by Dave Riley
As if you didn't know!
There's a bit of a conundrum involved which warrants a bit of attention straight away.
While the fact that the guy is Afro-American is very significant we are still stuck with the USA as is -- with its imperialism and all the rest.
I was wondering what the fall out is likely to be in Africa -- and while the media have played up the Martin Luther King "I have a dream..." angle -- the key factor is what expectancy, what hopes -- the US population will invest in the administration of this new president.
I say that's a wild card..and in similar way, it has to play out in Africa too.
What ever way you cut it there's a black man in the White House.
In his 1964 novel, Irving Wallace speculated on such a contingency:
As a novel, The Man — written before the 25th Amendment to the national Constitution — begins, the Vice-Presidency is vacant, because of the incumbent's death. Then, while overseas, the President and the Speaker of the House suffer a freak accident; the President is killed, the Speaker of the House dies in surgery. The Presidency then corresponds to Douglass Dilman, the President Pro Tempore of the Senate, a black man earlier elected to that office in deference to racial tokenism.
President Douglas Dilman's presidency is marked by white racists, black political activists, and an attempted assassination. Later, he is impeached on false charges for firing the United States Secretary of State.
That's the key point.
I'm sure there are millions of Afro Americans who'll tell you that racism in the United States is same ole same ole but for the average Red Neck or what have you everyday Whitey -- this election is a bit of a wake up call.
Millions have betrayed that racist trust and have crossed over to invest their hopes in a Nigger.
That doesn't kill off racism in the US or change in itself any aspect of the Afro American condition. Nonetheless, it raises expectations that are sure to empower a new assertiveness.
It may be de rigueur on the Left to reference the 60's Vietnam anti war movement as the beginning of an ascendant protest movement and a new wave of struggle. I don't agree. I think the catalyst began in Alabama and Montgomery-- before the anti war movement kicked in.
I think the beginning of the way the world was remade was in the crucible of the Civil Rights Movement in the context of a rise of national liberation struggles elsewhere in the world.
That's what we all owe Afro Americans. It was their struggle that inspired a generation.
So for Obama to win the presidency --despite the fact that the US ruling class also chose him -- suggests that there are a few risk factors in play -- for them.
While I've got a hole in my bum, Obama isn't going to morph into a Martin Luther King. But that's not the point. The point is that there is a new expectancy that cannot be fulfilled by Washington despite Obama's residency there.
The scale of the interest and excitement that has also been felt here in Australia suggests that hope and political aspirations are not deadened to a degree where people cannot be vitalised. That -- even if we are stuck with Kevin Rudd -- the US has a new favorite son to look to: a figure who can aggregate more hope than what this Labor government was willing to stimulate.
It doesn't matter that Obama won't or doesn't deliver. It does matter that the very promise of it engages people to expect more to happen.
And when it doesn't....well, there you have it: a new ballgame.
- The United States Socialist Worker is maintaining an online election journal and analysis of the November 4 vote.
