by BAR executive editor Glen Ford
The first Black president has racked up some impressive victories. Barack Obama has quarantined single-payer healthcare advocates, crushed dissent against the war in Congress, and transferred more money to the finance capital class than at any time in planetary history. Not bad for just five months in office. “At some point in the near future Barack Obama will become inextricably associated in the public mind with Big Capital – and deservedly so.”
Obama’s Emerging Legacy: Wars, Bankers and For-Profit Healthcare
by BAR executive editor Glen Ford
“The 'Obama Effect' has led to the near-total collapse of the Left.”
As of this writing, the Progressives for Obama website still exists, a relic of Left delusion that should have died of embarrassment months ago. Barack Obama has, indeed, grown in the presidency – but not into the FDR-like figure of his leftish supporters’ imaginations. Nor has his presence in the Oval Office served to spur Blacks and progressives to dramatic action, creating the “push” that Left Obamites had predicted would allow their champion to act on his more “liberal” instincts. Quite the contrary. The “Obama Effect” has led to the near-total collapse of the Left– both its white and Black wings – and made the nation safe for rule by finance capital and militarists.
The military, finance capital and healthcare corporations (insurers are a branch of finance capital) are winning every important battle because, on fundamental issues, President Obama is on their side. It is he who crushed the anti-war bloc in the US. House; who silenced and marginalized single payer advocates, while fawning over health profiteers; who engineered the greatest transfer of wealth in human history to bankers, leaving them free to once again ruin themselves and the rest of us.
So let us give President Obama his due. He not only smashed the Left opposition, he humiliated them.
“The Congressional Black Caucus can claim only eight members worthy of the label, 'progressive.'”
There is no longer an anti-war bloc in the U.S. Congress. It began to evaporate when Obama took office. The Out of Iraq Caucus has dissolved. The Progressive Congressional Caucus cannot find a mission. And the Congressional Black Caucus can claim only eight members worthy of the label, “progressive.” The list of CBC members among the 32 Democrats that voted “No” to Obama’s $106 billion Iraq and Afghanistan war request is so short, it can be taken in at a glance. Here are the few, the brave:
Barbara Lee (CA), Maxine Waters (CA), Diane Watson (CA), John Lewis (GA), Donna Edwards (MD), John Conyers (MI), Keith Ellison (MN), Donald Payne (NJ),
Less than seven years ago, only four members of the CBC supported George Bush’s Iraq War Powers: Harold Ford, Jr. (TN), William Jefferson (LA), Albert Wynn (MD) and Sanford Bishop (GA). In the pages of The Black Commentator I called them the “Four Eunuchs of War” and felt confident in writing:
“The rest of the 36 voting members of the Congressional Black Caucus defended Black America's political legacy, voting No. Rep. Barbara Lee (CA) led half of her CBC colleagues in support of her ‘alternative to war’ resolution, demonstrating once again that African Americans are the core of the forces of peace and justice in the U.S.”
It’s been all down hill for the CBC since 2002, a steady slide into corporatism and irrelevance. With the Black progressive “core” definitively demobilized since January 20, the Left is largely adrift.
Obama has accomplished what George Bush could not: virtually silence progressive voices in Congress, so that he can stoke the fires of war on two fronts without significant challenge from the legislative branch. It is a great victory, so why not congratulate the president, and give him the elemental respect of recognizing that he is – or is trying his best to be – a Man of War?
A Murdered Dream
Kudos, again, to the president, for such adroitness in killing a dream whose time appeared to have come: single-payer healthcare. Obama made non-persons of healthcare reform’s best friends in the Democratic Party, barring them from White House-sponsored healthcare events. The president erected a big tent that included everyone except single-payer advocates who, from Obama’s perspective, are the enemy. Instead, he wheels and deals and even invents nonexistent agreements with Big Pharma, Big Hospitals, and Big Insurance, all the while vowing to slice huge chunks out of Medicare and Medicaid.
Obama apologists offer their usual excuse: the president must huddle and compromise with the profiteers, if he is to get any kind of health care passed. The single-payers are well-meaning spoilers. Obama had to muzzle them, so he could get down to business on a practical plan.
“Obama made non-persons of healthcare reform’s best friends in the Democratic Party.”
What should be clear as day to any lucid, rational observer of the last 150-plus days, is that Obama has not compromised with anybody. Certainly, he never even thought to compromise with single-payer advocates – he simply shut them out of the discussion. And he was never in a position to effectively compromise with the healthcare profiteers and their political servants, since Obama never submitted a Plan of his own, or endorsed anyone else’s. Instead, he encouraged everybody and their momma except single-payer advocates to fashion their own plans – creating a cacophony of what Rep. Conyers aptly calls “crap.” In the end, he will throw his weight behind one or another pile of healthcare crap.
Is Obama incompetent? Only if you believe he sincerely wants a healthcare plan that is as close to the ideal of health-as-a-right as possible, in which case, yes, he has been amazingly incompetent. But why disrespect our president? Give the man credit for knowing what he is doing. Assess his efforts according to the clear logic of his actions, for he has worked wonders.
Obama has succeeded in shutting out of the debate proponents of an idea supported by an overwhelming majority of Americans and an even larger segment of his own party. According to a June 12-16 New York Times/CBS News poll:
“…72 percent of those questioned supported a government-administered insurance plan — something like Medicare for those under 65 — that would compete for customers with private insurers…. Sixty-four percent said they thought the federal government should guarantee coverage, a figure that has stayed steady all decade.”
“In the end, Obama will throw his weight behind one or another pile of healthcare crap.”
Only 20 percent of respondents oppose a Medicare-for-all-type plan. It would require the awesome power of a still very popular president to hold back a mob that is composed of damn near everybody, but Obama is up to the task. At the end of the process – this crap storm – that he has so skillfully set in motion, Obama will settle on a legislative contraption that will not even cover all of the 45 million-plus currently uninsured. For-profit healthcare will be safe for the remainder of his term, and possibly much, much longer.
Give Obama his props. He has turned the tide against real reform at a time of generalized crisis, when the chances for creating a civilized healthcare system were most propitious. He is a wonderment!
The Bankers’ Man
Even a man of Obama’s vast talents cannot easily hide the fact that the federal government (including the Federal Reserve) has “spent, lent or committed $12.8 trillion…to stem the longest recession since the 1930s,” as reported by the Bloomberg financial news service on March 31. The vast bulk of the money has gone to finance capitalists, most of it on President Obama’s watch. It is easily the largest transfer of national treasure in planetary history, accomplished in the relative wink of an eye, mostly outside the legislative process. By comparison, the 2008 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the United States – that is, the value of every good and service produced by every man, woman, child and enterprise of any kind in the nation – was $14.2 trillion. By the end of March, the feds had “spent, lent or committed” a sum equal to 90 percent of last year’s total economic activity in the United States – and still counting.
The Obama administration’s façade is cracking on the macro economic issue. Despite his hollow protestations, it is now generally perceived that Obama’s team is allowing “the banks” to get away with murder, theft and mayhem. In reality, the finance capitalist class is virtually inseparable from Obama’s economic apparatus; one is an extension of the other. Larry Summers, Tim Geithner, Robert Rubin, Paul Volker and the rest of Obama’s economic Rasputins will no more “rein in” finance capitalists, than they would put shackles on themselves.
“The Obama administration’s façade is cracking on the macro economic issue.”
Once gain, I must ask that you respect President Obama. Allow him to surround himself with people of like mind, men and women with whom he shares a core worldview. Do not belittle our president, by grumbling that he is being “manipulated” by “the bankers.” Accept that he is a strong leader, who knows what he wants to accomplish and is wise enough to choose a team that reflects his vision. The Obama administration serves the bankers’ interests because Obama wishes to do so.
This will be his undoing – not his expanding wars, not the healthcare fiasco – and much sooner than most think. Obama’s sham banking regulations were unveiled to great fanfare – and bombed, colossally, on the front page of the New York Times. In language that an economics columnist for the “gray lady” of corporate media seldom deploys against sitting presidents, Joe Nocera wrote:
“Everywhere you look in the plan, you see the same thing: additional regulation on the margin, but nothing that amounts to a true overhaul…. Firms will have to put up a little more capital, and deal with a little more oversight, but once the financial crisis is over, it will, in all likelihood, be back to business as usual.”
Nocera’s headline read, “Only a Hint of Roosevelt in Financial Overhaul.” William Greider, writing in The Nation, a bastion of “Progressives for Obama,” concluded that “most of Obama’s reforms are insubstantial gestures, not actual remedies.”
Kevin Baker’s devastating piece in the July issue of Harper’s stripped the emperor naked. Obama was not, as his progressive followers imagined, the second coming of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Rather, he is the political soul-mate of FDR’s predecessor, Herbert Hoover:
"Much like Herbert Hoover, Barack Obama is a man attempting to realize a stirring new vision of his society without cutting himself free from the dogmas of the past—without accepting the inevitable conflict….
“The common thread running through all of Obama’s major proposals right now, is that they are labrynthian solutions designed mainly to avoid conflict. The bank bailout, cap-and-trade on carbon emissions, health-care pools - all of these ideas are, like Hillary Clinton’s ill-fated 1993 health plan, simultaneously too complicated to draw a constituency and too threatening tor Congress to shape and pass as Obama would like. They bear the seeds of their own destruction.”
Baker is too kind. He persists in assigning Obama the most progressive of motives, when the content and consistency of his actions point to a profoundly corporate frame of mind and outlook. The president “avoids conflict” with the banks because he has no basic problem with them occupying the commanding heights of power in U.S. society.
“Barack Obama will become inextricably associated in the public mind with Big Capital.”
It is better, and ultimately more respectful, to judge a politician, or any person, by the accumulated body of his work. Based on his record as candidate and president to date, it is plain that Obama sees the world as the bankers see it. He accepts their advice because he agrees with it. He shares their core ethic, and is therefore always forgiving of their “excesses.” The fate of his presidency is entwined with theirs.
At some point in the near future Barack Obama will become inextricably associated in the public mind with Big Capital – and deservedly so. No one can predict when this perceptual critical mass will be reached, but once it has occurred, it sticks.
The aftershocks of the recent meltdown and the before-shocks of the next, onrushing crisis of capitalism will bring a cascade of calamities to the doorstep of the White House. With each crisis, Obama will do what we now know comes natural to him: protect capital at all costs to society as a whole.
With their champion saddled with such baggage, it will be interesting to see when “Progressives for Obama” become extinct.
BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.
Comments
I fully support President
I fully support President Obama on these changes. I can't actually understand those people who are against this historical reform. It can change our lives to the better side for sure. Just have a look at our health care system. It is not perfect. It is not even good at all. Comparing with European countries, our health care system is even terrible. It had to be changed 5 years ago, however there were no such a brave man as Obama who decided to turn these changes to reality. Just have a look at medication prices. My doctor have told me to use Levitra every single day few times a day. However how can I do that if it is so expensive? Moreover if I am unemployed or uninsured? There are no chances for me. I just hope that Obama's reform will change the whole situation in our country to the better side. Let's wait and see how it goes. Thanks for the nice article though.
The list of CBC members among
The list of CBC members among the 32 Democrats that voted “No” to Obama’s $106 billion Iraq and Afghanistan war request is so short, it can be taken in at a glance.
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Being the president,
Being the president, especially of the United States, is not easy as what other think it is. There are criticism left and right, problems that needed immediate solutiona and other things that may crack your head if you are in the position. That's why, I admired Obama for his dedication and commitment to his position.We are in the economic crisis so we should be working to help each other. We are in a great turmoil of depression. Luckily, you can go to a payday lender for a short term personal loan, often with no faxing and some lenders let you apply online and use direct deposit.
presidential visit
help single payer advocates get the message to the first black big capital president by attending a single payer rally in DC on july 30. details can be found on the health care for america website (not the phony health care for america now website). as you may know HR676, john conyers bill, will provide a true reform so of course it has been marginalized by the corporate legislators in washington. in addition, S703, is senator sanders companion bill in the senate.
on several occasions, congressman conyers has made the statement that the president will need to see the american people at his front doorstep if true health care reform is to happen. in light of the dog and pony show going on down there in the name of reform i think the congressman's statement is correct.
the dream is over, the hope is gone. it's time for progressives of all stripe to come together with an agenda that serves all the people. now that we are beginning to discover each other, let's get it on.
I wish that were true... but it's not.
I wish this sentiment were an accurate reflection of reality, but it's not.
1) Conyers is like Obama-as-old-man. He is fully a lapdog of American corporate business. His pronouncements on impeachment of Bush & Cheney proved his loyalty is to Big Business and American Imperialism, and not to the American people as individuals of modest or poor incomes. Whatever Conyers says, it's a distraction designed to make people think that Blacks in Federal power are united, but they need to be persuaded that the American people actually want something. This is total crap. It wouldn't matter if 5 million Americans marched on Washington DC -- those pulling the strings of Federal power will continue to disregard the vast majority of us because we do not have the same goals as the powerful have.
2) Nobody can have any input on the Congress, White House, or SCOTUS unless he or she has a lot of money. Federal power is in the hands of big businesses, PACs, lobbyists, and very rich individuals. Those people and entities do not need to be in the majority, number-wise, to keep their power. So it doesn't matter if millions march on DC. The powerful have police, National Guard, armed forces, and Homeland Security to protect them from us common rabble.
There will be no significant changes in American power and government until Americans realize, as a group, that the Democrat vs Republican game is a gigantic charade, and that the two parties are essentially two faces on the same group of interests. It's not about "progressives" needing to raise their voices. For pete's sake... the "progressive" caucus in the US Congress is just another gang of liars! They don't do a doggone thing for us regular folks.
Obama's legacy
Most of the black people I have spoken with recently seem almost catatonic when it comes to their ability to think critically about Obama’s presidency and what it means for African people.
Acquaintences and friends I once considered intellegent and introspective now appear obtuse and shallow. My niece who I have long admired for her insight and wisdom is unrecognizable when she adorns her self in her Obama garb. The transformation is almost as startling and terrifying as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
The above decription might seem a bit dramatic, but it is uncannyingly accurate. I am still reeling from the email exchange I had with her a couple of days ago.
She is not the only one. Other black folks I have come in contact with before and after the election have been equally adrift and irascible when the conversation involves anything other than praise and admiration for our first black president.
I was talking to a Nation of Islam representative a few days ago, and I tried to inform him of some of Obama's positions on issues affecting the black community. He immediately tried to change the subject to focus on my belief in God and my willingness to forgive. I am telling you people it is frightening. I can understand Cynthia's reluctance to return to the battlefield, but i guess we don.t have much choice.
peace
hamadi
editor and Publisher, African People's Bulletin
Obama
Obama is intelligent, well-educated, attractive, and charismatic.
Just the qualities I don’t want to see in the President of The Fourth Reich.
I’d much rather have a President that looks and talks like Nixon or Bush Jr.. Their appearances reflect their ethos.
The Kennedys, Clintons, and Obamas can more easily seduce the majority of the populace.
hmmm. not exactly.
Intelligent? Not really. Not demonstrably so. He does selfish things that are bad for our entire society. This is not a hallmark of intelligence. It is a sign of troglodytic egoism, and utter apathy. I'm sorry, he looks dimwitted to me.
Well-educated? Hardly. Ivy league schools do not educate. They create imperialists. They brainwash. They inculcate. It's time to drop the lies that long have stood as "cultural truths" in America. Expensive Ivy League degrees are NOT the best education one can get. Not even close.
Attractive? A matter of personal taste. He looks to me like a con-man. Or a rank liar. I would not want to befriend Barack Obama.
Charismatic? What, like a con-man? Charisma isn't always a positive thing.
Cynthia McKinney -- she's someone I'd want to befriend. She shows great intelligence and an educated perspective. And her charisma reflects integrity and honor.
She's pretty much the polar opposite of Obama.
Thank you!
Everything about Obama is so hyped!
Obama is, I feel sure, going
Obama is, I feel sure, going to be a one-termer, a sacrificial 'lamb'. And then what will come next, I shudder to think - unless progressives wake up and start constructing and promoting a progressive alternative in earnest.
Glen Ford need to get a life
With everything being hurled at Obama from the racist right wing what do we gain from a so called black so called intellectual tearing Obama down.From cracking down on credit cards,to going after big tobbacco Obama has proved himself for the common man.Now who are you for Mr Ford?Certainly not the average Black man on the street.Go to any hood once in a while or read black media if you have the spine.Most black people want him to succeed.I know you dont because you are secretly working for the same corporations you claim to hate so much.The only people who hate Obama the way you do are race traitors,self lothing coons who are jealous of any other Black who succeeds in life.Mr Ford you are a fraud,and I challenge you to debate me on this and any of your twisted uninformed garbage you spew.