Politics in a Crazy Time
Obama and the Iron Cage
By BEHROOZ GHAMARI-TABRIZI

Can Obama transcend the Iron Cage of the White House?

The short answer to the question is a simple no!

I hoped with all my might that Obama would win the presidency and end the reign of terror that the Bush Administration has inflicted on the world. Much more needs to be said about the historical significance of a White House with black residents, but not here. I am jubilant that he has won and apprehensive about how soon he and his administration will capitulate to the habitual politics of the District of Columbia. Obama has the power to resist the current, but he won’t. To do that, he would have to launch a paradigmatic shift in the way politics is taught, thought of, and practiced in this country.

Obama ran a presidential campaign with an inherent contradiction between its form and substance. In its form––the ways his campaign mobilized different constituencies, the way he appeared in rallies, and in the very intonation of his oratory––he presented himself as a populist candidate advocating radical change. Substantively––in his economic plan, in his understanding of global conflicts, and in his political vision––he differentiated himself by a hair’s breadth from Clinton-era center-right doctrine. History tells us that substance is enduring and form is ephemeral.

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