The election of Barack Obama was an event of undeniable symbolic importance. That even North Carolina—which last century habitually deployed crypto-fascist Jesse Helms to the Capitol—went for a black man (though barely and only because of Northern Democrat immigration and Bob Barr’s Libertarian Party candidacy) suggests America has, to some degree, changed for the better. But is the candidate—soon to be the president—of “change” going to deliver the revolution his enthusiasts have imagined?
In Barack Obama and the Future of American Politics (Paradigm Publishers, 2008), historian and journalist Paul Street answers: probably not.
Although careful to refrain from specific predictions, Street makes a strong case that “based on Obama’s record and on the deeper history, structure, and culture of US politics…an Obama administration [will] be likely to move in a relatively conservative direction unless and until…pushed to the left from below by an aroused and organized populace.” Read the rest of this entry »
