[lbo-talk] Obamauration

[James Heartfield]

This is a bit impressionistic, but rushing through the LBO reaction to Obama's inauguration, the chasm between that and the reactions to his election seems huge. Shouldn't we go back over what we all said then, and compare it with the hyper-critical reaction to him now? I feel as though I was too critical then, and a bit distanced from the criticisms made of him here, now. Is the disappointment relative to the great hopes placed in the man? Are the disappointments a bit overdone? He is not left wing, clearly that is the case. But then why should we have thought otherwise?

I still think that Obama's election represents a sea-change in America's race politics, and one for the good. Is that naive?

His cabinet choices don't seem to me to say that he is right wing, but rather that he is trying to supercede the left-right political divide, a bit like Tony Blair did here in 1997. The danger in that is not right wing politics, but the creation of an apolitical technocratic administration. Seeing the popular mobilisation behind the presidency it might seem odd to say it, but the outcome of this apolitical administration is a retreat from democratic contestation, where dissent is marginalised.