I was reminded recently of a great song by the punk band Bad Religion called "The Answer" and it reminded me of the fact that we shouldn't think of Obama as the answer to our problems. I encourage everyone to listen to the full lyrics, but my point is simply this. While it is absolutely imperative to elect Obama over Romney and recognize that Republicans are hell-bent on class warfare, we should not think that Obama is some kind of savior. I hear many people say that Obama does his best, but is limited by Republicans. This is partially true, for sure, but if you look at his policies, Obama is basically a centrist Democrat. Remember the Occupy movement? Obama was able to say that he understood the movement's frustration, but he certainly did not do or say anything once the evictions started. Perhaps he would have lost credibility among the powers that be and have not been able to get anything else done. But this is all the more reason that the US population needs to set a new threshold that allows for more radical changes. Remember the slogan "Yes We Can!"? It was clear then and it is clear now that meant we could vote for Obama and then he would do all these great things for the population. But we should take his saying that "We are the ones we are waiting for" more seriously, re-elect him and continue to push for greater reforms in our society. Reviving Occupy is one possibility. Another possibility that I think offers the best long-term promise is the somewhat hidden, but growing movement of worker-owned cooperatives. Visit the US Federation of Worker Cooperatives for more. As a leftist, I am not calling for radical revolution overnight, but for simply giving people more control of their daily productive lives.
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Adam Weiss blogs at politicalcreativity.net