Posted by
Curt Day on Thursday, February 19, 2009 5:33:47 PM
Like every non-incombutant elected candidate, Barack Obama has promised to bring us change. To promise change is not new, to actually bring change is. But first, people must define what is the same old same old and what would be different.
Two factors that have been with us for a long time have been American Exceptionalism and, as some say, a stated supported capitalism. The latter could be more accurately described as a corporate owned government. Real change would mean an interruption, or even disruption of one or both of these factors.
American Exceptionalism is a belief that America is entitled to actions that if practiced by other countries or groups would either be deemed illegal or considered a provocation meriting a military response. Our invasion of Iraq followed by our condemnation of Russia's invasion of Georgia would serve as a good example. Our 2003 invasion of Iraq was rationalized by the government as an act to prevent a "gathering storm," that is our invasion was a preventive attack that kept Iraq, and its then alleged WMDs, from becoming a damaging storm that hits our mainland. Our government accused the Iraqis of having stockpiles of illegal and dangerous weapons. Inspectors, from the UN were on the ground and were in the position to verify our accusations. And these inspectors would have had the opportunity to finish their jobs if we had not aborted their mission in favor of flexing our military muscles. Thus, in violation of the legally binding UN Charter, we invaded a country that did not present an immediate threat to us and interfered with due process regarding the charges brought against them. In addition, we gave the same justification for our invasion that the Nazis gave for their horrific atrocities in Eastern Europe. That justification was that we were acting in anticipation of what Iraq would do rather than responding to a current or imminent attack.
So enter Russia of last year. They had peacekeeping troops in part of Georgia and their troops were attacked by Georgian forces. Russia, which is far from being innocent as the driven snow, responded by moving troops through part of Georgia but not all. We chided the Russians for this by telling that them regime change by force is so last century. The Russians responded appropriately by laughing at our silly hypocrisy.
Such is just one example of American Exceptionalism. The question becomes will Obama find a more globally acceptable way of continuing American Exceptionalism (called no change) or will he denounce American Exceptionalism and, instead, opt to put the US under the jurisdiction of international, law (called real change). Obviously, Bush lacked subtlty and so he was unable to camouflage American Exceptionalism, but Barack has different abilities. But will his skills mean that he can make Exceptionalism more palatable to the world or will he eliminate it. This question is important because we should remember that the 9-11 attacks were in response to the policies of another American Exceptionalist President, Bill Clinton.
The other factor that needs change is our government's dealing with the corporate sector. Whether one believes that our government has become socialistic or that corporations are controlling the government, the bailouts show that corporations and banks are the winners. With the bailouts, that sector was financially rescued with little to no accountability to show for their actions and their corporate and bank leaders are still running the show. This is socialism? The problem that occurs when the government does the bidding ot business rather than the people is that democracy is lost. Even if the the business sector becomes benevolent patriarchs of the people, democracy becomes once removed. So the question for Barack is whether he will listen to and care for the people more than the powerful players in the business sector.
In essence, we don't know if Barack will bring change; the early indicators do not look that good. But what we can do is to act out. What the people can do to ensure change is not to put a childlike faith in Obama; rather, we need to take to the streets and participate in different forms of nonviolent activism until our government feels too much pressure to ignore us. Whether you are a conservative, liberal, or even leftist, one must speak and act out to get change. It is the only way by which we can ensure it.