Ohio candidate for U.S. Senate, Buckeye Socialist Dan La Botz, offers vision for 'just society' ,Columbus Government Examiner, John Michael Spinelli

Socialist for Senate Dan La Botz: “We need to organize a movement...to fight for jobs...full employment"
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CGE: Has Barack Obama been good/bad for America?

Dan La Botz: The election of Barack Obama has had both positive and negative impacts on the American people. For African American people and for all of us who oppose racism in American society, Obama’s election represented the fulfillment at one level of the civil rights movement and the demand for equal civil and political rights—often symbolized by the notion that anyone including an African American might become president. Certainly too, Obama’s election demonstrated a rejection of all that was worst about American politics, as represented by the Bush-Cheney presidency. The defeat for the right was important. And the Obama campaign raised the hope and inspired a desire for progressive change in the American people.

Unfortunately, the hope in Obama and the Democratic Party and the belief that they would bring about progressive change was largely misplaced. Following Bush’s lead, Obama saved the banks by giving them 13 trillion dollars. He saved them but didn’t save us, didn’t save small business, homeowners facing foreclosure, and people losing their jobs. Obama saved the auto companies, but not the workers who faced loss of health benefits and the bosses’ demands for wage cuts. Obama passed a health program regulates insurance companies and provides coverage for more Americans, and that’s good. It’s fundamental result, however, is to save the health insurance companies by forcing 30 million Americans to buy their policies—but which doesn’t give us Medicare for All and still leaves millions without health insurance coverage. Obama has opened up the East Coast seas to oil, good for the oil companies, but bad for the planet and for people. Obama—whose election was in large measure a referendum on U.S. wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan—has not ended those wars, but, rather, continues to expand them. Many of Obama’s supporters must be disappointed in these developments.