Re: What Decades of Obammunism Has Done to Detroit
Excerpts from the World "Socialist" Web Site :
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/jun2008/obam-j20.shtml
Obama speaks in Detroit:
rhetoric versus reality
By
Jerry White
20 June 2008
Barack Obama, the Democratic Party?s presumptive presidential nominee, addressed a large rally at Joe Louis Arena
in Detroit Monday night. Experiencing one of these events firsthand gives you a clearer picture of the political tightrope the Obama campaign is walking, raising limited expectations with its populist rhetoric on the one hand, while
pursuing policies that are entirely acceptable to corporate America and Wall Street on the other.
He has been groomed by powerful sections of the political establishment to put a new face on American capitalism, both for foreign policy purposes as well as on the domestic front.
Political rallies in the US have long been carefully stage-managed affairs, aimed at preventing any embarrassing and spontaneous intervention from the audience. From beginning to the end
the Obama rally was a tightly scripted television spectacle, varying in tone from a rock concert to a sporting event, and even a political rally.
Michigan?s Governor Jennifer Granholm, the first official to speak, did her best to promote
the fiction that the Democratic Party was leading some kind of insurgency against the reactionary policies of the Republican administration.
Former vice president and 2000 presidential candidate Al Gore gave the major introductory speech,...
A telling exchange with the audience came after Gore?s insistence that the campaign be conducted with ?respect for the Republican nominee? was met by loud boos. ?No, no!? implored Gore, who referred to Obama?s insistence that John McCain?s record of ?bravery in war and as a prisoner of war? in Vietnam made him deserving of respect.
As the WSWS has recently noted (See
?McCain and Vietnam: Revising history to pave the way for new wars?), such praise is not only a short-term electoral tactic, i.e., protecting Obama from Republican attacks for his lack of military experience, but
also a justification and preparation for new war crimes.
Leaving aside the false and recurring claim that Obama would be the great uniter of all races and social classes, this demagogy is aimed at concealing the fact that far from being a vehicle for social change,
the Democratic Party has provided the Bush camp with the key support it has needed at every critical juncture over the past eight years. This has included Gore?s own capitulation to the hijacked election of 2000
and support for the so-called ?war on terrorism,? which facilitated the launching of two wars and the undermining of democratic rights.
Obama?s own speech was punctuated with efforts to tap into the anger of workers and young people over falling living standards, social inequality and the continued war in Iraq.
Obama made it clear he was not against American militarism, the occupation of Afghanistan, and Bush?s so-called war on terror. ?We are a nation at war, in fact, two wars. One that we have to win against the ruthless killers that attacked us on 9/11, against al Qaeda and bin Laden, a war in Afghanistan that has to be won. We are also in a war in Iraq that should never have been authorized and waged; a war that has cost us thousands of lives, billions of dollars and has not made us safer.?
Operating entirely within the framework of the interests of American capitalism, both within the US and internationally,
Obama proposes measures that involve only tactical adjustments from the Republicans? policies, generally of a cosmetic character.
On the domestic front, he promotes
the illusion that the interests of Wall Street can be reconciled with the interests of ?Main Street,?...
Obama?s talk about closing the gap between ?winners and losers? in the economy is entirely empty. He proposes a relative pittance in tax rebates and government spending to encourage private investment, an amount that would have no significant impact on the monumental social need that exists. In other words, the ?change? constantly referred to turns out to be nothing more than ?small change,? mostly nickels and dimes, for the working class, while
the wealthy elite continue to pocket vast personal fortunes.
