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Interesting post on Benjamin Barber's blog.
While, clearly, the American political spectrum is naturally skewed to the right of the UK spectrum (or, at least, that's the theory) it would appear that the new Obama administration is as equally wedded to the market as our government is, while continuing same old policy of socialising risk while privatising profit.
So much for the Obama's 'Change' agenda...
3 comments:
I was prepared for Obama to not be ‘all that’. After 8 years of darkness, he would have so much cleaning up to do that dramatic change and rapid reconstruction was never going to happen. But, a few dramatic gestures aside, I don’t see any effort for radical change. I don’t see anyone trying to build momentum. And before we know it, the mid-terms will be upon us and nothing much will have changed other than the wallpaper in the staffers’ offices.
Hi Lalu, thanks for your comment.
I agree completely with your assessment.
From a British perspective, I've seen 'Obamania' before in 1997 when Tony Blair became PM. And I know the gross disappointment he turned out to be, at least to left-wingers like me.
When people argue Obama is a consummate politician, I can agree with that. But what some tend to forget is that consummate politicians' first goal is re-election, and that means, once in situ, playing nice with business despite their gross negligence, incompetence and excess.
Exactly. A consummate politician serves a constituency of one, himself.
And obviously, that’s the nature of the beast, you need a consummate politician to gain power. We all accept that. The question then is ‘now what’ and so far there’s not much of an answer. But I live in hope. In the hope that he may surprise us yet...
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