Thursday 28 August 2008

Obama's Acceptance Speech

I just finished watching the live stream of Senator Obama's acceptance speech at the Democratic Convention. Certainly it was eloquent, and its ideals were high-minded, but like all of the Senator's speeches, it failed to outline any real solutions. He talks about making college more affordable, but never about eliminating tuition the way they have in Germany and Scandinavia. He talks about providing truly universal health care, but his plan amounts to little more than the government subsidization of a bloated and ineffective private system, rather than the institution of a functioning single-payer system like the Canadians have achieved. Senator Obama talks about ending partisan divisions and representing ordinary Americans, but I have yet to hear him lend his support to any form of proportional representation or instant run-off voting. He makes grand soliloquies about ending the outsourcing of American jobs, but not one word about leaving the WTO, which decries our "unfair market practices" when we attempt to levy tarriffs on goods made by sweat-shop child labour. (For more on the WTO's effects on American policy and economy, read up on Thea Lee.) When all is said and done, I can do no better than to paraphrase the great Malcolm X's remarks about the speech which the Sentaor commemorated. While Senator Obama is having a dream, the rest of us Americans are having a nightmare.

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