Obama and Us

Obama represents the European model of a socialist state – and is attacked by the American right because of that. His campaign is therefore also our campaign.

An Obama victory on November 4th would have far reaching political consequences. It would represent a shift to the left, Obama supporters say, and that would not be without consequences. In the view of Europe’s social democrats his victory would, as Obama’s campaign slogan says, be just “the change we need.” Maybe.

That the change would be noticeable in Europe is self-evident, especially since the industrialized nations are seeking a common strategy to solve the global financial crisis. An American government committed to cooperation under Obama’s leadership would fundamentally change world conditions.

Over and above that, the Democratic candidate, as much as his biography shows him as a product of American culture and as little as his vision may be European, still appears to us as more “European” than any other current political figure on the American scene, including Bill Clinton. His political profile is, in many senses, even more European than that of many politicians in Europe who have styled themselves in the Anglo-Saxon model.

That Obama belongs with the Europeans is confirmed, above all, by his opponents on the American right. They are conducting an aggressive campaign against him as the candidate of “the left.” But even within “the left” there’s a debate as to whether Obama properly belongs there.

For Republicans and their campaign team, however, it’s enough to claim that he has subversive ideas. Many call him “unpatriotic” or “un-American.” In the days of America’s most famous Communist-chaser, Joe McCarthy, spiritual forefather of many of today’s descendants throughout the land, Obama shows signs of “un-American activities.” Under that heading, they point to Obama’s support for a collective healthcare system, governmental involvement in advancing social justice, increased labor union rights with a voice in company decisions, educational opportunities for the socially deprived, and for a re-ordering of tax liabilities by increasing rates on the super-wealthy.

Somehow, that’s supposed to point to the much-mentioned “European model” of a social state. All this reminds John McCain and Sarah Palin, perhaps a bit overwrought, of collectivism, forced happiness, socialism, communism. And they call Obama a “socialist” because he made a flippant remark somewhere along the line about “redistribution.” McCain’s poll numbers have been rising ever since.

According to surveys, this newly discovered radical leftist would have the support of a majority of the “European people.” This, of course, doesn’t help him in the United States but it certainly doesn’t harm him as much as it would have four years ago. With his program of “change,” he intends to gradually raise social standards in the United States to match the average OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) level. In doing this, he fits into the diversified panorama of European leaders such as Gordon Brown (Great Britain), Jose Luis Zapatero (Spain), Angela Merkel (Germany) and Nicolas Sarkozy (France), less so if we include Kaczynski (Poland) and Berlusconi (Italy). Frank Müntefering (Chairman of the German Social Democratic Party), Frank Steinmeier (German Foreign Minister), and Peer Steinbrück (German Finance Minister) also belong to this grouping. Jürgen Rüttgers (Minister-President of the German state of North Rhein-Westphalia and conservative member of the Christian Democratic Union) would also belong here, although his views on early educational segregation would fit better with the views of Bush and McCain. Finally, Horst Seehofer (Minister-President of Bavaria and head of the Christian Social Union Party) can also be counted here despite the CSU’s disagreement with their coalition partners over inheritance taxes which, compared with the disagreements in American politics, doesn’t amount to a hill of beans.

In any case, according to the increasingly out-of-control American right, they’re all Socialists just like Obama. They all sit symbolically in the dock with him in some court of old ideologies that preaches governmental weakness. This despite the fact that America plunged the world into a war the results of which will cause suffering in the West for years to come. The American right suspects the trans-Atlantic leftists, allegedly all collectivists and communists, of aiding in or even causing the collapse of the American financial system with their deregulation dogma. At a minimum, if they weren’t the direct cause of the collapse they at least impeded effective prevention of it.

In this regard, America’s election is also our election. It also brings into question, if not openly, the idea of the European model of social equality as the basis for the underpinnings democratic society.

If Obama loses, not only do Europe’s social democrats lose but also the whole concept of social equality loses.