"Set thine house in order"- Bible, the Book of Second Kings 20:1
It's been nearly three weeks since Barack Obama was elected as our next leader, and I can still close my eyes and feel that days euphoria like it was yesterday. A jubilation cut short by the frightening prospect of a 700 billion dollar bailout going corrupt, appeal by the big three auto industries for 25 million, heading into our sixth year of two exorbitantly priced wars, and tenth straight month of job loss. It's all going to be Ok though, Barack is our elected President, right? Wrong. Americans always have a sense that the election of a president is somewhat like a new king coming into our monarchy of consumption. He will change everything and get rid of and fix the things we didn't like. But speaking truth to power, it never really does change the trajectory of the country, does it? It's not going to happen because the elements of continuity outweigh the elements of change in the present mindset. It's not going to happen because, ultimately, the American dream is that of acquiring assets. We refuse to live within our means. We continue to think that the problems that threaten the country are out there beyond our borders. And if we deploy sufficient amount of American power we can fix those problems, and therefore things back here will continue as they have for decades.
Our foreign policy is not something simply concocted by people in Washington D.C. and imposed on us, though. Our foreign policy is something that is concocted in Washington D.C., but it reflects the perceptions of our political elite about what we the people want. And what we want largely, with many individual exceptions of course, is a continuing flow of very cheap consumer goods. We want to be able to pump gas into our cars regardless of how big they may happen to be, in order to be able to drive wherever we want to go. We want to be able to do these things without having to think about whether or not the book's balanced at the end of the month, or the end of the fiscal year. We have as a society, emulated from our government, become addicted to this false sense of an unending line of credit. America's negative trade balance with the world is $800 billion per year. That's $800 billion of goods that we buy to consume, greater than the amount of stuff that we sell to them. The chief desire of the American people is that nothing should disrupt their access to these goods, that oil, and that credit. The chief aim of the U.S. government is to satisfy that desire, which it does in part of through the distribution of largesse here at home, and in part relying increasingly on the projection of American military power around the world to try to maintain this dysfunctional system. Fathers, brothers, sisters, and mothers, average citizens whom Americans profess to admire and support, pay the price for the nation's refusal to confront our domestic dysfunction. The real change we need is to decrease the disparity between what Americans expect, and what they're willing or able to pay. We want health care, an able military industrial complex, local police force, rebuilding infrastructure, better schools, Social Security, and fire departments. And we want them all to work efficiently, but are not willing to aid in paying for it.
The appeal for a bailout by the big three automakers, I think, is good example of the degree of control the average citizen actually has in changing what our manufactures produce. Although the change was not self imposed, but forced on by unaffordable oil prices and a rise of unemployment, American car makers kept manufacturing gas guzzlers that people have long been unable to afford or fill up. They were left with a surplus and a debt of useless goods, instead of leaders in the innovation of technology that would lessen the dependency of expensive foreign oil. We initially even seemed to be prevailing in stopping the bailout, when members of congress who were overwhelmed with calls, emails, and letters from angry constituents, voted unanimously against it for fear of not being re-elected.
The prospect of a leader coming from humble beginnings, understanding the "average" citizens pain, and rising to place of power is a very comforting one. Do not become reliant on that expectation alone. If one took the time to google the names of the members appointed to Obama's new economic team they'd be neck deep in Wall Street. Names like Laura D'Andrea Tyson, Robert Rubin, Paul Volcker, CEOs from Chase, Xerox, Time Warner, Citigroup. People who served their time on Wall Street, in corporate boardrooms, and are big supporters of bailouts. Whose representing the blue collar worker in that team? This is not to say Obama will not heed our needs. It's a reminder that our job isn't done yet, it has just begun. We are not just voters, but constituents, living and breathing under the same sun. Being affected everyday by the choices that our elected leaders make. Just because Obama is President, we are not magically pulling out of Iraq, getting healthcare instantaneously, and employed overnight. We can, however, achieve all of this collectively if we determinedly speak out and act out. Obama's once inconceivable victory is proof that if we as individuals unite for a common cause, we become an unstoppable body.
"...a nation to be strong, must be united; to be united, must be equal in condition; to be equal in condition, must be similar in habits and feeling; to be similar in habits and feeling, must be raised in national institutions as the children of a common family, and citizens of a common country.” -Frances Wright
-Danielle Abreu