Sanders, Obama and FDR, by Andrew Taylor Sun Jan 31, 2016

Sanders, Obama and FDR

Even if Bernie Sanders wins the presidency, which is highly unlikely, he will of necessity go into the Obama mode as a servant of Wall Street permitted to exact only very modest policy tinkering to strengthen the social safety net. Surely he knows this.

The last time the US reformed its political economy was to save it from catastrophe and a growing, organizing Left wing. This was under FDR in the 1930s who understood he must confront Capital by real reforms. The US economy is not yet facing a 1930s level crisis. The US Left and Labor of 2016 is weak. That is why the leverage of the next president will remain marginal. "Right to Work" law guarantees that no worker can be compelled, as a condition of employment, to join or to pay dues to a labor union. The 25 states which have passed Right to Work laws are: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Kansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Michigan,Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas,Utah, Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. 

Soros’s Open Society Institute or another liberal funder will not fund challenges which undermine Capitalist class rule. Neither will populist Sanders-style appeals to the elusory ‘people’ translate into a challenge to ruling-class power. Remember 2008 ?

FDR left the presidency hated by Wall Street. And while Obama declared in his final State of the Union address that "food stamp recipients didn’t cause the financial crisis; recklessness on Wall Street did,” this same Obama cut $8.7 billion in food stamp benefits over the next 10 years, causing 850,000 households to lose an average of $90 per month. And he bailed out Wall Street. And not one major Wall Street perpetrator was punished.

FDR's reforms made his name a curse word in Corporate America. Obama on the other hand glides from Office with the promise of sinecures.