Archive Fire: The Audacity of Skepticism

.Now that my Obama fever has broken it's time to unsuspend my disbelief. It's time to pack away my longings for an effectual politic of convention, and allow the harsh reality of mainstream managerial-state governance to creep back into my waking life.

What will an Obama presidency actually entail anyway?

Can a Harvard guy like Obama actually bring the kind of radical change required to slow down our collision course with the consequences of thousands of years on unconscious choices and civilizational hubris? I sincerely doubt it; and even our greatest projections of hope cannot erase the facts that now bear down upon us.

An Obama/Biden administration will undoubtedly be about administrating the same species of convention and growth-oriented destruction that has brought to the brink of our global environmental, social and economic calamity. The 'managers' will still manage, the elites will still pool their powers and resources against the numbed and distracted masses.

The policies may change - but the systems and values and illusions of our enduring conventional madness will still guide and over-determine how the grid of controls and institutions will be deployed in the Western world's obsession with engineering the future.

AND IF Obama (huge IF!) does decide to do the right thing and attempt to take on all the crazies and elite parasites who thrive on deprivation and differential power - aka, the children of greed and ignorance - then he will most likely be assassinated anyway. Conspirators got JFK, they took out Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and so many other good people - people in the limelight and many of those behind the scenes. And if Obama isn't careful they will get him too!

[please note: i do not advocate for such a terrible and sick thing to happen - and I wish the Obamas all the peace and happiness they can get]

So as I remain skeptical about how much Obama can actually accomplish in a system set up to exploit and passify whole populations - only time will tell if he is the man of conviction and courage so many of us hope he is. Will he keep his promises?

Thus, in the interest accountability, here are some of the key campaign promises Barack Obama made while seeking the presidency:

Reduce the US's carbon emissions 80% by 2050 and play a strong positive role in negotiating a binding global treaty to replace the expiring Kyoto Protocol
Withdraw all combat troops from Iraq within 16 months and keep no permanent bases in the country
Establish a clear goal of eliminating all nuclear weapons across the globe
Close the Guantanamo Bay detention center
Double US aid to cut extreme poverty in half by 2015 and accelerate the fight against HIV/AIDS, tuberculoses and Malaria
Open diplomatic talks with countries like Iran and Syria, to pursue peaceful resolution of tensions
Launch a major diplomatic effort to stop the killings in Darfur
Invest $150 billion over ten years to support renewable energy and get 1 million plug-in electric cars on the road by 2015

And here is what Barak proposes re: the U.S economy:

Provide a tax cut for working families: restore fairness to the tax code and provide 95 percent of working Americans the tax relief they need. They will create a new "Making Work Pay" tax credit of up to $500 per person, or $1,000 per working family.
Provide tax relief for small businesses and startups: eliminate all capital gains taxes on startup and small businesses to encourage innovation and job creation.
Fight for fair trade: trade policy that opens up foreign markets to support good American jobs. He promises to use trade agreements to spread good labor and environmental standards around the world.

On Labor:

Strengthen the ability of workers to organize unions.
Fight for passage of the Employee Free Choice Act.
Eensure that his labor appointees support workers' rights and will work to ban the permanent replacement of striking workers.
Increase the minimum wage and index it to inflation to ensure it rises every year.
Fight Attacks on Workers' Right to Organize
Raise the minimum wage, index it to inflation and increase the Earned Income Tax Credit to make sure that full-time workers earn a living wage that allows them to raise their families and pay for basic needs.
Create Millions of New Green Jobs

On infrastructure:

Create New Jobs Through National Infrastructure Investment: to rebuild its national transportation infrastructure – its highways, bridges, roads, ports, air, and train systems – to strengthen user safety, bolster our long-term competitiveness and ensure our economy continues to grow.
Create a National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank: to expand and enhance, not supplant, existing federal transportation investments. This independent entity will be directed to invest in our nation’s most challenging transportation infrastructure needs. The Bank will receive an infusion of federal money, $60 billion over 10 years, to provide financing to transportation infrastructure projects across the nation. These projects will create up to two million new direct and indirect jobs and stimulate approximately $35 billion per year in new economic activity.

On the Environment and Energy:

Ensure 10 percent of Our Electricity Comes from Renewable Sources by 2012, and 25 percent by 2025.
Deploy the Cheapest, Cleanest, Fastest Energy Source – Energy Efficiency.
Weatherize One Million Homes Annually.
Develop and Deploy Clean Coal Technology. [WTF is that? no such thing exists just so you know...]
Prioritize the Construction of the Alaska Natural Gas Pipeline: work with stakeholders to facilitate construction of the pipeline. Not only is this pipeline critical to our energy security, it will create thousands of new jobs.
Make the U.S. a Leader on Climate Change.
Reduce electricity demand 15 percent from projected levels by 2020.

Now putting the side the fact that many of these "projects" are stupendously misguided, and come from thinking that is outdated and pathologically ignorant about the scale of our current ecological crisis, it remains to be seen if Obama will follow through with what is on this list...

All of this information was taken from his website,
and you can see his full platform there:

http://www.barackobama.com/issues/

I will check back in four years to see just how much effort and success Obama had with all these proposals. It's time for a politician to put into action the ideas he sells to the public... Here's, well... hoping.

-- This is part 1 of a 3 part series that examines the impact, potential and actions of an Obama presidency. --