Interior Dialogue

The November Revolution Thursday, 6 November, 2008

The election of Barack Obama as president of the United States is the most significant geo-political event since the end of the Cold War and the fall of the Berlin wall. And it’s not because of the color of his skin, which, in the long run, will probably turn out to have little more than symbolic significance. Neither is it because of its signaling some deep shift in American society: Obama won the election not because the American people have seen the “error of their ways” of the last 8 years, but because he ran a brilliant campaign, while the republican campaign may be described as a kind of dismal populist traveling circus. Republicans could have easily won against Obama, had they run a decent campaign.

Rather, some of the reasons why Pres. Obama is well placed to exert an influence on American politics, economy and society for decades to come, are similar to why FDR did. FDR’s New Deal was responsible for laying down the basic physical and human infrastructure (via the GI bill among others) which made possible the economic miracle of the after-war years. We are in a similar crisis today, and Obama is a man who is in the right place at the right time.

Today it is a fact which is accepted across the political spectrum, that both the physical and human infrastructure are crumbling. The supply-side (or trickle-down) policies of the last 3 decades do not seem to have reversed that process, but rather to have accelerated it. Supply-side economics is an economic theory which starts from the assumption that the upper class is the engine of an economy. However, history has shown repeatedly, and in many different times and places, that an upper class, while necessary, is not sufficient. It is the middle class that is the real engine of an economy. America has neglected its middle class at its own peril.

A middle class thrives on freedom: freedom from disease, freedom from fear and freedom from ignorance, of which the latter two may be seen as forms of mental disease. These are the fundamental ingredients which help a middle class, and thereby a modern democracy, prosper.

Neo-conservatives, however, have practically made official policy out of actively feeding the middle class with fear (“terrorism”) and ignorance (the entertainment that passes for “news”, failing pre-university education), while allowing chronic diseases (obesity, diabetes, cancer, heart disease) to spiral out of control through excessive stress, poor nutrition, and above all, a deeply dysfunctional health “system”.

What makes Obama’s presidency a landmark is his recognition of the three essential ingredients mentioned above, and his insistence on the idea that government can be a force for good. It may seem paradoxical for a country traditionally suspicious of government, but America owes its prosperous present to inspired actions of its government in the past. The great leaps in innovation and technology, leading to increased prosperity and retreating poverty around the world over the last 4 decades, have been overwhelmingly government funded (whether American or not). The communications (satellites), energy (generation, distribution) and transportation (highways, trains, shipping) infrastructure to which America owes its miraculous growth over the last half century would never have existed without government “intervention”. See for example the visionary Vannevar Bush report of July 1945.

Moreover, Pres. Obama also seems to be acutely aware of the looming climate crisis, and seems uniquely determined to do something about it. The whole planet eagerly waits for him to follow his words with actions. America’s leading position as generator of garbage in all its forms (actual trash, pollutants from agriculture, carbon dioxide, nuclear waste) makes it the keystone of any worldwide effort to dodge the oncoming environmental bullet. Without America, any such effort is doomed to crumble, and, eventually, with it, human civilization as we know it. It is deeply misleading to speak of “Saving the planet”. Any biologist knows that the “planet” will do just fine, and indeed, has weathered worse crises in the past; it’s only us humans that might not make it. We need to find a way to avoid becoming victims of our own success.

This is why, in the long run, President Obama’s skin color, though the most talked about issue at the present time, will turn out to be only a historical curiosity, a footnote. What the chapter titles will be, we will have to wait and see, but I am betting on the environment, and on freedom from disease, fear and ignorance.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License. Alexandru Ioan Căbuz 2008.