One year since Obama ’s inauguration

[Antid Oto]

REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl

One year since Obama’s inauguration
20 January 2010

One year ago today, on January 20, 2009, Barack Obama was sworn in as
the 44th president of the United States. The event was greeted with
enthusiasm in the US, as well as in Europe, the Middle East and
elsewhere. Many millions around the world hoped the long period of
political reaction in the US was finally ending. A year later, this
wishful thinking has turned into disillusionment, anger and opposition.

Some 2 million people gathered in Washington on Inauguration Day to
celebrate the end of the Bush years. From the opening words of his
address, however, Obama indicated that he would continue the policies
of his Republican predecessor that had been repudiated by the American
people.

Before making any reference to the economic and social crisis gripping
America, Obama declared, “Our nation is at war against a far-reaching
network of violence and hatred.” This was an unmistakable olive branch
to the Republicans and a declaration that his administration would
uphold the bogus “war on terrorism” in order to justify militarism and
attacks on democratic rights.

He went on to assert that the American people themselves shared the
blame for the financial disaster, cynically foisting responsibility on
the victims of a catastrophe entirely the making of the ruling class.

The president who ran as the candidate of “change” has continued the
right-wing policies of Bush. In foreign policy, he has maintained the
occupation of Iraq, increased US troop levels in Afghanistan, and
expanded the war into Pakistan.

Obama has explicitly upheld the Bush doctrine of pre-emptive war, by
which the US arrogates to itself the right to wage war against any
target it deems a present or potential danger to its interests. Yemen
has become the latest target of US threats, along with Iran, while the
tragedy in Haiti has been used to carry out a military occupation and
strengthen the stranglehold of US imperialism on that impoverished
country.

The American gulag in Guantanamo remains open, renditions and torture
continue, and the administration has insisted that no one from the
Bush administration or the CIA be held accountable for war crimes and
violations of international law.

In a statement issued on Election Day 2008, the World Socialist Web
Site succinctly characterized the class interests that the new
administration represented and would defend. The WSWS pointed out that
“powerful forces in the American political and financial establishment
have rallied behind Obama precisely because they believe that he,
after eight disastrous years of Bush, will help restore the battered
image of American imperialism. The hundreds of millions of dollars
that Obama has received from the business community testify eloquently
to the social and financial interests that he represents.”

In his inaugural address, Obama declared that the American people
would have to submit to a “new era of responsibility.” Commenting on
these remarks, the WSWS wrote on January 22, 2009, “The meaning of
these arguments is unmistakable. The advent of Obama will signal no
reprise of the New Deal or the Great Society. There will be no revival
of social reformism, but rather a turn to fiscal austerity and
counter-reforms directed against what little remains of a social
safety net in America, embodied in such programs as Social Security
and Medicare.

“The central political aim of the new administration, like the one
that it is replacing, will be protecting the interests and wealth of a
narrow financial elite, who will be bailed out at the expense of
millions of American workers and their families.”

Obama staffed his administration with corrupt representatives of Wall
Street, including former New York Federal Reserve President Timothy
Geithner and Lawrence Summers, two protégés of Robert Rubin, the chief
architect of financial deregulation during the Clinton years. Over the
last year, the administration has expanded the scale of the Wall
Street bailout, which has allowed the banks to make huge profits, hand
out tens of billions in compensation and resume their speculative
activities.

No relief has been forthcoming for the millions of workers who have
lost their jobs and homes. On the contrary, the White House has used
the economic crisis to force through a drastic and permanent reduction
in the living standards of the working class, beginning with the
forced bankruptcies of General Motors and Chrysler and the wage and
benefit reductions imposed on auto workers.

The Obama White House has refused to provide relief to the states,
leading to unprecedented attacks on public education and other social
services. With its push for health care “reform,” the administration
aims to reduce corporate and government spending by rationing health
care, slashing benefits for millions of working people and drastically
cutting Medicare spending.

Obama’s second year will begin with a State of the Union address next
week in which he will unveil an agenda of budget-cutting and
austerity. In order to finance the ongoing bailout of the wealthiest 1
percent of the American people, the administration is preparing to
slash entitlement programs and impose regressive taxes on the working
population.

>From day one, Obama has worked unflaggingly to rehabilitate the
Republicans, after they had been decisively repudiated by the voters
in the 2008 election. He appointed former Bush officials, including
Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and sought to tailor his policies to
the demands of the Republican right. The latest instance of the mantra
of bipartisanship is Obama’s revolting appointment of George Bush, an
unrepentant war criminal, to co-head with Bill Clinton the US “relief”
effort in Haiti.

Obama’s posturing as the tribune of “new politics” and the apostle of
progressive change was a fraud. He was selected and elevated by
powerful sections of the ruling elite, who calculated that a young
African-American in the White House would provide more favorable
conditions to push through their reactionary agenda.

The last year has exposed the democratic and progressive pretensions
of identity politics, and demonstrated that the fundamental division
in American society is not race, nationality or gender, but class.

It has also exposed the role of publications like the Nation and other
pseudo-left supporters of Obama, who campaigned for him and continue
to defend his policies, including the war in Afghanistan and the
gutting of health care. These are right-wing forces that represent
privileged social layers who are contemptuous of and hostile to the
working class.

As the administration begins its second year, it is gripped by crisis.
The debacles in Iraq and Afghanistan continue, and despite the
recovery on Wall Street the social crisis is worsening and the chief
cause of the economic meltdown—the decline in the world position of
American capitalism—continues. The prospects for a second and even
more destructive financial crash are all too real.

According to all opinion polls, Obama’s approval ratings have
plummeted and a majority believes that the US is going in the wrong
direction.

The Obama administration’s first year in power underscores the
fundamentally undemocratic character of the entire political system.
The aspirations and interests of the working population can find no
expression within a system monopolized by two parties of big business.

The record of the administration has only intensified popular
disillusionment with the government and all official institutions.
“Capitalism,” as in much of the 20th century, is once again becoming a
dirty word.

This foreshadows the emergence of a new period of class battles and
social upheavals, not just in the US, but internationally. The central
and most critical issue is the development of a new leadership to arm
this coming movement with a revolutionary, socialist and
internationalist program. That is the task to which the World
Socialist Web Site and the Socialist Equality Party are dedicated.

Jerry White

http://wsws.org/articles/2010/jan2010/pers-j20.shtml

**********
Dit bericht is verzonden via de informele D66 discussielijst (D66 at nic.surfnet.nl).
Aanmelden: stuur een email naar LISTSERV at nic.surfnet.nl met in het tekstveld alleen: SUBSCRIBE D66 uwvoornaam uwachternaam
Afmelden: stuur een email naar LISTSERV at nic.surfnet.nl met in het tekstveld alleen: SIGNOFF D66
Het on-line archief is te vinden op: http://listserv.surfnet.nl/archives/d66.html
**********