Although mainstream journalists have noted discrepancies between Obama's original vision and reality, Paul Street in The Empire's New Clothes uniquely measures Obama's record against the expectations of the truly progressive agenda many of his supporters expected him to follow. Taken together, the list of Obama's weakened policies is startling: his business-friendly measures with the economy, the lack of support for the growing mass of unemployed and poor, the dilution of his health reform agenda, the passage of a record-setting Pentagon budget, and the escalation of U.S. military violence in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia. This book yields a perspective on Obama and current politics that is scarcely found in mainstream media. No progressive reader will want to miss it!
Preface vii
Introduction: "An Instant Overhaul for Tainted Brand America" 1
Chapter 1 Business Rule as Usual 9
Chapter 2 Expire's New Clothes: Deeds and Words in Obama's Foreign Policy 47
Chapter 3 Corporate-Managed "Health Reform" (2009) 109
Chapter 4 Barack Obama, the Myth of the Postracial Presidency, and the Politics of Identity 129
Chapter 5 Big Brother Lives 153
Chapter 6 We Were Warned 167
Afterword: Beyond the Perverted and Deadly Priorities of Empire and Inequality, Inc. 201
Postscript: The Sorry Surrender of the So-Called Radical Left 211
Notes 223
Index 261
Overview
Although mainstream journalists have noted discrepancies between Obama's original vision and reality, Paul Street in The Empire's New Clothes uniquely measures Obama's record against the expectations of the truly progressive agenda many of his supporters expected him to follow. Taken together, the list of Obama's weakened policies is startling: his business-friendly measures with the economy, the lack of support for the growing mass of unemployed and poor, the dilution of his health reform agenda, the passage of ...