I was on my way out of college when the Obama years hit, and I vividly remember the weird feeling of foreboding I had as all of the capital-L liberal orgs were so happy that we were entering a "post-racial" world.
"No need to worry, y'all! We've won!" Just like that, a lot of the valuable infrastructure of the civil rights era was folded up and put aside.
I lost friends over thinking that was bullshit back then. I really wish I'd been wrong, but I wasn't.
1/9
It wasn't a post-racial era. It was a long retrenchment in the conflict. The right-wing saw what it took to get Obama elected and they started building that shit out.
The Obama campaign had brought this electricity into politics. They did it by building a standalone political machine, separate from the democratic establishment.
That machine used social media, major campaign spending, and the creation of a nearly mythological narrative of hope and change.
2/9
My grandma was a woman made of steel. She grew up in the Jim Crow South and had to take care of her husband after he came home from WWII as a broken man and got no fucking support from the government (because "fuck black people" is not a new innovation in the U.S.).
When my grandma went to vote for Obama, she was more emotional than I'd ever seen her. I asked her how she felt afterwards, and what struck me was what she said.
3/9
Obviously, she was happy to vote for a black president. But, she also told me that she was worried about what came next, after everyone forgot how much it cost to get to that moment.
People forgot too fucking quickly. I feel like even Obama forgot. He went on to be a centrist's centrist. He didn't use the big electioneering machine that he'd built to do any good in the party, instead it was used to lock the Democratic party in a useless state of inertia.
4/9
Yes, I'm a socialist, so there was always going to be a gap between me and Obama. I expected that and I knew that would be a thing. However, I feel as though the hope and change that he envisioned was actually a poison.
It didn't come with any action. Instead of economic justice, it came with economic injustice in the form of the 2008 bank bailout.
Meanwhile, the same Obama-era consultants have been advocating for "moderation" now for nearly 20 years.
5/9
Obama's victory caused support for real leftist movements to dwindle at a time when, quite frankly, it should have been accelerating.
The consultants that pioneered his campaign have now built their entire careers on pushing "change and hope" while carefully avoiding "radicalism".
Meanwhile, actual fucking radicals have taken power, and now the world gets to burn due to a stunning lack of imagination among neoliberals.
6/9
When you're in a war of ideas, the reality is that not having any ideas while wanting "hope and change" is not a neutral perspective. It's antagonistic towards real progressive values.
Right now, America needs a real opposition party, and it doesn't have one. It won't have one until enough capital-L liberals take a step back from Obama-era values and pushes for real fucking leftism.
7/9
There needs to be a multi-front fight centered on economic justice. It isn't going to be enough to say "we're not like that guy". Throwing vulnerable populations under the bus is bullshit and won't save the people doing it from the madness.
There needs to be a real vision of what change looks like, what it could be, and what it can effect, and it needs to be simple -
8/9
There are no good billionaires. Tax the rich. Redistribute the wealth. Save the environment. Make the country live up to its lofty ideas.
Abstract things like "support democracy" only win against tyrants if they're attached to something real. Something that can motivate people to fight.
Don't talk about "hope" - deliver it. Don't talk about "change" - make it happen. Don't throw vulnerable people under the bus - embrace them.
9/9
@earthshine My predecessors have not surrendered my agency. Before these fuckers, there was Jim Crow, before Jim Crow, there were the black codes, before the black codes, we had a whole war about this thing, and before that there was John Brown and others.
Yes. you can protest, fight, and vote your way out of it. The lessons are right there in the American Civil Rights movement.
We can stand together rather than falling alone. This shit is just getting started.
Start turning up like 100x 1000s of other ppl to the Sanders/AOC rallies and show each other that there is a path forward for socialism in USA. Go to meetings and start networking.
You have all been brainwashed by the state to believe that social care = socialism = communism = evil.
Of course you have.
OF COURSE YOU ALL HAVE.
Why would capitalists allow you to reject them and their status quo??
6/9
Yes yes yes yes yes yes.
He was a figure head only.
A black president and a good man but ALWAYS restrained by the white hinterlords from doing what shouldve been done. Arguably his biggest error was not tightly regulating the banking system after GFC. He shouldve made an example of them all.
And don't get me started on your stupid constitution. Not worth the paper its written on. And your political processes: electoral college votes.
It all needs a massive overhaul.
Scarlet the Fox
Earthshine
Godfrey642