Of Kill Lists and Giant Triplets: Barack Obama and the Neoliberal Government

Of Kill Lists and Giant Triplets: Barack Obama and the Neoliberal Government

by Tolu Olorunda

[Author’s note: Below is an excerpt from The Substance of Truth (Rotterdam: Sense Publishers, 2011). It was offered for reflection on the day the president would, should all go right, accept his party’s nomination for re-election. The begging question, then, is four more years of what? Neoliberalism and imperialism unhinged?]

Power is self-sufficient, a replete possession, and must be maintained by whatever agency is required.
— Wole Soyinka, Climate of Fear¹
Wars, especially undeclared ones, invariably boost the powers and status of the president as commander-in-chief. … A president, however feckless or imposing, is transformed, rendered larger than life. He becomes the supreme commander, the unchallengeable leader and the nation incarnate.
— Sheldon Wolin, Democracy Incorporated²

On January 20, 2009, President Barack Obama received the mantle worn for eight years by George W. Bush, and thereupon swore a new course in domestic and foreign policies, calling in the Middle East for “a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect,” and assuring an economic model on the domestic front that “helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, [and] a retirement that is dignified.³
It’s been more than two years now, and the tight rope upon which many balanced their hopes—for a truly different and transformative model of governance—has lost a good deal of fidelity, as the Obama Administration proves day after day a determined unwillingness to stray far from many of the policies that earned the ire of millions the world over while his predecessor held the fort. From the Justice Department, to the Money Department, to the War Department, promises delivered on the campaign trail that elevated the spirits of citizens, Left and Right, and inspired a political uprising—following eight harrowing years of hubristic, neoliberal rituals—haven’t met the early manifestation many expected with a new face and new mind manning the White House. So, now, one question widely abounds: Who is the real Obama? But to ask “is to drift towards the illusion of thinking there is one—as opposed to an infinitely mutable organism, endlessly adapting to political circum­stance, with an eye eternally cocked to the main chance.”^{4http://dissidentvoice.org/2012/09/of-kill-lists-and-giant-triplets-barack-obama-and-the-neoliberal-government/}