A couple more days

I was with a bunch of working guys in my local pub tonight and naturally, the elections were a hot topic of discussion. Three of the four of us were white and three of the four of us were voting for Obama, me being the only one who was not. This caused a lot of discussion and I think that my arguments for why I wasn't voting for Obama made sense although non of them agreed with me.

I asked one white guy to explain in a nutshell why he was voting for Obama. He told me that, and these are almost his exact words, "when I think of some kid in Pakistan or over there in the middle east or anywhere else in the world, I think that if Obama gets elected and they see this man's face on the television as President of the USA they will think that we are not the nation they thought. They will think that we are a nation that can put a man in to the highest office in the country and that this man can look more like them than me. This will give us some credibility again."

There is no doubt an incredible amount of hope if you like, or illuions which is how I would put it, in Barak Obama, and the next, probably Democratic, administration.

Samuel L Jackson, an actor that I enjoy very much said of Barak Obama that,

"Obama is the president to take us to the next place. He's not part of the establishment, number one. He doesn't have that sense of entitlement that others have had."

This is not true of course, Obama is very much part of the establishment, is very much part of the elite. As the Australian jornalist, Greg Sheridan pointed out:

" It is typical to see Obama's life described as an incredible odyssey that could only happen in America. There was nothing incredible about it. His mother was a peripatetic academic researcher. He was reared mostly by his grandparents. His grandmother was a bank vice-president and his grandfather a furniture store manager and then insurance salesman. They gave him a sturdily middle-class life. He went to Hawaii's best high school and America's efficient meritocracy later saw him attend Columbia and Harvard universities. This is all entirely admirable, but there is nothing the least incredible or odyssey like about it."

Sheridan is correct but fails to recognize that racism in America has a profound effect on people of color from all classes, the OJ saga proves that. Given America's racist past it would be a mistake to not see how incredible it is in the eyes of millions of people of color that someone that looks like them could be president. The same could be said were Hilary Clinton the likely victor on Tuesday. But Barak Obama is indeed a person of privilege.

But no one can deny the hisotric significance of the possibility that on Wedneday the US will wake up to a president with a black face. As one of my co-workers said, "I've voted for white men for years and got screwed for it; he can't be worse." It should be rememberd by all white folks over 55 that in our lifetime black men were castrated for attempting to vote in what was trumped as the world's greatest democracy; a president Obama is truly of great significance.

But Obama, or McCain should he win, will be forced to wage war on America's workers. The bill for the bail out will have to be paid. The folks that put up most of the money for this one billion dollar election want their money's worth and the capitalist class, fortunate enough be represented by both candidates, will expect an Obama or a McCain to carry out the policies they have paid for; a political party does not exist in a vacuum, it is not devoid of class content.

The problem is that the Democrats have tapped in to the tremendous desire of Americans for change. That's the problem with elections in a bourgeois democracy. The Bush administration has probably been the worst in the history of US politics and people are thirsting for change. Obama by some accounts has 200,000 volunteers on the ground in Florida alone. In the streets of Oakland California I have come across eighteen year old white kids and their black, university educated colleagues stumping for Obama. When I asked one young teenager if she supported Obama's plan to increase the presence of US troops in Afghanistan she looked at me with a blank expression, it was obvious she had no idea. All she knew was that he was going to make America a better place. He will end conflict, bring harmony and change; he offers a brighter future, and the youth more than any group need that.

The many thousands of people waking up Wednesday morning will not be pacified by a statement from the Presdent announcing the cancellation of all promises; they will have to produce something. Where will the 200,000 in Florida go? Where will the remaining hundreds of thousands drawn in to political activity by the Obama campaign go? This will be a major dilemma for Obama and the Democrats; it will come on top of the smashing of the idea that the market is god and can solve all problems. It will follow on the heels of home losses, the destruction of pensions and billions lost in peole's 401ks; it will follow on the heels of the imbecile Bush.

I think it is likely they will be forced to introduce some reforms; to make some concessions. Maybe it will be on health care or with regard to housing, perhaps stopping foreclosures. Even JP Morgan, the world's premier userers announced this weekend a moratorium on foreclosures; the capitalist class is worried this might get out of hand.

The bail out occured not because there is a shortage of money, it was an expenditure of taxpayer's money in the hope that the folks who own the world's wealth will let go of some of it, will play again. I liken the market to a huge cess pool full of solid waste of the type we are familiar with. The capitalists are saying that if we, the workers, jump in and clean out the turds they will come swim. The British state, representing the interests of the capitalist class as a whole is warning the financial capitalists that they had better cough up; if they do not, says the Financial Times, "public outrage will ensure that those drastic plans gather no dust." The plans they are talking about is a complete nationalization of the banks; they are warning their class brothers of the dangers if things continue to worsen.

Regardless of the level of reform, the next US administration will be forced to savage worker's living standards and social services; the bill has to be paid. Chrysler will no dounbt go under or merge with GM or Ford, in itself a sign of defeat. In the past month the US working class has seen the market humbled and government take over of two thirds of the housing industry the bail out of the banks and the takeover of the world's largest insurance company. We have seen concrete evidence that the money is there for education, housing and other social needs as two trillion or so has appeared from nowhere. We have learned that the wheels of government don't necessarily have to move slowly.

Not long after the elections many Americans, dejected once again with politics, will retreat in to inactivity and apathy, but there are many more that will be looking for an answer, somewhere to go after the shattering of their illusions in the market and the failure of bourgeois politics.

For socialists, and other anti-capitalists the objective situation will be more favorable than it has been for years. Our ideas and alternative will get an echo that is a long time coming. We must not lose grasp of this reality and should take advantage of it. Facts For Working People want to be part of this process and are open to working with others who feel the same way.

We won't object if you want to join with us in this process.