A sequel to Street's Barack Obama and the Future of American Politics, this new book documents and assesses Obama's newly emergent record on domestic and foreign politics against his original agenda for change. Although mainstream journalists have noted discrepancies between Obama's original vision and reality, Paul Street uniquely measures Obama's record against the expectations of the truly progressive agenda many of his supporters expected him to follow. Taken together, the list of Obama's weakened policies is startling: his business-friendly measures with the economy, the lack of support for the growing mass of unemployed and poor, the dilution of his health reform agenda, the passage of a record-setting Pentagon budget, and the escalation of U.S. military violence in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia. Street s account reveals these and many other indications of how deeply beholden Obama is to existing dominant domestic and global hierarchies and doctrines. His new book yields a perspective on Obama and current politics that is scarcely found in mainstream media. No progressive reader will want to miss it!
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About the Author
Paul Street is an independent journalist, policy adviser, and historian. Formerly he was Vice President for Research and Planning at the Chicago Urban League. Among his recent books are Barack Obama and the Future of American Politics (Paradigm, 2008), Racial Oppression in the Global Metropolis: A Living Black Chicago History (Rowman & Littlefield, 2007), and Segregated Schools: Educational Apartheid in Post-Civil Rights America (Routledge, 2005). His many articles have appeared in the Chicago Tribune; In These Times; Dissent; Z Magazine; Black Commentator; Monthly Review, Journal of American Ethnic History; Journal of Social History, and other publications.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Another excellent book by Street,
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Empire's New Clothes: Barack Obama in the Real World of Power (Paperback)
If you are deeply "disappointed" with President Obama's lack of mainstream media predicted "liberal values", you need to read this book. It shows that, at his heart, Obama has, since his entry into politics, been a very neoliberal, and neoconservative person. His politics are very pro-Capitalist--and always have been. He has always been one to defend the "free market", unhindered, and the "rights" of Capitalist investors. He has never believed in equal human rights, like health care, for all, and, if the "left" expects to make any progress in the upcoming disasters, they had best cease their support for these DLC Democrats (Yes, i am a Socialist)
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Meet the new boss, just like the old boss,
By
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This review is from: The Empire's New Clothes: Barack Obama in the Real World of Power (Paperback)
Hasn't it been great since Obama took office? After undoing all the Bush-era abuses, he has ushered in a whole new glorious era. Thanks to his health care reform with a robust public option, now every American is covered by affordable coverage, regardless of pre-existing conditions and insurance companies have to compete to keep their costs down. With Obama's leadership and the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, worker protections are tighter than ever and American workers are enjoying ballooning salaries, benefits and comforting job security. Obama has reigned in the Wall Street banks and investment firms with a firm hand, thereby preventing any future economic meltdowns. And America is once again a beacon of light for the world as Obama has ended civil liberties abuses such as indefinite detention, warrantless wiretapping and rendition. The war on, er, in Iraq is finally over and, with Obama's tight focus, the war on, er, in Afghanistan is rapidly winding to a victorious close.
Oh, sorry, for a minute there I stepped into a parallel world where a bright, sincere young presidential candidate actually meant what he said and fought for it as vigorously as he fought for the presidency. Unfortunately, that world is not this world. As Paul Street amply and repeatedly demonstrates, it's not even that Obama is trying as hard as he can to pass his agenda, but is simply running into obstacles such as Republican and conservative Democrat opposition and the reality of implementing major policy changes such as closing GITMO or ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It's that he hasn't even tried. In fact, in instance after example, Obama has actively and deliberately continued on the path laid down by Bush 43 (and Clinton, Bush 41, Reagan and Carter before that), and in some cases has even expanded upon such policies, all while uttering soothing words and making modest, rather decorative changes to keep the populace contented, distracted or completely in the dark. In chapters ranging from Wall Street to foreign policy to social issues to health care "reform" to the national security state, Street demonstrates how wide the chasm is between Obama's words, especially his campaign promises, and his deeds. While promising a sweeping health care reform, Obama negotiated away the "public option" in the opening rounds. Obama's public insistence on a "robust public option" gradually became more and more tepid until it disappeared altogether and Obama then claimed it was never a major component of his reform to begin with. And that is now the official administration line, as well as that of Obama's die-hard supporters. Similarly, while Obama can certain thunder ragefully with the best of them over the "outrage" of obscene executive bonuses for the very executives responsible for the financial collapse in the first place, he has intentionally blocked and watered down any meaningful reform which would prevent any future collapse or bar said obscene bonuses. Yet Obama is credited (by himself and his supporters) with passing the most sweeping bank reforms since the New Deal. Again on the foreign policy and national security fronts, Obama has continued Bush's imperial agenda and his assault on American civil liberties. He has continued to blunder on in Iraq and Afghanistan (while declaring the former ended due to a change-over to contracted mercenaries instead of U.S. soldiers). Not only has he not closed GITMO, but he opened what is essentially GITMO East at Bagram Air Base, and he has continued and codified the practice of indefinite detention and rendition to secret "black sites". The candidate who promised to make his administration the most "transparent" in history has blocked every attempt to reveal secret deals and maneuverings. The only "change we can believe in" has come from words and window dressing to make people feel better about the same basic policies. In fact, Street argues that has been Obama's very role. Under Bush, American citizens were beginning to chafe about the length (and apparent failure) of the Iraq war, civil liberties abuses and the economic downturn caused by Wall Street speculation and greed. Obama's job, for which many elite Wall Street firms and other corporations contributed handsomely to Obama's campaign, was and is to "protect" the elite by continuing corporatist and militaristic policies while soothing the anger of the general population by selling such policies in prettier packaging or by distracting American's attention from such packaging. Modest tinkering around the edges to placate public anger is acceptable, but businesses trust Obama not to fundamentally interfere with their hard-earned advantages. Furthermore, Street argues that we were warned. Obama's campaign manifesto, "The Audacity of Hope" was a paean to "pragmatism" which would be better understood as corporatism. And to those paying attention, Obama's legislative votes in both the Illinois Senate and the U.S. Senate did not, despite the right-wing brouhaha, indicate a politician with significant liberal leanings. I don't necessarily disagree with anything Street has written, but I would ask, what was/is the alternative? At the time I voted in the primaries the only real choices were Clinton or Obama. (Edwards was still on the ballot, but fading fast, and given the reality of his exposed personal life, can't we all breathe a sigh of relief he wasn't nominated?) Clinton is certainly no liberal; at least Obama pretended to be. And in the general election, what was a liberal to do? Vote for McCain and put Palin a heartbeat away from the presidency? Or vote third party, which is essentially a vote for McCain? I agree that there's very little daylight between the corporate-controlled Republicans and the corporate-controlled Democrats, but there is some. For instance, Obama continued the Bush tax cuts for the rich in exchange for extension of unemployment benefits and other trifles, which is galling enough, but McCain simply would have extended the Bush tax cuts and who cares about those lazy unemployed slobs? And I'll be the first to admit that Kagan was a lousy replacement for the liberal lion Stevens, but she isn't nearly as far right as the Scalito clone that McCain would have nominated. Given the realities of the two-party system, Street doesn't really provide a realistic alternative, so maybe we all should just smoke some more Hopium and go about our lives. Hey, does anyone know when the next Dancing with the Stars begins?
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A fine attack on Obama from the radical left,
By Chris (Washington state, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Empire's New Clothes: Barack Obama in the Real World of Power (Paperback)
Paul Street, a former college professor and author of several books, has been a dogged critic from a radical left perspective of Obama-mania and Obama's subservience to the interests of big business and American imperialism. Obama, of course conducts this subservience beneath a veneer of progressive and populist sounding rhetoric. In foreign policy, he has pursued more or less the same agenda as George W. Bush but with a far more moderate style and much more pleasant sounding rhetoric. Street quotes the Wall Street Journal editors from December 2009 as declaring approvingly that Obama, in his continuation of important aspects of Bush's foreign policies, had given legitimacy to those policies. This legitimacy appears in the reaction of liberal people who objected to the foreign policy of Bush but have been silent when Obama does the same things as Bush in foreign affairs.
Street's first chapter discusses Obama's complicity with Wall Street's multi-trillion dollar rip-off of the federal government (the bailout). He notes that an editorial in the London Financial Times and an article from FT reporter Edward Luce expressed approval of Obama's financial reform package, which would eventually become the Dodd-Frank bill. Luce reported that the financial industry was basically satisfied with the bill while the FT editors noted that Obama did not propose to seriously regulate the derivatives industry or restore Glass-Stegall's wall between investment and commercial banking. He quotes New York Times reporter Gretchen Morgenson that Obama's financial reform merely "tinkered around the edges" and, in particular, did nothing to break-up the increasing concentration of ownership in the banking industry. Street quotes a prominent Wall Street Obama funder, Orin Kramer, cautioning that Obama must indulge in some populist rhetoric now and then about obscene Wall Street bonuses, to keep public opinion pacified and thus ensure the overall stability of the capitalist system. Similarly, Street quotes an LA Times account of an address Obama gave to a convention of bankers. The audience started whining about efforts to impose very mild regulations on the salaries of executives from bailed out firms and Obama cautioned them that they needed to support his policies. Obama said that he was the only one standing between them and "the pitchforks." You think Obama desires a redistribution of wealth from employers to workers? Well Obama presided over a bailout that resulted in the elimination of tens of thousands of union jobs in the auto industry. Street quotes William Greider that GM, by 2014, will have increased its production in places like South Korea, Mexico and China by the equivalent of four of its American production plants, which is the number GM closed down in the United States. Obama has helped GM restore itself by getting rid of union jobs and allowing it to increase its use of low wage/no benefits labor in the third world. Street quotes Greg Palast that Obama's "car czar" Steve Rattner maneuvered to enable GM to pay off its debts to the Wall Street banks by allowing it to raid the pension funds of the company's workers. In his foreign policy chapter, Street describes Obama's adherence to the traditions of American imperialism. He notes some of the civilian deaths from Obama's drone strikes and bombings in Afghanistan, Yemen and Pakistan. He quotes New York Times reporter James Traub and former David Petraeus advisor David Killcullen that the large civilian casualties from drone strikes play a big role in inflaming anti-American opinion in Pakistan. Street points out how the Obama administration has protected the torturers of the Bush administration. The Obama regime even threatened to withhold intelligence about possible terror attacks in Great Britain if the British government released info about the torture of a Gitmo detainee. He points out that Obama's withdrawals of troops from Iraq and Afghanistan have seen corresponding increases in deployment to those countries of private mercenaries from firms like XE Services (formerly Blackwater). He notes that Obama (in mid-2009) refused to call Hosni Mubarak a dictator and praised the Saudi tyranny. Street describes how Obama quietly supported the coup regime in Honduras. In spite of some critical remarks about the coup, Obama only suspended a tiny portion of overall US military aid to the country and endorsed a major IMF loan to the coup government. The Obama regime endorsed the illegal government's holding of an election in November 2009, in a climate of repression of dissent in the country, that brought to power a right wing politician intent on protecting the country's business oligarchy. Street has a chapter on Obama's health care plan. He calls Obamacare a very insurance industry friendly proposal, noting that it keeps the insurance industry, with its grossly inefficient bureaucracies and huge costs, in the driver's seat. The plan does nothing to contain premium price rises. At the end of the bargaining process, any measure that might seriously threaten the power of the insurance industry was eliminated from the legislation. Single payer health insurance would be substantially less costly than the private health care system. Street notes that polling data has long showed significant support for single payer (and a public option as well) amongst the American population. But the insurance industry used their vast influence (which included large campaign donations to Obama) to protect its interests. I think Street should have clearly enunciated more of the unpleasant details of Obamacare in this chapter and written less in general terms about how bad it is. He quotes a study conducted in part by the Harvard Medical School which alleged 45,000 deaths per year in the US as a result of lack of adequate access to health care. Street also discusses Obama's betrayals in the realm of abortion rights, gay rights and his quiet continuation of the Bush regime's attack on civil liberties. This book is a nice antidote to the idiocy and lunacy of the right wing talk radio critique of Obama and the unwillingness of most on the liberal-left to offer substantial criticism of him.
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