The Progressive Bind

It may be that the most depressing aspect of President Obama’s proposed “American Jobs Act” is the pitiful acceptance by leading elements of what passes for the “progressive” coalition in these dreary times. Apparently, some organizations and individuals have become so desperate that they will embrace anything that Obama proposes, even if it represents a Republican-lite agenda. Incapable of mounting any sustained opposition to this corporatist imperial president, they tout Obama’s recent rhetoric about the defense of public goods and government action even though his policies have eviscerated those goods and corrupted that action.

The historical amnesia that informs these cheerleaders for Obama is particularly repugnant when one considers the active recruitment by his administration of big pharma and health insurance companies in the crafting of his Healthcare Act. Moreover, the criminal deference that Obama showed towards British Petroleum when it dispersed thousands of toxic gallons of Corexit into the Gulf belies any of his rhetoric about public goods. Finally, in the lead-up to Obama’s announcement of his “American Jobs Act,” he overruled the EPA on its sane and necessary smog regulations, rewarding in the process the environmentally destructive fossil fuel industry.

When it comes to some of the particulars of the “American Jobs Act,” there appears to be abject surrender to White House marketing of its so-called benefits. While there is a modicum of recognition that the proposed payroll tax cut will continue regressive tax policies favoring business, there is, with a few exceptions, little acknowledgement that the long-term implications of such a cut in FICA revenues will make Social Security more vulnerable to right-wing maneuvers.

Relying, again, on corporate tax breaks for creating jobs, Obama is reinforcing the strategy of conservatives. While claiming such measures as bi-partisan proposals, the President seems to be capitulating once more to Republicans. However, instead of decrying such capitulation, it is incumbent on what remains of progressive forces to call out Obama for what he really is – a “Neoliberal Negro,” as the African-American journalist, Jon Jeter, so incisively and scathingly notes in his book, Flat Broke in the Free Market.
~ from Take This American Jobs Act and Shove It! by Fran Shor ~

It is abundantly clear that many conservatives -- particularly those in the Tea Party movement -- greatly dislike the present for one reason: he is black. Of course, most people these days won't come out and say that. It is viewed as bad form in the so-called post-racial America.

But here's the thing. The pigmentation of Barack Obama's skin is also an unstated issue for many self-defined liberals and progressives. Because the president is black, many of these people refuse to call him out even when he richly deserves it! Many on the left want to prove that we indeed do live in a post-racial society and so the last thing in the world they want to do is to criticize our first black president.

Back during the 2008 Democratic Party presidential nomination campaign, I noted that liberals had no problem at all criticizing Hillary Clinton. They criticized what she said and what she didn't say. They criticized where she went and where she didn't go. They had no trepidations criticizing what the woman did or did not wear. Criticizing a candidate who happened to be female was no problem at all.

But Barack Obama sailed through the campaign to the nomination with little criticism of anything! Because he was viewed as the first viable black presidential candidate, he was given, for the most part, a free pass.

Many liberals continue to provide him with this same free pass right now. He can continue and expand on many of the worst security policies of his predecessor. He can shower Wall Street with gifts while sticking it to the middle class and working poor. He can turn his back on homeowners being thrown out of their homes illegally. He can back down on even minimal environmental safeguards. He can put Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security on the chopping block. And this Nobel Peace Prize winner can lead us into war after war.

He has done ALL these things and yet a large portion of his Democratic base steadfastly refuses to say an ill word about the man or his policies. Why? Because he's black and these same people don't want to appear as if they can't support a black president!