[R-G] ZNet Book Interview: Demystifying Obama

[Anthony Fenton]

http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/18670
ZNet Book Interview: Demystifying Obama
September 03, 2008 By Paul Street
Paul Street, Barack Obama and the Future of American Politics  
(Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers, 2008)
ISBN: 978-1-59451-631-3
URL: www.paradigmpublishers.com/Books/BookDetail.aspx?productID=186987


"All those interested in truth rather than seduction should read  
urgently this wise book by Paul Street, who peels away the mask of the  
‘Obama phenomenon' and reveals power as it is, not as many of us wish  
it to be."

—John Pilger, Director of the film, "The War on Democracy."


1. Can you tell ZNet, please, what "Barack Obama and the Future of  
American Politics" is about? What is it trying to communicate?



The book is an attempt to demystify Barack Obama and understand his  
emergence and candidacy in the context of U.S. political culture and  
history.  Everybody knows that the rise of Obama is loaded with  
relevance for American social and political history. But what is "the  
Obama phenomenon," exactly? Its nature and meaning remain shrouded in  
fantasy, wishful thinking, projected aspirations, and (on the right)  
preposterous neo-McCarthyite accusation.



My book situates Obama firmly within the United States' longstanding  
corporate-dominated and militaristic U.S elections system and  
political culture. It provides an overdue in-depth investigation form  
the left of the Obama phenomenon's substantive content and limits in  
relation to corporate power (a key subject in Chapter 1), class  
inequality (also in Chapter 1), institutional racism (Chapter 3), and  
imperial U.S. foreign policy (Chapter 4 - please see the Table of  
Contents at the end of this interview).



I find that the Obama campaign epitomizes three core essences of  
American politics:  (1) "the manipulation of populism by elitism" (the  
still-Left Christopher Hitchens' phrase in 1999); (2) the privileging  
of corporate-crafted, mass marketed candidate image (branding) over  
substantive matters of policy and ideology; (3) the absence of serious  
left options within the American "winner-take-all" party system.



"Brand Obama," I argue, is no special exception to the basic essence  
of American presidential politics. Every four years, many Americans  
invest their hopes and dreams in an electoral process that does not  
deserve their trust. These voters hope that a savior can be installed  
in the White House - someone who will raise wages, roll back war and  
militarism, provide universal and adequate health care, rebuild the  
nation's infrastructure, produce high-paying jobs, fix the  
environmental crisis, reduce inequality, guarantee economic security,  
and generally make daily life more livable.



The dreams are regularly drowned in the icy waters of historical and  
political "reality."  In the actuality of American politics and  
policy, the officially "electable" candidates are vetted in advance by  
what Laurence H. Shoup calls "the hidden primary of the ruling  
class."  By prior Establishment selection, all of the "viable"  
presidential contenders are closely tied to corporate and military- 
imperial power in numerous and interrelated ways.  They run safely  
within the narrow ideological and policy parameters set by those who  
rule behind the scenes to make sure that the rich and privileged  
continue to be the leading beneficiaries of the American system.



After examining the historical meaning of the Obama phenomenon, my  
book explains Obama's remarkable ascendancy.  The fifth chapter is  
titled "Obama Nation: Sixteen Reasons" and gives a concise treatment  
of why Obama emerged when it did.  Here are some of the key sub- 
headings in that chapter: "Deception," "Media Love Matters," "The  
Novelty Premium,"  "Skin Color and the Illusion of Greater  
Liberalism," "Managing Mass Hope and Euphoria From the Top Down," "The  
Emperor's New Clothes?," "The Power of American Exceptionalism," and  
"Little That Seems Viable to His Left."



I should add that the book's introduction gives a short history of  
exactly how Obama came to be an "overnight" sensation.  It traces  
Obama's career from his short community organizing period through his  
early vetting (in late 2003 and early 2004) by the national political,  
business, and lobbying class, his celebrated (and militantly  
centrist)Keynote Address to the 2004 Democratic Convention and the  
publication of his second book ("The Audacity of Hope"), which kicked  
off his presidential campaign in late 2006.



Last but not least, my book suggests ways in which left progressives  
and others might respond productively to both the limits and the  
opportunities of the Obama phenomenon.



The book's Afterword, written after Obama secured the Democratic  
nomination, is titled "Imagining a Progressive Future." It discusses  
what a real progressive "change" agenda would look like whether or not  
Obama wins in November.



The book is designed to help citizens and activists distinguish fuzzy  
myth from harsh reality in understanding the meaning of the "ruling  
class candidate" (as a Denver convention protestor accurately  
described him last week, prior to being arrested) Barack Obama. I  
agree with the Left political scientist Adolph Reed Jr., who says the  
following on the back of the book: "progressive agendas will not be  
advanced through vesting hopes and aspirations in candidate-centered  
politics."  As Reed elaborates, "there is no quick or easy substitute  
for the task of building a serious, institutionally grounded working- 
class based political movement..."



At the same time, my book cautiously holds out the possibility that  
the Obama phenomenon could help (in Charles Derber's words on the back  
of the book) "oxygenate the grassroots movements that are the true  
architects of change."  It cautiously recommends that voters select  
Obama to block the dangerous and extremist John McCain in contested  
states, though I must add that I penned this advice before Obama  
lurched further to the right in dramatic ways during July and August  
of 2008.



The book also suggests that there could be some radical potential in  
Obama's lofty and more progressive-sounding rhetoric, which has  
channeled and raised some expectations we can expect an Obama  
candidacy and a possible Obama White House to disappoint. The  
historian Barrington Moore once noted that rising and dashed  
expectations are critical ingredients in the making of modern  
revolutions.





(2) Can you tell ZNet something about writing the book? Where does the  
content come from? What went into making the book what it is?



I guessed Obama would be a presidential candidate sooner rather than  
later when I saw him give his Keynote Address. When John ("I am NOT a  
Redistribution Democrat") Kerry got beat, I thought that a good chunk  
of the ruling class and a fair portion of the Democratic electorate  
would find Obama irresistible.  I set aside a couple file drawers for  
Obama stories and speeches. When it was clear he was running for the  
White House, I figured I had the makings of a decent political  
monograph.  I started drafting proposals and ended up back with my  
first publisher, Paradigm.  Last February, we planned a volume that  
would situate Obama within the deeper history of the (corporate- 
imperial) Democratic Party and the American party system and political  
tradition.



Paradigm was encouraged by the fact that I have been in good places to  
see the rise of Obama up close. I was an urban social policy  
researcher producing project studies on various Illinois issues Obama  
deliberated upon (chiefly campaign finance and welfare "reform") in  
the Illinois state legislature during the late 1990s.



Between 2000 and 2005, I was the research director at a predominantly  
black civil rights and social service agency located in the historical  
heart of Chicago's South Side black ghetto.  I occasionally worked  
with black legislators and had some very marginal involvement with  
state senator Obama.  I organized a fall 2002 conference where he  
spoke on incarceration and job issues, referring to a study I did on  
racially disparate mass imprisonment and felony-marking. I managed a  
project study (on school technology) he funded through the state.



I knew the Obama phenomenon before it hit the national scene and I  
knew it from within the black community (white though I may be), where  
it was common to see Obama as excessively "bourgeois" and as too close  
to the Chicago (Richard M. Daley) Machine and to other centers of  
white, political, corporate, and academic power.



Between August 2007 and January 3rd 2008, I did (largely at the  
instigation of a close relative) a fair amount of volunteer work for  
the semi-progressive John Edwards presidential campaign. This was a  
little odd given by own left-Marxist/anarchist background and  
sympathies (still intact), but it was a good move, book-wise. It  
afforded me a lot of voter contact with Obama supporters in Iowa City  
(where I live) and in Muscatine County in eastern Iowa.



There's nothing like Iowa when it comes to seeing the presidential  
campaign, for better or worse. And Iowa City was sort of an Obamanist  
"ground zero." I had a number of strange conversations with privileged  
white Obama "progressives" - something that set off some alarms and  
helped spark me to write this book.



Fighting the Obama campaign (in what I rightly figured was a losing  
battle) block-by-block and house-by-house for votes (Caucusers) forced  
me to keep tabs on Obama's statements, speeches, and supporters in  
ways that turned out to be useful for writing about the Obama  
phenomenon. It was also a great deal of fun.



Paradigm publisher Dean Birkenkamp wanted a book that would be more  
than a quick Left hit job --- a radical version of what "Jerome Corsi,  
Ph.D" has recently done from the right in his atrocious book "The  
Obama Nation."  Dean wanted a serious readable but academically  
respectable study that would place the Obama phenomenon within the  
larger context of American political history and hold value beyond the  
current election. I really think I did that here.



Amusingly enough, my original title (ultimately rejected but briefly  
mocked up for a draft cover) was "Obama Nation."





(3) What are your hopes for Barack Obama and the Future of American  
Politics? ]? What do you hope it will contribute or achieve  
politically? Given the effort and aspirations you have for the book,  
what will you deem to be a success? What would leave you happy about  
the whole undertaking? What would leave you wondering if it was worth  
all the time and effort?



I hope this book will help citizens and activists shed illusions about  
Obama's "progressive" claims.  I hope it will spark them to remember  
that Democratic Party politicians and presidents soften their  
attachment to capitalism and war only when challenged (as in the 1930s  
and 1960s) by popular rebellion from below. I hope it will encourage  
readers to differentiate between (i) the secondary question of how to  
respond to the limited "choices" offered by the corporate-managed  
electoral "democracy" and (ii) the more urgent problem of rebuilding  
and expanding grass roots social movements and changing the political  
culture across and between election cycles.  I hope it will help  
clarify critical differences between (i) Obama and the Democratic  
Party's persistent corporate-imperial centrism and (ii) an actual  
Left, true-progressive change agenda.  If Obama wins, I hope my book  
will encourage an organized and outraged citizenry to put regular  
powerful and guilt-free pressure on an Obama White House and (more  
significantly) to develop alternative popular power centers and  
democratic capacities beneath and beyond electoral politics.  I hope  
it will help readers understand a President Obama's likely  
"progressive" failures and betrayals in light of his repeatedly  
demonstrated allegiance to dominant domestic and imperial hierarchies  
and doctrines.



John McCain is a profoundly dangerous presidential candidate  
representing an extremist, arch-plutocratic and messianic-militarist  
party.  Still, Obama is attractive to a large section of the U.S.  
power elite because he promises to pacify and co-opt angry citizens  
and activists and re-establish confidence in the legitimacy of the  
current political order by reinforcing the argument that "the system"  
still "works."



Our current corporate-managed and imperial democracy doesn't work for  
any but the privileged Few. It is a grave threat to human survival and  
peace and justice at home and abroad. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was  
right forty years ago when he called for the "radical reconstruction"  
of society and the "radical redistribution of political and economic  
power" in the U.S. The path of that reconstruction is long and leads  
well past my own time on this planet, but it is clear to me that  
millions of people in the world's most powerful nation are being  
dangerously hypnotized and repressively de-sublimated yet again by the  
false hopes and colored lights of the narrow-spectrum corporate-run  
election extravaganza.



If Obama loses, and he could (racism would be the main reason, I  
think), it will be important for progressively inclined citizens and  
activists to understand that it was corporate-imperial centrism, not  
the Left and not the People, that got defeated. They must not  
interpret an Obama defeat to mean that the People and/or the Left  
tried and failed and that it is therefore okay for them to give up and  
retreat into private experience and concerns. If he wins, citizens and  
activists need to understand the severe limits of what triumphed and  
be prepared to fight and organize on a daily basis beneath and beyond  
quadrennial candidate-centered and corporate-crafted election  
spectacles.







TABLE OF CONTENTS



Preface (p. ix)

Introduction: "A Man for All Seasons?" The Dark Essences of American  
Politics (p.xvii)



Chapter 1: Obama's "Dollar Value" (p. 1)

Chapter 2: The Other Hidden Primary (p. 59)

Chapter 3: How "Black" is Obama? Color, Class, Generation, and the  
Perverse Racial Politics of the Post-Civil Rights Era (p.73)

Chapter 4: How "Antiwar"? Obama, Iraq, and the Audacity of Empire (p. 
123)

Chapter 5: Obama Nation: Sixteen Reasons (p. 165)

Chapter 6: Beyond the Narrow Spectrum: Citizens, Politicians, Change,  
and the Obama Phenomenon (p. 183)



Afterword: Imagining a Progressive Future (p. 207)



Appendix A: Americans' Progressive Policy Attitudes (p. 223)

Appendix B: Barack Obama's "Shift to the Center" in June of 2008 (p.  
227)

Notes (pp. 228-272)



ENDORSEMENTS (Back Cover)



"Street punctures widely held myths in this unflinching and  
unsentimental account of Obama's centrist, corporate-friendly  
policies. But Street offers some saving grace here: a new Obama  
administration may oxygenate the grassroots movements that are the  
true architects of change, opening up space for hope."

—Charles Derber, Coauthor of Morality Wars and The New Feminized  
Majority



"All those interested in truth rather than seduction should read  
urgently this wise book by Paul Street, who peels away the mask of the  
‘Obama phenomenon' and reveals power as it is, not as many of us wish  
it to be."

—John Pilger, Director of the film, The War on Democracy



"That the Obama phenomenon is of considerable significance in American  
social and political history should hardly be in doubt. But what  
exactly is it, and where might it lead? This lucid and penetrating  
book situates it firmly within the ‘corporate-dominated and  
militaristic U.S. elections system and political culture,' explores in  
depth its substantive content and its limits, and draws valuable  
lessons about how these might be transcended in the unending struggle  
to achieve a more just and free society and a peaceful world. It is a  
very welcome contribution in complex and troubled times."

—Noam Chomsky



"Barack Obama and the Future of American Politics is a much needed  
burst of clear, brisk conceptual air that cuts through the fog of  
fantasy and wish-fulfillment. His meticulously researched, carefully  
argued analysis of Obama's career and his politics performs an  
important task of demystification. It is also an eloquent and bracing  
reminder that progressive agendas will not be advanced through vesting  
hopes and aspirations in candidate-centered politics, that there is no  
quick and easy substitute for the task of building a serious,  
institutionally grounded, working-class based political movement —from  
the bottom up and top down."

—Adolph Reed Jr., University of Pennsylvania