My friend Jonathan McIntosh - who runs Rebellious Pixels - just came out with a BRILLIANT feminist remix which critiques Eduard Cullen’s (of theTwilight series) stalkerish ways. Check it out, and be sure to visit his site and tell him what you think!

Since Barack Obama’s ascent to the presidency, I’ve heard countless progressives and members of the American Left talk about how we got “tricked”.

These progressives fall in three broad camps.

1. Progressives without a systemic analysis who genuinely are disappointed with the pace of “change” in our society and who thought Obama would fundamentally change our country;

2. Progressives who didn’t think Obama would change anything, and are working hard to push people further to the Left; and,

3. Progressives who didn’t think Obama would change anything and are revelling in the opportunity to say “I Told You So.”

The third group is where the biggest problems lie.

The bottom line is that Obama has changed some things, the most significant among them being the shift away from the openly homophobic, nativist, misogynistic, and nationalistic rhetoric of the past 8 years. That by itself should be welcomed and labelled significant.

But beyond that, the Left should know better. Our problems don’t stem from individuals (Obama, Bush) but rather systems: both institutional- (”representative”[sic] government, market economics, the nuclear family) and thought-systems (neoliberalism, fascism, white supremacy, patriarchy, neoconservatism, Liberalism).

Obama is a Liberal: he believes that the market can solve many of our problems, but that the government needs to step in and correct where the market has failed; he believes that a strong national security state is necessary for “America’s interests”, he believes that some social programs are necessary, etc…

But Obama isn’t going to change things, even if he wanted to (which he might genuinely like to do on some issues). Only an organized progressive bloc, and a growing Left offering alternatives, all taking action to raise the social costs of elite policies which negatively affect ordinary people, can force Obama - or any other force we’re pushing - to give us what we want, can do that.

What the new adminstration represents most is an opportunity. An opportunity to educate on why our problems will be solved by organized groups forcing elites to give us what we want, and that our problems come from systems and not individuals.

In particular, genuine progressives should call those who are being self-righteous (and who know better) out on their shit. If you understand the problem is systems, stop reenforcing individualism by saying “I told you so”. Being self-righteous doesn’t make you “radical”. Being compassionate and meeting people where they are at - and pushing them further - does.

The Left should know better.

“Why would it drive private insurance out of business? If private—if private insurers say that the marketplace provides the best quality healthcare, if they tell us that they’re offering a good deal, then why is it that the government, which they say can’t run anything, suddenly is going to drive them out of business? That’s not logical.”

Obama knows what he’s talking about. He clearly understands what he’s talking about. Which is why the Left should push the public debate even further.

He understands the flaw in the central right-wing narrative about government programs and markets. The right-wing narrative goes something like this:

The market (read: big business) comes up with the best solutions to all of our needs; government-run anything (besides government-run bombings and surveillance programs) is doomed to fail, since the bureaucracy of what they call “big government” creates contradictions and inefficiencies (correct, of course); finally, government programs, in addition to creating havoc in their own programs, negatively affects the free market as well.

Obama rightly points out that if an industry really offered a good product or if the product offered by a government program was really that bad, and if the market is really such a competitive place, then people would purchase the better product (in the Right’s view, non-government products) and shy away from the inferior product (the government produced one).

Obama sees the flaw in the market fundamentalism of the Right, while putting forth his own liberal market mythology that the failures of the market can be corrected by big government. To be able to do this, he clearly has a grasp of how markets work - and don’t work. The Left should put forth a third paradigm: that “representative” government and market-based economics are both incapable of delievering maximum efficiency and good products.

Here’s what we should propose:

1. We should stand by Obama’s claim that if the healthcare coverage market is so competitive, then a government run healthcare program shouldn’t be a threat to insurance companies. If, on the other hand, it is like we all suspect, and that the health insurance industry is fundamentally broken and that vast ineffiencies and fraud exist, then a well-run government healthcare program should be more desirable option for millions of Americans.

2. We should take the conservative (actually a libertarian left) critique to heart. On all issues - from defence and security, to healthcare and housing, to education and food, centralized government is a problem. Therefore, we should turn the conservative critique on its head and demand more government programs, with an added demand of localized control of those programs. We should demand localized, democratic control of a national healthcare plan. Take healthcare out of the hands of both corporations and government bureaucrats and coordinators. The people, their healthcare providers, and medical scientists know what’s best for our health and welfare. Corporate interests and government inefficiencies get in the way. Self-management and public (not state) ownership is the answer to our problems.

We should follow a similar strategy for all programs (stimulus packages, social programs, etc). Displace market and government inefficiencies with programs run and controlled directly by the people: government of, for, and by the people in practice.

“Fill your desire for something long, juicy…”

Burger King has really outdone themselves this time. The print advertisement for their new “Super Seven Incher” sandwich features an wide-eyed, blonde-haired, pale-skin, red lip-sticked, blushing woman with her mouth open, about to have Burger King’s Super Seven Incher put in her mouth. The text below? “It’ll Blow Your Mind Away”. Apparently subtlety is lost on them. And perhaps that’s for the best. Countless ads verge on being this explicit, but are masked in “subtlety” which allows the silence of critique.

This ad could be used as an incredibly powerful teaching tool when discussing gender equality with people convinced that women’s oppression is “over”. It’s become increasingly clear, from the assassination of Dr. George Tiller (the women’s healthcare provider in Wichita, Kansas), to the rampage at the U.S. Holocaust Museum, to the murder of a nine year-old Latina girl and her father by Minutemen terrorists, to the recent post-election surge in gun purchases, that the seeds of a very strong far-right-wing revival are underway. In its sights: gains made around women’s rights, rights and services for oppressed people, especially people of color and working people, and consciousness shifts around LGBT rights.

While at the root of this revival is certainly the actual far-right-wing organizations (the Minutemen, Fox News, Glenn Beck, Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, Pat Robertson, fascist and neo-nazi organizations), these organizations are only allowed to operate in an atmosphere where the objectification of human beings is increasingly pushed to its limits (i.e. “It’ll Blow Your Mind”).

The fight against conservative and patriarchal shifts in culture and consciousness should be at the forefront of our work. Through political remixes, and video blogging, and sharp cultural critique, progressives should take dig in for a long, hard fight for our lives and dignity.

As we’ve seen in recent days, hypersexualization and misogyny, open bigotry and white supremacy, and the likes, are having effects not just on the psyche of our nation, but also resulting in outright terrorism and violence.