Obama’s historic victory
A quarter of a million ecstatic, cheering
supporters greeted Barack Obama’s acceptance speech as US
president-elect. Those jubilant scenes were replicated around the world
as millions more celebrated the end of George W Bush’s rule. More
importantly, people saw in Obama’s victory hope for real change, a
central theme of his campaign. He now stands with a massive burden of
hope on his shoulders. In a series of articles by members of
Socialist
Alternative (CWI USA), Socialism Today looks at this momentous event
and its implications.
BARACK OBAMA’S HISTORIC victory opens up a new
period in American history. Obama won 52% of the vote to John McCain’s
46%, defeating him by 7.4 million votes. Democrats also picked up at
least five Senate seats and 20 House seats, to have a comfortable
majority in both chambers. It is not just a massive repudiation of eight
years of Republican rule. It is just 40 years since segregation ruled in
the South, yet a black man has now been elected to the highest office in
the land, winning the state of Virginia, the cradle of the Confederacy.
This will be celebrated by millions not only in
America, but around the world. The vision of an African American man,
with the middle name Hussein, replacing the hated Bush presidency will
be looked upon with joy. However, what is not so clearly seen, at this
stage, is his deep ties with the political and corporate elite who will
determine the content of his administration.
The key factor in this election was the economy,
named by 63% of voters as their most important issue. Of the 50% of
voters who said they were ‘very worried’ about the economy, 60% voted
for Obama. This trend crossed ages, gender and race. This is at a time
when an astonishing 85% of Americans say the country is on the wrong
track.
The Bush administration’s blatant pro-business
rhetoric and its outrageous handouts to corporate friends caused a large
target to be painted on the back of any Republican candidate. Following
a steady decline in living standards over the last two decades, the
economic meltdown in October sealed their fate. The boast by Republican
kingpin Karl Rove that he was building a permanent new ‘Republican
majority’ lies in ruins.
Obama has also rewritten the book on electoral
campaigning. He had 3.1 million financial contributors, 2.2 million
supporters on his Facebook page, and more than 700 campaign offices,
with at least one in every state in America. Obama raised more than $640
million, dwarfing the amount raised by McCain.
In a clear pointer to how a campaign could be won
without relying on corporate dollars, he set up a dynamic election
campaign that put far more bodies on the streets that even the famed
Republican machine of old. This was also reflected in massive rallies of
100,000 and the enthusiastic mood for his campaign among many young
people and workers.
Attempts by Republican candidate McCain to redefine
the dominant issue of this election totally failed, as did his attempt
to paint Obama as a friend of terrorists, a Muslim, culturally
‘different’ (coded racism) and, finally, as a socialist. The blatant
misrepresentations used to bury Democratic Party candidates in 2000 and
2004 failed to stick.
Interestingly, the attempt to define Obama as a
‘wealth redistributor’ actually helped expose how unequal American has
become, due in part to the Republican-initiated tax cuts for the rich.
The attempt by Republicans to inject class into the election, in the
person of Sarah Palin and in their engagement of ‘Joe the plumber’, also
failed. The majority of voters soon found out this was just another
trick by Republicans to confuse them.
The repudiation of Palin by a majority shows how
much of a minority view the right-wing agenda is. One can expect to see
a fierce battle for the soul of the Republican Party in coming years, as
the different wings wage a battle for domination. More ‘moderate’
Republican candidates have lost their seats in the Senate. The
Republican Party is being pushed further into being a southern party,
increasingly dominated by what The Economist describes as
"southern-fried moralism".
Instead, the economic collapse pushed voters to
demand change and to vote for Obama. It was this that allowed him to win
majorities among new voters, young voters, women, African Americans,
Latinos, Asians, and people living in cities. One photograph showed a
homemade sign with the Confederate flag. It read: ‘Rednecks for Obama.
Even we’ve had enough’.
One America?
BUT OBAMA RAISED most of his money from the rich and
Corporate America. The wealthiest Americans, making over $30 million per
year, gave to Obama three to one over McCain. Also, three-quarters of
the $640 million he raised came from donors who made contributions of
$200 or more. His major funders include a Who’s Who of investment banks
and Wall St. companies (www.opensecrets.org).
Here lies the contradiction in Obama’s win. Obama
has managed to speak to Americans of all incomes, including the very
rich and the poor. He has received money from regular workers and from
corporate CEOs. He has promised to govern one America. However, we don’t
live in one America. We live in two Americas, one that has gotten
fabulously rich and the other that has been taking it on the chin, has
unstable jobs, and is one step away from losing their homes or
apartments and being on the streets. One America for billionaires, and a
different one for the almost 50 million who lack healthcare.
It will not be ordinary working-class people who
will be sitting in his cabinet or advising him on policy issues. It will
be same Wall Street and corporate executives and established
pro-imperialist foreign policy advisors who have sat in the cabinets of
US presidents for generations. They will be the ones driving Obama’s
domestic and foreign policy.
Obama’s victory itself does nothing to assure
genuine change for the majority of African Americans, who continue to
face the worst jobs and living conditions. But its importance cannot be
underestimated in a country where, just 40 years ago, Jim Crow laws
assigned African Americans to second-class citizenship and where dogs
and water cannons were put on those who fought against this.
The election of the first black president will be
seen as a victory not only for African Americans, but also Latinos,
Asians, and Americans of other races who have been shut out of power
during the long racist history of American capitalism. Today, families
from Mexico and Latin America are being arrested and split up in racist
immigration raids.
The possibility of Obama becoming president had a
huge galvanizing effect for African Americans. The New York Times
described a 55-year-old African American janitor who registered to vote
for the first time a month ago: "This is huge. This is bigger than life
itself. When I was coming up, I always thought they put in who they
wanted to put in. I didn’t think my vote mattered. But I don’t think
that anymore". (2 November) Obama’s election could well be the catalyst
that sparks African Americans to step up their struggle for better
conditions.
David A Bositis, senior political analyst at the
Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, stated: "It’s not just
a question of Obama as the first black nominee; it’s also that African
Americans have suffered substantially under the Bush years and African
Americans have been the single most anti-Iraq-war group in the
population". (New York Times, 2 November)
Millions of young people, people of colour, and
ordinary workers will be inspired to step forward into activity as a
result of this election. Many of them will see the need to help organise
campaigns and protests on the ground in an attempt to keep Obama’s
attention on those who elected him. Others will be forced into struggle
to defend themselves against the cutbacks and attacks resulting from
this recession.
President-elect Obama faces the worst economic
crisis since the Great Depression and a new unravelling of the wars in
Iraq and Afghanistan. As Obama is forced by his party and his corporate
funders to come out on the side of big business, this will prepare the
way for a new political awakening, growing struggles, and a growing
working-class consciousness. In this way, a new political movement can
begin that rejects the Democratic Party as its friend and, instead, sees
the need to build a new party of workers and young people as the only
way to bring about fundamental change in our lives.
Tony Wilsdon
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