Politics & Society

Why There Will Be No Great Debate

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The Democratic Convention speakers did an excellent job of convincing the country that this is a “choice” election, pitting two rival philosophies of government against each other. And they are right in principle: the country does need to choose between conservatives who distrust government and put their faith in markets, and liberals who believe that government is a necessary counterweight to business. Rhetoric aside, however, we will have no such debate. To understand why, we have to look at the recent history of the Democratic Party, and especially at the Clinton Presidency.

Politics & Society

Color War and Obama’s “Wink” Strategy

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The Republicans made “We built it” the slogan for their first night, and the New York Times took them up on it, calling Obama’s remark “poorly phrased” and “deliberately taken out of context.” According to the Times, “President Obama was making the obvious point that all businesses rely to some extent on the work and services of government. But Mr. Romney has twisted it to suggest that Mr. Obama believes all businesses are creatures of the government, and so the convention had to parrot the line.”

Politics & Society

The Egyptian Revolution

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The Egyptian Revolution is the latest, and most important of a new type of revolution that originated in the 1960s: spontaneous, bottom-up, decentralized, youth-dominated, non-ideological, non-violent, fueled by new media, and profoundly generative of dignity, media, social theory, and new moral practices. Predecessors include the French May of 1968, the Philippine Revolution of 1986, the East European and Chinese Revolutions of 1989, the Palestinian intifada of 2000 and the Tunisian Revolution of 2011. Unlike previous revolutions, made by parties and states, no one owns this new type of revolution, which is anti-authoritarian, anti-patriarchal, and even anti-organizational, at root. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign in 2008 was another example of this new, post-Marxist revolutionary wave. It seemed to come from nowhere, to be coordinated in new, polymorphous ways, and to represent the deepest instincts of youth.

War & Peace

The Obama Effect in Egypt

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All one need do to understand the Obama effect is to imagine that George W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, and Dick Cheney are still running the country. Egypt, the oldest continuous civilization in the world, mounts one of the largest and most amazing outbursts of democracy that the world has ever seen. The United States — which has supported a police state and a military dictatorship in Egypt since the late nineteen seventies, to the tune of about one and a half billion dollars a year — hijacks the revolution by bonding with the dictator, his chief henchman, and both the police and the military. The usual means of dealing with revolutions are mobilized. For a few days there are gangs of thugs, a few leaders are jailed for a while, but mostly just stall them off, buy out a few leaders, talk a good line about reform, count on the inertia and fear and daily pressure that people face — half the country makes under two dollars a day — and just wait them out.

Politics & Society

How Stupid does Obama think the Egyptian People Are?

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Let me tell you a story from the 1960s. As so often happened in those fabled times, students at a major university occupied the university President’s office to protest a war-research laboratory. After a few hours, the President appeared and said “Thank you so much for bringing this to my attention. You have really performed a public service. This is what democracy is about.

Politics & Society

The Wrong Side of History

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I feel as if I know the young people who organized the demonstrations in Egypt. I am a Professor of History at the New School for Social Research, which has been connected to the forces of protest and revolt for almost a century. Begun by figures who were fired for speaking out against World War One, it welcomed refugee Jews from Germany in the thirties, sixties refugees and survivors, Samizdat East Europeans and Russians and intellectual avant-gardes. Today it has many politically-oriented students from Latin America, Japan, China and the Middle East. There is no litmus test, but the overall culture is on the left.

Politics & Society

Obama’s Contribution to the Egyptian People

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Obama’s statement on Egypt was exactly what we have come to expect from him: a progressive veneer combined with cynical sycophancy toward all established power. After saying that the US stands up for “universal human rights” — the now familiar battle charge of American exceptionalism — he went on to say, “I just spoke to President Mubarak, after his speech, and told him he has a responsibility to give meaning to his words. Violence will not address the grievances of the Egyptian people. What’s needed is concrete steps that advance the rights of the people.” Given that every commentator has reported that what the crowds demand is not “reforms” but that Mubarak must go, everyone who understands diplomacy understands that Obama’s statement was a strong expression of US support for Mubarak.