Obama signals a new era but is it enough?

Last night's speech by Barack Obama is something we haven't seen in decades, an American President who is arguing that the government can take leadership in solving society's  problems, a government that sees Wall Street as part of the problem and a President who intends to use a economic crisis to push for reforms that have been needed for decades to improve the lives of poor and working people.  That Obama genuinely holds these views, I have no doubt.  The problem is the alternatives he is proposing are not nearly enough.

The limits on him are not only the sclerotic military industrial state he has inherited but also the limits of the economic and political debate in the U.S.

Obama has broken with neo-liberal orthodoxy not only in the limited terms of stimulus in face of crisis, which even an ideologue like Stephen Harper accepts but also as an approach to the economy, politics and society.  The problem is that outside of Latin America, there are no mainstream political forces putting forward any significant alternatives to an economy driven by the greed of mulitnational corporations.  If by necessity Obama is forced to nationalize a couple of banks, maybe the social forces organizing around Green Jobs, against war and for the rights of workers will start dreaming about and putting forward macro alternatives.  Now is the time to start debating the new ideas emerging from Latin America and elsewhere about  democratizing the state and the economy.  You can find out more about these ideas in my new book Transforming Power