Political Commentary

The WSWS never has anything good to say about Democrats, and Obama is no exception. Despite this, there is real reason to worry about Obama, given his stated goals of trying to "reach across the aisle" to people who have no intention of compromise and against the will of the voters who put him in office:

Obama has already indicated that his policies will in all essentials be a continuation of those of the outgoing administration, perhaps in a somewhat more skillfully packaged form. He has surrounded himself with individuals associated with imperialist crimes and financial scandals, including Bush's Pentagon chief, Robert Gates, who presided over the military "surge" in Iraq and opposed any timetable for withdrawing US troops from the devastated country.

Obama has devoted the months since his election—a sweeping popular repudiation of the Bush administration's policies of war, repression and social reaction—to conciliating and reassuring the Republican right. The New York Times reported Monday that Obama has regularly consulted his defeated opponent, Republican Senator John McCain, allowing the virulently pro-war senator to vet his nominees for top national security posts. The Times notes that, according to South Carolina senator and McCain associate Lindsey Graham, McCain has told colleagues "that many of these appointments he would have made himself." McCain was Obama's guest of honor at his pre-inaugural dinner Monday night.

To the extent that there is any basis for the self-congratulatory tone of the media hype, it is the fact that Obama is the first African-American president. This is undoubtedly a milestone. But its significance is vastly eroded by the fact that in the current historical circumstances it is impossible to associate his ascendancy with a revival of policies that promote social equality.

Even if he were truly sympathetic to the plight of the American people, the problems are such he may not be able to fix them. And once again, my belief the Republicans "allowed" him to win in order to set him up for failure still holds. One thing the Democrats in the Senate NEED to do is restore the old filibuster rules so that the fascists actually have to argue a bill to death just as senators did in the old days. The GOP senators are going to do nothing but obstruct, popular will be damned. They are in survival mode, and that's why they feel they have to obstruct.

If Obama succeeds and actually acts like a Democrat, the GOP could face a long period of irrelevance, which may be permanent given the demographic changes in this country. But if he is nothing but an appeaser with his "transformative" bullshit, he will fail, and then we will be in deep, deep shit.