I was a bit concerned about posting my latest column on Huffington Post, for obvious reasons. But I have decided to do it anyway, in the hopes that HuffPo readers will submit additions and modifications to the Lexicon of Disappointment. Or, alternatively, just yell about how wrong I am.
I await the verdict...
All is not well in Obamafanland. It's not clear exactly what accounts for the change of mood. Maybe it was the rancid smell emanating from Treasury's latest bank bailout. Or the news that the president's chief economic adviser, Larry Summers, earned millions from the very Wall Street banks and hedge funds he is protecting from reregulation now. Or perhaps it began earlier, with Obama's silence during Israel's Gaza attack.
Whatever the last straw, a growing number of Obama enthusiasts are starting to entertain the possibility that their man is not, in fact, going to save the world if we all just hope really hard.
This is a good thing. If the superfan culture that brought Obama to power is going to transform itself into an independent political movement, one fierce enough to produce programs capable of meeting the current crises, we are all going to have to stop hoping and start demanding.
The first stage, however, is to understand fully the awkward in-between space in which many US progressive movements find themselves. To do that, we need a new language, one specific to the Obama moment. Here is a start.
Hopeover. Like a hangover, a hopeover comes from having overindulged in something that felt good at the time but wasn't really all that healthy, leading to feelings of remorse, even shame. It's the political equivalent of the crash after a sugar high. Sample sentence: "When I listened to Obama's economic speech my heart soared. But then, when I tried to tell a friend about his plans for the millions of layoffs and foreclosures, I found myself saying nothing at all. I've got a serious hopeover."
Hoper coaster. Like a roller coaster, the hoper coaster describes the intense emotional peaks and valleys of the Obama era, the veering between joy at having a president who supports safe-sex education and despondency that single-payer healthcare is off the table at the very moment when it could actually become a reality. Sample sentence: "I was so psyched when Obama said he is closing Guantánamo. But now they are fighting like mad to make sure the prisoners in Bagram have no legal rights at all. Stop this hoper coaster -- I want to get off!"
Hopesick. Like the homesick, hopesick individuals are intensely nostalgic. They miss the rush of optimism from the campaign trail and are forever trying to recapture that warm, hopey feeling--usually by exaggerating the significance of relatively minor acts of Obama decency. Sample sentences: "I was feeling really hopesick about the escalation in Afghanistan, but then I watched a YouTube video of Michelle in her organic garden and it felt like inauguration day all over again. A few hours later, when I heard that the Obama administration was boycotting a major UN racism conference, the hopesickness came back hard. So I watched slideshows of Michelle wearing clothes made by ethnically diverse independent fashion designers, and that sort of helped."
Hope fiend. With hope receding, the hope fiend, like the dope fiend, goes into serious withdrawal, willing to do anything to chase the buzz. (Closely related to hopesickness but more severe, usually affecting middle-aged males.) Sample sentence: "Joe told me he actually believes Obama deliberately brought in Summers so that he would blow the bailout, and then Obama would have the excuse he needs to do what he really wants: nationalize the banks and turn them into credit unions. What a hope fiend!"
Hopebreak. Like the heartbroken lover, the hopebroken Obama-ite is not mad but terribly sad. She projected messianic powers onto Obama and is now inconsolable in her disappointment. Sample sentence: "I really believed Obama would finally force us to confront the legacy of slavery in this country and start a serious national conversation about race. But now he never seems to mention race, and he's using twisted legal arguments to keep us from even confronting the crimes of the Bush years. Every time I hear him say 'move forward,' I'm hopebroken all over again."
Hopelash. Like a backlash, hopelash is a 180-degree reversal of everything Obama-related. Sufferers were once Obama's most passionate evangelists. Now they are his angriest critics. Sample sentence: "At least with Bush everyone knew he was an asshole. Now we've got the same wars, the same lawless prisons, the same Washington corruption, but everyone is cheering like Stepford wives. It's time for a full-on hopelash."
In trying to name these various hope-related ailments, I found myself wondering what the late Studs Terkel would have said about our collective hopeover. He surely would have urged us not to give in to despair. I reached for one of his last books, Hope Dies Last. I didn't have to read long. The book opens with the words: "Hope has never trickled down. It has always sprung up."
And that pretty much says it all. Hope was a fine slogan when rooting for a long-shot presidential candidate. But as a posture toward the president of the most powerful nation on earth, it is dangerously deferential. The task as we move forward (as Obama likes to say) is not to abandon hope but to find more appropriate homes for it -- in the factories, neighborhoods and schools where tactics like sit-ins, squats and occupations are seeing a resurgence.
Political scientist Sam Gindin wrote recently that the labor movement can do more than protect the status quo. It can demand, for instance, that shuttered auto plants be converted into green-future factories, capable of producing mass-transit vehicles and technology for a renewable energy system. "Being realistic means taking hope out of speeches," he wrote, "and putting it in the hands of workers."
Which brings me to the final entry in the lexicon.
Hoperoots. Sample sentence: "It's time to stop waiting for hope to be handed down, and start pushing it up, from the hoperoots."
This column was first published in The Nation, www.naomiklein.org
Work is still happening to reach the goals of a better America, but it is real boots on the ground work that will achieve change, not the empty bellowing of an educated wordsmith.
I found an answer, and I hoped i was wrong. Now that they are in power, the Democrats are, it seems, proving me right.
The reason they did not impeach Bush, Cheney, and the rest of the criminal conspirators, and the reason they will not prosecute them for their crimes, is that the Democrats want the same powers. They believe that they are "better" than the Republicans, and will use these illegal powers for "good," but they don't recognize that using these illegal powers is itself bad, no matter the intent.
Because both parties understand that they derive their positions and powers not from the people, but from the corporate sponsors that finance their political operations.
The ideologies that the media spend endless hours haggling over, "right" vs. "left;" "liberal" vs. "conservative;" "progressive" vs. "repressive;" don't matter. No one really believes in them. They are tools, used like all their rhetoric, to gather votes or support or justification to act on behalf of corporations and against the interests of living human beings.
That sounds harsh, and conspiratorial, and even loony, even to me. If only there weren't so much evidence in support of that conclusion.
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows that the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight is fixed
The poor stay poor and the rich get rich
That's how it goes
Everybody knows
- Leonard Cohen
A quick google of 'Leonard Cohen" lyrics, 'Everybody knows' will give the full lyrics and the
author attribution. You can find it on the 'More best of Leonard Cohen' CD.
Anyone who expects fundamental change from the inside out is naive.
I initially supported Kucinich, even though I realized that was wishful thinking. I voted for Obama, both in the caucus and in the general election. I sent him money. I slapped a bumber sticker on my car and stuck a sign in my yard. I argued on his behalf both in person and online. Yet, all along, I know it was really just a case of Obama simply being better than McCain/Palin, the only viable alternative. Yet somehow, despite expecting more than a few compromises, concessions, reassessments, re-evaluations and sell-outs, I'm still disappointed and depressed.
It all reminds me the great CSNY song:
Helplessly hoping
Her harlequin hovers nearby
Awaiting a word
Gasping at glimpses
Of gentle true spirit
He runs, wishing he could fly
Only to trip at the sound of good-bye
Wordlessly watching
He waits by the window
And wonders
At the empty place inside
Hopecynic – when the factions opposed to Obama’s programs gain credibilty while the progressive left has stayed on the sidelines in the fight to implement changes greater than any time since the 1930s we become hope cynics. A hopecynic criticizes a leader who is working for long term change incrementally while expecting immediate realization of progressive ideals. For hopecynics, hope has become a political weapon not a guide for a better future.
Government systems modeled on the assumption of participation work very badly with widespread cynicism and apathy, which are easily stoked by critiquing incremental change as though expecting anything faster is realistic. It isn't, and I feel like Klein is too gentle to progressives with short attention spans. I, for one, considered "the hard work only begins on Inauguration Day" a campaign promise, and I would say President Obama is keeping it. That's not intended as a complaint, and where I hear it treated as one, I don't consider that valid.
But I bet you all will NOT find a better candidate.
Good luck searching and hoping.
Carol
You're emotional, you're confused.
He is the best that this country has to offer. If we throw in the towel on him, we will never be able to advance, the Republicans will have once again divided us, and Obama will not have the backing to do what he needs to do.
If you want to move things forward, you'd do better to look at the good things Obama has done.
He's working toward transparent government and has release a lot of documents, he is changing our international relationships (I laughed when I saw Fox criticizing Obama because he laughed with Chavez), he's propped up the banks so they don't fail, he's given us an economic stimulus that works toward energy independence, and securing our educational system. He's given us a mortgage program so that people can save money on their mortgages, saving some people from foreclosure. He's trying to push the auto industry to move forward with cars that better meet our needs. He's planning on ending the war in Iraq. He's given our country health insurance for kids, the Lilly Ledbetter act. The EPA is starting to function again. So will the FDA. And this is just withing 100 days.
Contrary to what you say, everything that Obama has done gives me even more reason to hope and work harder for him.
All around me I have people who are providing strong support for this new President and administration. I'm amazed by the good works in a positive direction. That our new President has done some compromising and meeting the middle ground is no surprise. He evoked Lincoln many times in his campaign and inaugoral. Lincoln did the same thing- by the end of the Civil War most Union troups were fighting to free the slaves versus only to save the Union. That's a massive change in attitudes and values. It happened in small steps.
President Obama has turned the direction of a massive buracracy in the midst of a Bush economic Katrina AND has changed the national conversations. I love that people are talking about the things that matter and making their opinions heard. That the right base of the Republican party are unhappy, angry, fearfull and even violent goes with the territory. Though they're talking prattle with little value is discouraging, but most people are talking about issues that matter. My mother/siblings/daughter, friends and colleagues are discussing political and human issues a lot more. They talk more and are more informed. Amazingly-they're reading on line and listening to radio. Our President has made a change in the conversations. Our President has made great changes during his first 100 days. These are steps of a leader owning the 21st century. A President makes huge impact on the debates. Isn't it wonderful?!
Obama is unvetted by Democrats who were blinded by color and misogyny.
You sound just like Joe Scarborough and Pat Buchanan, where were you guys, how come you are now so disappointed.
I do think Naomi Klein has a pretty keen sense of it however. My take on it is in the world of wealth and power will always rule the rest of us. It is just the order of things(At least according to those of that world). The Democrats, Progressives whatever just seen to have the attitude that if you take care of the little guy too it keeps the masses happy while they work you to death, they make their money but are much better at sharing the wealth made on the backs of their dutiful working class. They grow their power and wealth and it keeps the chaos at bay (rather than the end result the Bush/Cheney rule of power produced....damn near self destruction. Let me rephrase that the destruction of "disaster capitalism" of the amazingly self righteous neocons!
Jct: And when they say there is no money to pay for it, what does Naomi Kl;ein suggest? Why not demand a lot of other good things there is no money to pay for? Talk about unrealisitic. If you want to talk realistic, see my KingofthePaupers channel at youtube for how to start up community a regional currencies to pay for what Naomi says we should demand be done.