Becuase Everything Else Sucks

Obama’s Victory Ours? By Mumia Abu-Jamal

By Manila Ryce
Published Sunday, July 13th, 2008, 3:13 am
Filed under: Society/Culture: Racism, Society/Culture, US Politics

With the attainment of the required delegates to claim the Democratic Party’s nomination for U.S. president, Sen. Barack H. Obama (D. ILL.) has written a new page in American history.

For by so doing he succeeds where Channing Phillips, Shirley Chisholm, Jesse Jackson, Sr., and Al Sharpton could not-by gaining the necessary delegates to demand nomination.

Of course, there have been numerous Black candidates for president, but these have been third party efforts designed more to raise issues, to organize or protest than to actually win elections. Some of the best known have been Eldridge Cleaver (former Black Panther Minister of Information), Dick Gregory, Dr. Lenora Fulani, and the former congresswoman, Cynthia McKinney.

But this is a different kettle of fish, for Obama’s candidacy is the closest to make it to the winner’s circle.

What also distinguishes Obama from his predecessors is he doesn’t come from civil rights, Black liberation, socialist or anti war movements. (He often remarks at speeches, “I’m not against all wars, I’m just against dumb wars”)

Indeed, although his detractors may try to paint him as a leftist liberal this is hardly true. On issues both foreign and domestic he would’ve been more at home in the Republican Party of his senatorial forebear, Edward Brooke of Massachusetts. For though he is Black by dint of his African father, he has studiously avoided Black political groups in his long, harrowing climb to the rim of the White House.

He has studiously avoided the very real and long standing grievances of Black America. In fact, he tried to run a “post-racial” campaign until Sen. Hillary R. Clinton (D.N.Y.) (and her rambunctious husband, former Pres. Bill), brought race front and center during the Super Tuesday February primaries, by trying to pigeonhole him as “the Black candidate.”

This primary wounded Obama, and as he won in the delegate count, he also lost a number of primary states, such as Ohio and Pennsylvania, which are necessary for a win in November.

Politics is the art of making people believe that they are in power when in fact, they have none.

It is a measure of how dire is the hour that they’ve passed the keys to the kingdom to a Black man.

As in many American cities, Black Mayors were let in when the treasuries were almost barren, and tax bases were almost at rock-bottom.

With the nation’s manufacturing base also a thing of history, amidst the socioeconomic wreckage of globalization, with foreign affairs in shambles, the rulers reach for a pretty, brown face to front for the Empire.

“Real change that you could believe in” would be an end to Empire, and an end to wars for corporate greed, not just a change of the shade of the political managers.

That change, I’m afraid, is still to come.

-Mumia Abu-Jamal

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6 Responses to “Obama’s Victory Ours? By Mumia Abu-Jamal”

  1. So what’s your position on McKinney-Clemente, Green Party? Why Nader over the building of an national party alternative?

    Duder
    07/13/08 at 11:49 am

  2. @Duder

    I support McKinney, but the sole purpose of her run is obviously meant to build the Green Party. I can not endorse that. While building a third-party might sound like a good idea, I’m personally for the abolishment of all political parties. Parties, like all institutions, start out as noble and idealistic, but soon become part of what they were meant to oppose. Leftist parties are at an automatic disadvantage against fascist right-wing parties because they are always disordered (one of the many side effects of having a group of free thinkers is that they don’t move in lock step). Therefor, liberal parties lose elections and need to become more like the fascist enemy in order to defeat them. The Democrats weren’t always corporate-controlled fascists, but they had to sell out in order to compete with the Republicans. Parties also allow voters to tune out political issues and simply cheer for the party they affiliate with. Ask yourself, if people actually looked at Obama’s positions rather than his party would he be so beloved by liberals? No two candidates from the same party hold exactly the same views or have the same amount of integrity, but we pretend their party affiliation says something about them. You could be Adolph Hitler, but run as a Green or a Democrat and self-described liberals will vote for you because of your affiliation. People put party above country all the time. The only way liberals can ever triumph is to abolish the party system and to look at candidates as individuals.

    Manila Ryce
    07/13/08 at 12:13 pm

  3. @Manila
    I have to disagree with you here. In an ideal society where everyone was deeply educated and involved in political issues, perhaps the party system could be done away with. But if the party system were to be abolished today, politics would become nothing more than massive personality contests; much as they are today, but without parties this element of politics would undoubtedly increase ten-fold. In addition, as corrupt as the current party system is, abolishing that system would guarantee that only the richest of the rich, or those with powerful corporate backing could consider running for office. This is the case today, but it would worsen if the party system were abolished in an uneducated society like ours.

    I tend to advocate the opposite viewpoint. Rather than voting for individual candidates, we should vote for the party platform. However, in our current party system platforms mean nothing; a candidate is free to do as they please once in office. So a system like those present in many European countries would be ideal, where the political parties have a very specific platform that the candidate is absolutely bound to once in office. If an individual does not uphold the party platform once in office, he can be removed and replaced by the party with someone who does. Again, people would vote for party platforms and not personality cults.

    It’s not a perfect system, but with a wide variety of parties and the number of seats in government given on the basis of the percentage of votes each party receives, the system would be far superior to our own. It could be used as a step towards the eventual dissolution of all parties, but that will take many generations.

    Andy
    07/13/08 at 6:33 pm

  4. @Andy

    “In an ideal society where everyone was deeply educated and involved in political issues, perhaps the party system could be done away with. But if the party system were to be abolished today, politics would become nothing more than massive personality contests…”

    Agreed. The ultimate goal is a highly educated society, but I do not see how supporting third parties today can be a logical step towards that eventual end. Instead, it seems like more of a distraction to muddy the distance between where we are now and where we hope to be by encouraging more party politics amongst those who genuinely want to make a change out of that.

    “This is the case today, but it would worsen if the party system were abolished in an uneducated society like ours.”

    We agree again. I am not arguing that we simply abolish parties and everything will be good. Obviously there needs to be public financing and public control of the airwaves before much can be accomplished (that is if changing the system rather than abolishing it altogether is what we’re discussing).

    “…the system would be far superior to our own. It could be used as a step towards the eventual dissolution of all parties, but that will take many generations.

    You’ll find no argument with me that many European systems are superior to our own. However, they’re not perfect or as representative as they can be. The final goal is participatory democracy. You think that an increase in the number of parties is a step towards “the eventual dissolution of all parties”. I disagree. Once politicians organize into a party, it’s nearly impossible to get rid of them. Parties are like unions for politicians and only exist for the sake of politicians. The more parties there are, the harder it will be to wrestle power from them. My view of a non-partisan democracy is a society in which direct democracy is practiced and no representatives exist at all. If we keep giving away our power to representatives then we’ll never learn how to govern ourselves. The reason I’m endorsing Ralph Nader over Cynthia McKinney, though their platforms are nearly identical, is that Ralph has proven that he’s an full-on activist and advocate for the people, not a politician. I have interests in issues, not politicians and parties.

    Manila Ryce
    07/13/08 at 9:05 pm

  5. @Manila
    I think we agree on the end goal but disagree on the best way to get there. Personally, I advocate a bloodless revolution and starting again from scratch, as the constitution itself advises us to do. However, I don’t think this is going to happen anytime soon; so I guess for now we’ll have to be content with working from within the system, however corrupt it may be.

    Andy
    07/14/08 at 9:22 am

  6. Obama seems to be quite the panderer, he offered his ideas as liberal in the beginning and now he has changed to emulate Hillary. Since I cannot stand the Clinton’s, I am glad to see Obama the winner but in the end the wash will still be dirty.

    Change and hope were and are just buzz words which offer little meaning or substance, especially now. After the telecom vote, I have dropped from being a supporter. Even Hillary voted for the damn thing, but she probably would say I had hoped it would win anyway.

    My negative feelings toward Obama are only from his politics, his color has and makes no difference to me.
    Hope I am wrong about Obama, for if he follows through on some of his selling points when he started I may be feeling better about him. Things like big busness, lobbiests, and returning the Constitution.

    Alas, I believe the grand scheme of things, the new world order, has plans which do not include anything to support the slob on the street. We will see when the fat lady sings. Hell they may fix the election again anyway.

    Leefeller
    07/14/08 at 7:26 pm

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