Home
Refresh   Tag(s): ; ; ;
Add to My Group
March 18, 2009 at 21:48:16

Must Read 2   News 2   Well Said 1   View Ratings | Rate It

Promoted to Headline (H3) on 3/18/09:

'Left' Obamites Prefer Kool-Aid to Struggle

submit to twitter
submit to reddit
submit to digg
Tell A Friend

By Glen Ford (about the author)     Page 3 of 3 page(s)

opednews.com     Permalink

Burnham spends additional pages working the same themes of Left “anticipatory disillusionment” and other psycho-babble to mask her own cohort’s capitulation. Many Obama critics did anticipate his center-right behavior, and we were correct – but never disillusioned. Political groupies, however, are fated to suffer disillusion and betrayal. 

“The new president is as skilled and ruthless a triangulator as Bill ever was.”

Burnham reveals inklings of her own emotional state when she gratuitously urges “those who missed interacting with the motion of millions against the right, against the white racial monopoly on the executive branch, and for substantive change,” to re-examine their political orientation. In addition to her condescending tone, which seems to assume that her targets have no experience with the “motion of millions” in actual political movements, rather than a corporate-shaped and funded presidential election campaign, Burnham appears to think of the non-Obamite Left as people who didn’t RSVP for the best party of the year, and are now resentful.

In the last hundred words of the piece, we discover that her idea of “building the left” requires folding up the tent in or near the Obama camp. Examine this extraordinary passage:
 
“The current political alignment provides an opportunity to break out of isolation, marginalization and the habits of self-marginalization accumulated during the neo-conservative ascendancy. It provides the opportunity to initiate and/or strengthen substantive relationships with political actors in government, in the Democratic Party, and in independent sectors, as well as within the left itself – relationships to be built upon long after the Obama presidency has come to an end. It provides the opportunity to accumulate lessons about political actors, alignments and centers of power likewise relevant well beyond this administration. And it provides the opportunity for the immersion of the leaders, members and constituencies of left formations in a highly accelerated, real world poli-sci class.”


This sounds uncannily like Obamite Prof. Leonard Jeffries’ admonition that all Black folks “study Obama-ism.” Burnham’s gushings are remarkable for their abject surrender, not just to Obama’s persona and mystique, but to the institutional trappings and annexes of corporate-tethered rule. She wants us all to take lessons from the corporate-bought structures – to better serve the people? No. Burnham is telling us that now that she’s seen the Big Party, she doesn’t want to leave. She’s tasted that vintage wine, drank the good stuff, and is determined not to go back to movement rations.

I do agree that Burnham can use some political education. “For the anti-capitalist left,” she writes, “this is a period of experimentation. There is no roadmap; there are no recipes.” Maybe, but there are abiding truths that she has willfully forgotten: “Power concedes nothing without a demand.”

Those elements that refuse to make demands of Power ought to stop calling themselves part of the Left. Unless the Left is in power, it is a contradiction in terms.

 

BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford [at] BlackAgendaReport.com.

Next Page  1  |  2  |  3

 

www.BlackAgendaReport.com

Glen Ford is a 37-year veteran of Black radio, television, print and Internet news and commentary. He is executive editor of BlackAgendaReport.com and was co-founder of BlackCommentator.com.

The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author
and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.

Contact Author Contact Editor View Authors' Articles

 

Book Recommendations for "Leftist"
Indians and Leftists in the Making of Ecuador’s Modern Indigenous Movements (Latin America Otherwise)
by Marc Becker

$23.95
Lowest New Price $20.79

Number of pages: 336
Publisher: Duke University Press

Achieving Our Country : Leftist Thought in Twentieth-Century America
by Richard Rorty

$18.50
Lowest New Price $14.88

Number of pages: 176
Publisher: Harvard University Press

A Leftist Ontology: Beyond Relativism and Identity Politics

$25.00
Lowest New Price $16.75

Number of pages: 304
Publisher: Univ Of Minnesota Press

Reason For Life. Further Social and Political Reflections of an American Conservative Atheist
by Frank Cress

$17.99
Lowest New Price $17.98

Number of pages: 216
Publisher: Fultus Corporation

View All Book Recommendations

Share this page: (what's this?)                   Tell a Friend: Tell A Friend

FACEBOOK      DIGG THIS      Add This Page to Mr Wong!           NEWSVINE      DEl.ICIO.US      Looksmart Furl      NETSCAPE      My Web      Tag!RawSugar      Blink List     (More...)

Comments: Expand   Shrink   Hide  
11 comments
To view all comments:
Expand Comments
 

Well put, the only contention I have is this statement: by Mr M on Wednesday, Mar 18, 2009 at 11:25:48 PM
Does Obama Propose to Salvage or to Dismantle the Capitalist by Jason Paz on Thursday, Mar 19, 2009 at 6:59:09 AM
During the 1st proposed bail-out calls against it were ... by Mr M on Thursday, Mar 19, 2009 at 8:36:24 AM
A Critical Look At The Obama Administration by William Cormier on Thursday, Mar 19, 2009 at 8:48:36 AM
Ah, Bill, please, it's already too late, but don't ... by Mr M on Thursday, Mar 19, 2009 at 9:28:48 AM
Burnham is exactly right &Left "anticipatory disillusionment by Steven Leser on Thursday, Mar 19, 2009 at 11:04:06 AM
It's not the rhetoric it's the actions by Steve Windisch (jibbguy) on Thursday, Mar 19, 2009 at 1:03:58 PM
bravo mr ford by jersey girl on Thursday, Mar 19, 2009 at 7:47:27 PM
Hi JG by Jack Harrington on Thursday, Mar 19, 2009 at 8:13:38 PM
WOW- It took no time at all by Michael Cavlan on Friday, Mar 20, 2009 at 4:22:05 PM
Hi Jack by jersey girl on Friday, Mar 20, 2009 at 7:56:54 PM

 
Want to post your own comment on this Article? Post Comment


 

 

 

Tell a Friend: Tell A Friend

Copyright © 2002-2009, OpEdNews

Powered by Populum