So as lukewarm as I usually am on the mainstream political parties, and as much as I really see Obama as a kind of bland centrist on most policies, I'm psyched for change.
The reason I'm psyched has less to do with Obama and more to do with the particular historic moment that we're living in - one that should I hope see the death of two destructive philosophies - neoliberalism and neoconservativism.
As I argue here understanding Bush's disasters as failures of policy is misleading. They are rather failures of two ideologies - neoliberalism or market fundamentalism on the one and and neoconservativism (which I think may be just a euphemism for colonialism) on the other.
The current political moment - with each of these ideologies about as unpopular as they've ever been - offers us a unique opportunity. A meaningful break with the Bush administration is a break with 500 years of colonial conquest on the one hand, and about a hundred and fifty years of prioritizing profit over people on the other.
As a first step towards a more humane future, I argue that we could at least follow principles of international law - the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the UN Charter.
A Kipling quote may help explain where Bush's Iraq adventures ignored those 20th century principles of democracy and sovereignty and went back to the 18th century:
Take up the White Man's burden —
In patience to abide,
To veil the threat of terror
And check the show of pride
And, lest we forget, these are some of the rights that we're already supposed to be enjoying under the Universal Declaration of Human rights.
[E]veryone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
The second the election's over, let's start putting pressure on the Dems - who tend to stop at nothing to sell out working folks - to ensure that we reject these old philosophies and start building a better world.