America’s Becoming Class Conscious
I have been excited over Barak Obama’s presidency because he was the best poster boy my ideologically-bent mind could dream of. Obama proved that race was not a deterrent when it came to calmly promoting corporate interests with a human face. Now, Hillary Clinton is officially running to destroy another preconception: that women are naturally maternal, caring about others. She is not just running to be President, but to become the first woman President. It was a key theme of her announcement and of her campaign.
I have always looked up at Hillary expecting that she would deliver, and she does. Innocently, the world outside myself perceives Hillary as the poster girl to the idea that women are inherently progressive. When I look at her I have different, though equally high hopes. I hope for a nail in the coffin of American identity politics, the major obstacle to a clear left movement since theHouse Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), a committee headed by U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy in the early 1950s, when progressiveness was just another word for Un-Americanism.
Hillary might just prove the best I could dream of.
That is so because unlike Hillary’s supporters who feared that her gender would be a handicap under the theory that the American voter is tremendously shallow and remains backwardly sexist, the reality turned out to be the opposite. Hillary is indebted to all her money lenders and cannot get out of her small-minded 1990s ideas when everything could be both good and bad at the same time the way disco was both cool and campy. In the 1990s people were afraid of labels. In the 21st century unless we use labels we cannot move forward. Some people are with us, while others aren’t. The billionaires, the Republicans & Hillary’s deep pockets, are not with us, because they make money from us, ergo, Hillary cannot be with us.
So, when women, especially young women came out in favor of Sanders, the other Democratic candidate, because he is with us, he is not in anybody’s pocket and does not benefit from anybody’s pocket either, Hillary and most menopausal women started to cry foul. Madeleine Albright started threatening non-followers with outrageous claims that “there’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help each other.” The revered Gloria Steinem who ten years earlier supported Sen. Sanders, and called him an “honorary woman,” today supports Hillary and claims that young women only support Senator Bernie Sanders because they’re looking for a boyfriend.
But they are missing the boat. Today the world is finally clear that the rich are not us, and that the rich can be women, and men, and they come in all colors, and women issues are not women issues: they are either workers’ issues and some of the most exploited workers are women. But Hillary has come to forget about what that means, having crossed the fence to play with the other group, and be the bitch of the billionaires.
Despite the wealthy denials of classes even existing in the U.S., it is clear to everybody but the totally politically tone deaf, that we are right smack in the very middle of a class war and have been since 1776. That is why in 2016 America is finally voting for a cause not just for a funny gal or guy to entertain them once a year during the State of the Union Address. These are interesting times. America finally is getting its class consciousness and I am lucky to celebrate the moment with you.
DANA NEACȘU este doctor în filosofie, lector de drept la COLUMBIA LAW SCHOOL, din New York, profesor adjunct la BARNARD COLLEGE – Columbia University, dar și dâmbovițeană de pe malurile Ialomiței…