Howard Zinn Interviewed about Obama and Social Change

The Real News:

Howard Zinn says vote against McCain, vote for Obama. Even though Obama does not represent any fundamental change, he creates an opening for a possibility of change. Obama will not fulfill that potential for change, unless he is enveloped by a social movement, which is angry enough, powerful enough, insistent enough, that he fills his abstract phrases about change with some content. We need direct action, because only that kind of indignation is going to have some affect on the people in Washington.

Comments

[JJ Commoner]

I think this is correct.

I also think that if there is an assertive-enough social movement arise demanding some substantive / fundamental change to the exploitative arrangements that exist today, and it is large enough, that there are also enough people around sufficiently indoctrinated in right-wing, conservative sound-bite driven beliefs about "socialism" and other not-individual-enough and / or punitive relifgion that there is a better than 50 / 50 chance of a real civil war based on cultural beliefs and positions.

Goodness knows, there are enough handguns and rifles and belligerent attitudes to support my forecast. You see any or many of the videos of angry confrontation over the last couple of weeks ... not an optimistic scenario, in my opinion. Riots in the streets if the black socialist Muslim doesn't win, riots in the streets if he does.

[Jay Taber]

There is a more likely scenario based on our experience of the last two decades, and that is while the Far Right is preparing for battle, progressives are preparing for retreat. Enormous resources have been channeled from the US Treasury into the hands of Christian fundamentalists over the last eight years especially, and no funds -- public or private -- have found their way into the hands of pro-democracy activists. All hell may break loose, but it won't be progressives on the frontlines. As usual, they will be safely ensconced in bureaucratic bubbles pronouncing pieties while taking no risks. It is ever so.

[Phil]

JJ and Jay your comments seem prophetic based on today's news about skinheads seeking to assassinate Obama and behead black school children.

[JJ Commoner]

Via Digby's Hullabaloo ..

Playing With Fire

"It only takes one of those disappointed true believers who have been convinced that Obama is a Muslim socialist in league with terrorists to do something stupid. particularly since millions of them will be convinced that ACORN stole the election for him. If you think that all this doesn't tie into those white supremacist twits they caught today, think again:

[Phil]

Obama's post-conflictual rhetoric of racial harmony rings false to me. Wishful thinking more than real transcendence. I am not sure he knows what he is up against when it comes to long standing and inveterate racial hatred. We not only have racial hatred, we have think thanks and politicians who exploit it, and have done for decades, from Wallace down through the current campaign. "The Southern Strategy."

[JJ Commoner]

Noticed as a repeating story today on CNN ... sharp spike in sales of assault weapons ahead of the election.

Two reasons are being advanced by the news analysts; first, the anticipated rise in prices since it is expected that Obama will bring in new ban-on-sales legislation, and 2) what are being called "basic security issues" ??

All I know is that in an atmosphere of heightened tensions and anxiety, this can't be a helpful signal.

[Jay Taber]

All these deplorable things can be countered and defeated, but that requires that progressives actually try. I don't expect them to do anything courageous, that wouldn't be in character, but they could attack the Far Right vicariously by funding fighters like Real News and others occasionally featured here. They could also form PACs like Texas Freedom Network to nail these thugs and crooks. All it takes is a little effort.

[Phil]

"You do it, Jay, and let us know if it is safe for us to follow suit." That is the attitude, I think. Philanthropy is like hymns in Church, inspiring, what you suggest is more like wrestling in the mud with a madman who fights dirty.