly imposed on African-American achievement; it
> has and will inspire and overwhelm young African-Americans; it will, at the
> same time, precipitate a change in the self-definition of the United States.
> If the election of Obama signals a willingness on the part of the majority
> of voters to be "represented" by this man, then it follows that who "we" are
> is constituted anew: we are a nation of many races, of mixed races; and he
> offers us the occasion to recognize who we have become and what we have yet
> to be, and in this way a certain split between the representative function
> of the presidency and the populace represented appears to be overcome. That
> is an exhilarating moment, to be sure. But can it last, and should it?
>
> To what consequences will this nearly messianic expectation invested in
> this man lead? In order for this presidency to be successful, it will have
> to lead to some disappointment, and to survive disappointment: the man will
> become human, will prove less powerful than we might wish, and politics will
> cease to be a celebration without ambivalence and caution; indeed, politics
> will prove to be less of a messianic experience than a venue for robust
> debate, public criticism, and necessary antagonism. The election of Obama
> means that the terrain for debate and struggle has shifted, and it is a
> better terrain, to be sure. But it is not the end of struggle, and we would
> be very unwise to regard it that way, even provisionally. We will doubtless
> agree and disagree with various actions he takes and fails to take. But if
> the initial expectation is that he is and will be "redemption" itself, then
> we will punish him mercilessly when he fails us (or we will find ways to
> deny or suppress that disappointment in order to keep alive the experience
> of unity and unambivalent love).
>
> If a consequential and dramatic disappointment is to be averted, he will
> have to act quickly and well. Perhaps the only way to avert a "crash" – a
> disappointment of serious proportions that would turn political will against
> him – will be to take decisive actions within the first two months of his
> presidency. The first would be to close Guantanamo and find ways to transfer
> the cases of detainees to legitimate courts; the second would be to forge a
> plan for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq and to begin to implement that
> plan. The third would be to retract his bellicose remarks about escalating
> war in Afghanistan and pursue diplomatic, multilateral solutions in that
> arena. If he fails to take these steps, his support on the left will clearly
> deteriorate, and we will see the reconfiguration of the split between
> liberal hawks and the anti-war left. If he appoints the likes of Lawrence
> Summers to key cabinet positions, or continues the failed economic polices
> of Clinton and Bush, then at some point the messiah will be scorned as a
> false prophet. In the place of an impossible promise, we need a series of
> concrete actions that can begin to reverse the terrible abrogation of
> justice committed by the Bush regime; anything less will lead to a dramatic
> and consequential disillusionment. The question is what measure of
> dis-illusion is necessary in order to retrieve a critical politics, and what
> more dramatic form of dis-illusionment will return us to the intense
> political cynicism of the last years. Some relief from illusion is
> necessary, so that we might remember that politics is less about the person
> and the impossible and beautiful promise he represents than it is about the
> concrete changes in policy that might begin, over time, and with difficulty,
> bring about conditions of greater justice.
>
>
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