The Battle Ahead
December 1, 2008
by Lorenzo A. Canizares
Most people outside of the United States have no idea of the immensity of the problems left behind by the Bush/Cheney administration. They have no idea that one of our main and most difficult problems is the ideological legacy being left behind by the departing administration. This ideological legacy is going to make it difficult for many to understand what needs to be done for the benefit of our society.
The victory by Barack Obama signifies that most Americans understand that we need change. But, still 47% voted for McCain/Palin. Then we have many that voted for Obama not understanding what achieving this change will take.
The scene of what happened on Black Friday at the Wal-Mart in Valley Stream, NY is a reflection of the mentality that we have here in our nation that needs to be addressed if we want to move forward as a nation. Among the many immediate tasks that Obama has been left with, he needs to address the mindset of our people.
Since the Reagan years our people have continuously been told that success in life meant to take care of #1. Any concept of officially helping others has been subverted, to the point that it became almost anti-American to be socially conscious. The stigma of being liberal-minded became something to be avoided. The L word became a curse. The right-wing had won the battle of perception. The Labor Movement, the main engine of collective action, began to rapidly decline in its influence, the Greed Machine re-assembled, and “progressives” began to accept playing the game according to the rules set by the right-wing think tanks as seen during the Bush presidency where the dismantling of America’s industrial power became consolidated.
The height of this mentality came about right after 9/11 when we were told that “we should go to the Mall and shop.” Suddenly we had discovered that our main philosophical tenet could be reduced to the term “Consumerism.” We suddenly found out our economy has been geared to satisfy this way of making large amounts of money.
This needs to be understood in its global context. Having goods is not per se a negative thing. The purpose of a good political system is to make life more comfortable for those that live in it. What went wrong is a consumer-driven society with few regulations to protect its consumers.
In the other hand, many of us became easy prey through what Neal Peirce calls “hyper-individualism.” He describes it as “lifestyle choices such as picking a gas-guzzling SUV to reach a suburban McMansion so big you rarely visit all the rooms; headphones and solo video games in place of group activities, disdaining civic life or responsibilities, chronically shopping ‘til you drop, needlessly running up credit card balances, and economically consistently wanting , more, more, more.”
People’s minds have been molded to consume more, and through this urge then come the monetary gains from the fix. In the end those people like any other addict ended up hitting a wall.
There is no doubt the Obama campaign showed an increment of a collective mentality. Obama has not yet provided an ideological blueprint for this collective action to lead us anywhere. But, he is providing the practical approach that leads us to understand the power of doing things for the common good.
Everybody agrees that the economy needs a stimulant. There are those that will confine the stimulus to benefit the wealthy through a multitude of excuses. Obama has repeatedly indicated that he will follow the Roosevelt model, at its best, of spending capital on tangible assets. That is, instead of just giving monies to financial institutions or stimulus checks to individual taxpayers, rather invest that money in public works that will produce many jobs with decent income that will help the nation overcome its stagnation. Nobel Prize winner in economics, Paul Krugman, states those jobs as building roads, repairing bridges and developing new technologies. Most of us use roads or went to schools constructed through Roosevelt’s WPA.
The American people are justified in being afraid of losing their jobs. Today, the real unemployment figure is 12% (That is counting those workers that have disappeared from the unemployment rolls). Many of our jobs are tied to health-care benefits. Losing our jobs is a double-whammy. Universal health-care, especially through single-payer, is a battle cry for justice and common sense.
Obama, through his judicious appointments and consistent stands, has won the respect of the vast majority of Americans. He is in a unique position to be able to use the bully pulpit to inculcate in Americans the need to look at their well-being as being tied to the common good.
Most Americans are very good people. Just provide US the chance to prove it.
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