Choose Your Delusion 2 -- The Empty Vessel
Last time, we discussed the outrageous image that the McCain campaign is trying to push off on the American people, that of an Establishment Maverick, a guy who is an outraged outsider and a savvy insider at the same time. It just doesn't make sense, and is absurd on its face -- thus the profoundly irresponsible and borderline criminal pick of Palin, designed to distract from the lead candidate's weakness. Voting for the GOP ticket this year would be intensely delusional, a hope against hope that cartoon irrationality is satisfactory qualification for the seat of power.
But the Obama option is also a healthy exercise in delusion in its own right, as loathe as good progressives are to admit it. Obama is essentially an empty vessel into which liberals are pouring all of their dreams for power, reform, and epochal change. Granted, the Senator from Illinois is a gifted orator, and undeniably charismatic. But he really is largely untested on the national legislative and executive stages. But as many recent studies have shown, experience is not really the main issue. Some of our greatest Presidents, as rated by conservative and liberal historians, have had just about the same levels of experience (sometimes less) than Obama. And some of the worst Presidents in history have had similar tenures to the 26-year run of John McCain.
But for my money, the main Obama delusion floating around out there is that he will bring radical change of the type sought by progressive-minded folk. As an empty vessel, we fill him up with our desires for aggressive taxation of the rich, national health care, an end to Middle East wars, and a blockbuster commitment to alternative energy. Liberals also expect him to roll back the economic woes of the last eight years, getting jobs back on track via the vaunted new Green Economy. Clearly Obama will be our progressive champion, as confirmed by the consistency with which the conservative punditocracy cries out warnings about how liberal he is.
Unfortunately, quite a few factors mitigate against full-fledged enthusiasm regarding Obama's progressive bona fides.
- First, Obama's campaign itself, while undeniable successful, has steered clear of outright populist rhetoric, or as rich pundits like to call it, "class warfare." It is clear that he wants to portray a feisty reforming persona, but he doesn't want the moneyed classes that back the Democrats to get frightened. Keep in mind that big corporate money finances both major parties in general. While Obama's campaign itself has been largely funded by small donors, the general business of the federal government is to serve corporate interests and create a healthy business climate. So Obama keeps his rhetoric along the safe lines of bashing "special interests" and "lobbyists," even though we all know that those parties actually make up the government itself anyway. But during elections, it is safe to pile on those guys as vile villains, with a subtle wink to them to not take it too seriously.
- On economic issues, Obama is not surrounding himself with any radically new thinkers or ideas. As David Sirota noted recently ("No Time for a Minimalist," www.credoaction.com/sirota/), Obama is actually trailing McCain in economic issue polling, and he has been very wishy-washy on wheelhouse progressive causes like NAFTA, market regulation, and free-market fundamentalism. Obama has been seeking advice from across the economic spectrum, from the Carter-Clinton era veterans like Robert Rubin and Lawrence Summers, to more conservative thinkers like Paul Volcker and Paul O'Neill. Some observers laud this mix of economic ideologies as responsible and reassuring. But there's no doubt that all of these advisors have roughly the same neoliberal, macro-views: economic growth is good, full employment is natural and laudable, the free market is something to be nurtured and encouraged by the federal government, etc. I would think it's safe to say that Obama is not hearing much about Peak Oil and the end of the American social form from this group. Radical re-localization of society and the economy is likely not on the drawing board for Obama.
- Continuing in that vein, the stark realities of Peak Oil are going to pummel the next administration, no matter who's in charge. So while progressives everywhere are hoping for great things from Obama, the continuing unraveling of the American Algorithm is going to present so many dire conditions that lofty goals like national health care and green job training may quickly recede into the distant future. Let's keep in mind that the housing market crisis is not just a "bubble." All of our national voices and commentators like to talk about the housing crisis as just a matter of the market readjusting to more realistic prices, and flushing out all of the bad paper -- like a snake who just has to digest that big possum and get the big lump through its mid-section to return to normal girth. But that's not what the housing crisis is all about. To return to Jim Kunstler's analysis, the housing market collapse is the direct result of America building its entire economy for the last few decades around the production and maintenance of suburban sprawl, a "way of life with no future," as he calls it. We gave up our farming, manufacturing, and skilled trade culture for the empty promises of a 'service' or 'new' economy, where people banked their entire future on being able to sell each other insurance, manicures, and window treatments forever. But the whole system was predicated on cheap oil, which annihilated distance as a meaningful variable in our socioeconomic practices. Now that the cheap oil days are gone, our living patterns, food production processes, and manufacturing infrastructure are devastatingly anachronistic. The housing collapse is the leading edge of a permanent change in our basic social form, and the self-referential economy of suburbia servicing must be completely scrapped.
But let's not get carried away here. Despite the contours of the Obama delusion, he is by far the preferable option this fall. A McCain Presidency would be an utter disaster, because America cannot face the myriad challenges of the coming years by pandering to the lusts of an anti-intellectual, militarist, and culture-warring conservative segment of the population. We're not going to create new ways of living by imagining ourselves in a Thomas Kinkade painting. The future will be a little bleaker than that.
By contrast, all indications are that Obama is a highly intelligent, thoughtful, and open-minded guy. He is not a partisan ideologue, and chances are that he will surround himself with talented heavyweights, and do everything in his power to rehabilitate America's standing in the world. I have no doubt that he is the best man for the job right now, so liberals need to throw everything they have behind his campaign. And with the almost-certain establishment of robust Democratic majorities this fall, as the American people toss out the Bush-bums, Obama should have a fairly smooth road as far as enacting dynamic new programs and legislation. Here's hoping that there is some small voice somewhere amongst his army of advisors, whispering about the need for a community-based effort to reshape the American social form, in preparation for the Long Emergency ahead.
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