Inauguration Day

This morning, I feel like one of those X Files geeks: I Want To Believe. The little bit of me that isn't utterly tired and jaded is still looking around for excuses to get excited about Barack Obama. But I suspect I may be with Frank in Marc Robert's great cartoon. I'd left the Labour Party in 1995 (after being a member for a grand total of about 4 months), but I was still excited about Tony Blair's election in 1997, if only because it heralded the end of such a catalogue of hideousness and ineptitude under the Tories. The speed with which I was disillusioned then makes me very wary now.
And the evidence for why I'm going to be disillusioned if I do let much of that hope creep in is already strong. Even before the appalling massacres in Gaza over the past 3 weeks, Obama's position on Palestine was looking bad. He'd supported Israel's claims to the city of Jerusalem, 'undivided.' He'd appointed the former Israeli soldier Rahm Emanuel as his Chief of Staff, and Hilary Clinton, whose election campaign included threats to bomb Iran to defend Israel, as Secretary of State. While Gazan civilians were blown apart and burnt and crushed under their homes, he remained silent but allowed his advisers to brief that he understood Israel's need to 'respond' to attacks on its civilians. And going further back, he'd supported many Israeli acts of aggression in the region.

On climate change, I'm deferring to those with more knowledge of both Obama's position and of international climate change policy, who seem to be at least a little bit optimistic about his grasp of the issue and genuine aspirations to reduce the USA's carbon footprint. Mind you, post-Bush anyone could look ok on this, with the possible exception of that rabid bitch Sarah Palin. God, I hate sharing a name with that woman.
I'm not denying the importance of the USA electing its first black president, though I am stunned by the naivete of the people I keep hearing claim that this indicates that America is no longer a racist society, which I'm sure will surprise many of the population of New Orleans who sat and waited for help after Hurricane Katrina, and yes I am betting that it would have got there a damn site faster if the people waiting hadn't been poor and black. Or the African-American women who can't access abortions because they're too expensive, or who get put on physically damaging long-term contraceptives while they're still at school. Or the Haitian guys who get shot and attacked by the New York police for having the effrontery to be suspected of something... anything.
The symbolism of Obama is amazing, but I also suspect I'm with those who reckon that his scope for doing anything to help the position of black people of all origins in the USA will be extremely limited by his need to save up political capital, to not be seen as 'favouritist.' The symbolism of him wearing a 'this is what a feminist looks like' t-shirt was also amazing, although the pose he strikes doing so also says a lot about what might be offered on that front - you need saving, li'l lady? Well here comes Superfeminist!
We're having a little inauguration party here tonight. Not so much a celebration, more an excuse to have some nice people round, and to have the coverage on. To recognise that this is a historic moment, but not to inflate the expectations and hopes we may each be harbouring. I think I'd be more hopeful if it wasn't for Obama's cowardly failure to speak out on Gaza - it would have been more honest of him to just spit out the fact that basically he's yet another US president who'll pander to Israel, instead of pretending that he was respecting the fact that he wasn't yet in power. But... fingers crossed.

The photo of Obama with an 'I love Sderot' t-shirt is courtesy of Electronic Intifada