seek - it is only the chance for us to make that change. And that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were. It cannot happen without you.
"So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism; of service and responsibility where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves, but each other. Let us remember that if this financial crisis taught us anything, its that we cannot have a thriving Wall Street while Main Street suffers - in this country, we rise or fall as one nation; as one people.
"Let us resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long. Let us remember that it was a man from this state who first carried the banner of the Republican Party to the White House - a party founded on the values of self-reliance, individual liberty, and national unity. Those are values we all share, and while the Democratic Party has won a great victory tonight, we do so with a measure of humility and determination to heal the divides that have held back our progress. As Lincoln said to a nation far more divided than ours, We are not enemies, but friends, though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection."
So there we have it, straight from the horse's mouth. We are to set aside our differences, work harder, rely on ourselves, not expect too much from the government, tighten our belts and make further sacrifices, and all be friends. At root, it is much the same message Bush gave the nation after September 11, when he too appealed for national unity. The idea of "national unity" sounds nice on the surface, and appeals to millions of people tired of war, racism, sexism, homophobia and division. But under capitalism, "national unity" means subordinating the interests of the working class majority to the interests of a handful of capitalists. We may all be "Americans," but we are not all truly "equal." American society is divided into classes, and these classes have opposed and irreconcilable differences. One class exploits and lives off the labor of the other. One class concentrates the vast majority of wealth in its hands while millions of others barely scrape by. One class dominates the country's politics and controls its government. One class makes and enforces all the laws in order to defend its interests.
And if partisanship is "petty," "immature," and "poisonous," why continue the farce of having two political parties of the ruling class, when they are in effect two wings of the same party? It is also incredibly telling that Obama referenced Abraham Lincoln's first inaugural address. We might remind him that despite Lincoln's friendly words, only a long and bloody civil war succeeded in ending the divisions that literally tore apart the nation. At that time, the country was divided between the capitalist North and the slave-owning South. Today the country is divided into two main classes: the working class and the capitalist class. To try and reconcile the two is to try to square the circle. Obama and those closest to him know that big explosions of the class struggle are on the order of the day. His task is to keep that struggle within "safe" limits.
Obama must therefore make some cosmetic changes. He must give the appearance that he is doing something new and different. After eight years of Bush and co, there will be something of a honeymoon while Americans wait and see what they can expect in the months and years to come. He is expected to establish the tone of his new administration early on, while Bush limps around the White House for a few more months. Obama will probably move quickly to announce tax cuts on the "middle class," while attempting to raise them on the rich. In reality, he will more than likely simply roll back some of the Bush tax cuts for the rich, which would merely take us back to the levels of taxation under Reagan, Bush Sr. and Clinton; i.e., to a time when cuts in social services and a skyrocketing military budget really took off. However, even if he does raise the