Obama’s tough challenge

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Political leaders must always walk a fine line between taking the tough but necessary decisions one is convinced is right for the country while retaining sufficient public support to carry on. No leader understands this better than US President Obama, faced with a gridlocked Congress and an uphill re-election battle this year.

Admired more abroad than at home, this intelligent, charismatic and sincere leader of what still is, at least for now, a unipolar world, is demonised by his critics. If you listen only to them you will think he and his team have no clue about the economy, know nothing about taxation, know nothing about healthcare and are immersed in a barely concealed manipulation of government resources for the benefit of their friends.

Obama’s critics have railed against the steep growth in the US national debt and have demanded equally steep austerity measures to significantly reduce it. The current administration has repeatedly proposed a number of initiatives to reduce the debt but has always maintained that key programmes must be funded to ensure the most vulnerable segments of society are given the support they need to stand on their own two feet.

America’s tax system has been designed and redesigned over the years (with the help of well-paid lobbyists) to ensure it provides the maximum benefits for the wealthy, who generally pay a lower tax rate than middle class citizens. Obama’s quest to reduce this imbalance and move to a fairer tax system has evoked almost irrational outrage all one has to do is listen to is listen to the factless vehemence expressed daily on US talk radio.

A commitment to reforming healthcare to make it universally available and affordable a goal long ago achieved in much of Europe has been likened to socialist propaganda designed to destroy the entrepreneurial spirit.

The vitriolic opposition to many of the Obama administration’s initiatives goes beyond mere opposition to an incumbent government.

Part of this has to do with the fact that the world of certainty a generation knew blue chip investments, good and stable jobs, affordable homes, clear business cycles and a stable geopolitical world has disappeared. Another part has to do with the fact that a young generation bottle-fed a diet of material abundance have now had the nipple removed from their mouth. This has provided the fodder for a great deal of anguish and that has been directed in many areas.

There is also an inescapable social dimension the endurance of racism in American politics. Writing in The Nation last year, Professor Melissa Harris-Perry raises the prospect of 2012 being a test of a new form of electoral racism: “The tendency of white liberals to hold African-American leaders to a higher standard than their white counterparts.” She makes a deft comparison of Bill Clinton with Obama, two centrist Democrats, yet points to the significant drop in white support for Obama. Harris-Perry argues that the records of the two leaders are comparable but feels whites have abandoned Obama because they are disappointed that “choosing a black man for president did not prove to be salvific for them or the nation”.

Global change, ruptures within the world we once knew and the continuing impact of debilitating social issues all affect the political mood of a country. And they will shape the way people vote. Obama’s challenge is to reinvigorate the “Yes, we can” momentum so that his vision for a reformed America can emerge. I thought it was a great vision in 2007 I think it remains relevant today.

Walton Brown is a social and political commentator and the Progressive Labour Party candidate for Pembroke Central. Follow his blog on www.respicefinem1.blogspot.com. He can be contacted at walton[AT]researchmix.com

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