(World News Trust) -- Every
now and then I am fortunate enough to communicate with someone who has
near complete insight into our political process, why things happen and
where they seem likely to be headed. Recently I received this brilliant
analysis from a high powered political consultant whose name is withheld for obvious
reasons. He/she has to live and work in the political world and for
either party. In any case, I found it breathtaking in its fundamental
analysis and its clarity -- clarity being no easy thing to accomplish
in the swamp of media-consumerism-politics.
-- Joe Bageant
Much
has been written by political pundits in their attempt to explain the
unexpected victory of Senator Barack Obama over Senator Hillary Clinton
in this year's Democratic Presidential Primary. When looking at the
results of this race, none of the conventional political math that
would help one handicap the outcome would make one conclude that
Senator Obama would win this contest.
Inside
a Democratic Party primary there is no demographic or political reason
that a male first term African American senator from Illinois with an
unorthodox name should come any where close to beating a white female
senator, who happens to be the wife of the last Democratic President
whose approval ratings are still above 70 percent with Democratic voters and
who also happened to earn the endorsements of the substantial parts of
the Democratic Party establishment.
The
conventional analysis focused on the poor quality of the campaign run
by Senator Clinton, her vote in support of the Iraq war and her
advocacy of the cynical center-right triangulation policies of her
husband, which soured her campaign to many primary voters and
especially to Democratic Party activists. Senator Obama's on the other
hand was credited with running an innovative and inspiring campaign
that excited primary voters and brought many new and especially younger
voters into the electoral process.
There is
some truth to this analysis, but as a whole it misses the underlying
social change in society that had already laid the groundwork for a
possible Obama victory. To get a clearer understanding of the results,
we must better understand what this social change is and how its impact
is far more significant than the dynamics of the two respective
campaigns.
The underlying social change that
led to the Obama victory is the unprecedented extent to which the
narrative of popular consumer culture, and the media that drives it,
has become the dominant influence on how Americans think, formulate
their ideas and understand the world around them.
The
most important result of this process has been the steady and
consistent depoliticization of American society, to an extent that we
can make the case that we are living at the dawn of the post political
age.
The two primary features of the post
political age are a politics completely drained of all its contents and
ability or willingness to be used as an agent of change in social or
economic policy, and its full integrations into the world of American
popular, consumer and entertainment culture. To such an extent that
there exists today a seamless web between our political, economic,
media and consumer cultures wherein the modes and values of one are
completely integrated and compatible with the others.
It
should not come as a surprise that the dominant ideas and mores of
popular culture have become the dominant ideas of our society. Popular
culture is the breaker of customs, prejudice, tradition and relevant
historical knowledge.
It is a result of this
dynamic that the two consistent winners in American politics over the
last 30 years have been the cultural left and the economic right.
Despite the massive organizing drive of the religious right over the
past three decades, they are further away from reversing the cultural
liberalization of American society than when they started. On the other
side of the ledger, organized labor outside of a few urban pockets and
industries is no longer a relevant force in American life. The ever
greater electoral activism of both of these groups is generally
misunderstood as a show of strength; in fact, it is the exact opposite.
It is the desperate fight of the losing side of the American economic,
cultural and political scene.
In essence the
same forces that make it possible for the rapid acceptance of ideas
such as gay marriage are the same forces that can create a society that
will accept massive social inequalities.
The candidates who best thrive in
the post political world and have tremendous appeal to the economic elites will never ask the question, "who has power and
why?" They operate well in a system that never dwells on issues, but creates a social and media environment of
stupefying distractions while destroying traditional social mores
(under-credited as a source of much social solidarity). This can only
benefit their continued rule of that society.
In
such a setting our political choices like our consumer choices,
regardless of the product, are primarily about what makes us more
fulfilled and feel better about ourselves.
Senator
Obama's campaign understood much better the impact of these changes on
our electoral system than any of his opponents' campaigns. In the post
political world, the campaign that is less political and less
issue-based but is savvier in using new modes of communication
technology will be the campaign to win the greatest market share of the
electorate. The candidate in this case, Obama, was not a political
entity but, in essence a product, an ornament that made his supporters
feel better about themselves.
One of the most
telling facts about the Obama's constituency outside of African
Americans (whose support needs no explanation) is that it is a
coalition of people who need or demand the least amount of social
benefit from our government. They are the under politicized younger
voters and upper middle class whites. The two groups, coincidently, are
the ones most influenced by trends in consumer popular culture and have
the greatest of ease using the latest technologies.
In
commercial advertising it is the poor commercial that lists the
seventeen functions of the product being marketed. The best commercials
are based on image associations entirely unrelated to the functions of
the actual product. In the post political world, when the same
principle is applied to the political realm, it makes complete sense
how Barack Obama no longer is a black man with a strange name but the
iPod to Hillary Clinton's cell phone. In the world of toys it is the
one that stands out the most is the most marketable.
The
reality of the post political period is best highlighted in the failed
themes and ideas of Barack Obama's two primary opponents. The Clinton
campaign was based on pushing two concurrent ideas: the inevitability
factor of her candidacy and the other was her supposed experience. The
only thing inevitable in the post political period is ceaseless change,
which she could hardly offer while running against the candidate of
"Change." How valuable of an asset can experience be in a culture where
knowledge, wisdom and history are frowned upon?
John
Edwards campaign on the other hand was dead on arrival. His theme and
emphasis was America's ever widening class differences, a platform as
truthful as it was irrelevant. The use of the word "class" will end any
political career in America. That truth violates the primary narrative
that our elite use to justify their legitimacy, which is the supposed
meritocratic nature of America society. While the post political
constituencies have absolutely no interest in class, whose very
acknowledgment are the bases of all real politics and whose
acknowledgement would only lead to an existential crisis in its ranks.
In the post political period the only differences allowed can be in
style and modes of consumption.
Given all
this as the background, what are we to make of the campaign of the
candidate of hope, audacity and change? The answer lies in
understanding Senator Obama's appeal to the brighter sections of the
economic and political elite, and more importantly in the lack of any
organized opposition against him, of the kind that within a matter of
days destroyed Howard Dean's campaign in 2004.
At
the precise moment that the intellectual underpinnings of conservative
free market ideas that have dominated politics for the past 30 years
are crumbling across the globe. Obama calls for a post ideological and
partisan world.
At the time when the American
military industrial complex is despised around the world, he is a front
man out of central casting which will buy it more goodwill and new room
to maneuver in the first 15 minutes after being sworn in than John
McCain could in the next 100 years.
His very
presence, the color of his skin, the very strangeness of his name is
the best guarantee of his betrayal of the expectations of the
constituencies that will vote to elect him. Barack Obama is in short
order a far more reassuring prospect for the continued dominance of the
financial elite than another four years of neo-conservative rule which
in an almost historically unique combination of greed, ill will,
incompetence and stupidity have brought the country to the edge of
disaster.
Audacity yes, change hardly.
***
Born 1946 in Winchester VA, USA. US Navy Vietnam era veteran.
After stint in Navy became anti-war hippie, ran off to the West
Coast ... lived in communes, hippie school buses... started writing
about holy men, countercultural figures, rock stars and the American
scene in 1971 ... lived in Boulder Colorado until mid 1980s ... 14
years in all ... became a Marxist and a half-assed Buddhist ...
Traveled to Central America to write about third World issues...
Moved to the Coeur d'Alene Indian reservation in Idaho, built a
cabin, lived without electricity, farmed with horses for seven years
... tended reservation bar (The Bald Eagle Bar), wrote for regional
newspapers... generally festered on life in America ... Moved to
Moscow, Idaho, worked on third rate newspaper there ... Then moved to
Eugene Oregon, worked for an international magazine corporation pushing
insecticides and pesticides to farmers worldwide.
Then back to hometown of Winchester VA to settle some scores with
the bigoted, murderous redneck town I grew up in. I love'em but they
need a good ass kicking.
Died in 2000 when George Bush got elected ... died along with 275
million other Americans ... Plan to rise again from the dead when he is
tossed out ...maybe reincarnate as a Commie terrorist on Wall Street
... maybe as a sex worker in Amsterdam ... can't decide ... both have
their advantages.
Joe Bageant
Send me an email -- This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.