obama election
Well, the Democratic party won increased majorities in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate, as well as the presidency. After watching Obama turn a raucous crowd silent while he was here in Austin by saying “We’re for capitalism”, I don’t expect that the Democrats are going to all of a sudden embrace the principles of Parecon really really close. But I do expect that there’ll be room for some more good ideas that would have been non-starters before.
The obvious one is the Employee Free Choice Act, allowing unions to certify via card-check, rather than forcing them to run the gauntlet of employer intimidation before an election. Another one I think should be on the top of the list is ending the membership restrictions on Credit Unions. Here in Austin, credit unions are at the top of the list of democratically-controlled economic institutions, ahead of housing and food coops. And, while they’re not exactly participatory, you can’t build a better credit union while the current credit unions have to deal with ridiculous restrictions. And even the mega-consumer-coops are still an improvement over other ownership structures.
What else would be on your electoral activism wishlist?
November 6th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
Less than a day and my Obama buzz has already worn off, after the report that he’s offering Rahm Emanuel as chief of staff. Oh well, to be expected I guess. But I agree that we’ll have some more room. And hopefully the election will give a shot in the arm to left campaigns and organizations. It’d also be good if the organizational networks created by the Obama campaign could remain and continue working.
I also thought of cardcheck after the election. That will be great. I think we should also make a push for things like single payer healthcare and serious investment in renewable energy. These public goods are widely desired but systematically underfunded by capitalism. The financial sector’s crisis and the recession I think also could provide more justification for large-scale public investment projects as a form of economic demand-side stimulus.
November 6th, 2008 at 2:44 pm
I guess for me the Obama buzz hasn’t really worn off, because I’m not expecting really positive things so much as fewer negative things. It will be a relief to be able to focus on organizing to make things better, not just to prevent things getting much, much worse.