Obama and Academic Reason

Like millions in the U.S. and abroad, Obama's election has given me a profound surge of hope. This hope doesn't come from the idea that an Obama administration will implement policies that will make everything better right away. I'm tempted to say it's hard to believe in the prospect of policy changes by themselves doing all that much to improve life. Yet even though "policy" may in general have such a sterile connotation seeminging incapable of generating felt responses, I realize that my own position from which policy changes are not likely to have an near-term felt impact is a particular one. My dismissive attitude towards policy-centricism was certainly humbled yesterday talking with a good friend who told me that his number one electoral concern was health care -- because he knows the pain for his mother and many of the poor folks he works with who are unable to afford it now.

That said, for me hope about Obama's victory has been more a sense that this will signify some exciting changes in American culture. On one hand I think there will be a new energy and vigor among progressives here, perhaps also an expansion of alliances among white and minority progressives. Obama will "disappoint" I'm sure in making certain decisions and not pushing forward some urgent issues. Still, my bets are that his administration will make progressives feel like they have more of a shot at being heard. Large-scale grassroots mobilizations on issues from poverty to media policy to war just might be able to wield a political pressure that hasn't even seemed to be a possibility in the recent past.

Even more narrowly focused, this Obama and Democratic victory are likely to make this a better time to be a publicly-engaged intellectual than any time since the 1960s. Let me offer just one example. A couple years ago I worked for a media activist/reform organization called Free Press (www.freepress.net). Throughout the Bush years, this organization experienced increble growth (after its founding in 2002) and played a large role in holding back some of the pro-media monopoly policies that Bush folks wanted to pass through Congress and the FCC. Still, the Free Press was a sidelined player in media policy, mostly working on the defense. Now their role is likely to be much more constructive. There's a good change that some of the visions for a more democratic media that Free Press advocates have in mind might actually get put in play. Tim Wu, the current chair of the Board at Free Press, has already served as an advisor to Obama during his campaigm. I happen to know media policy better, but I imagine in all sorts of sectors of government we're going to see new opportunities arise for progressive thinkers and advocacy groups to have a larger role in shaping policies -- the EPA, HUD, transportation, perhaps even the Treasury department.

As a graduate student, this makes me think that there are going to be new opportunities for scholars to play a role in shaping some of these debates and policies. Certainly academics and scholars are not always going to bring the best goods to the table - legacies of the likes of Daniel Patrick Moynihan should give us pause in any sort of unbridled celebration of rule by academics. But certainly I'd much prefer to have Robert McChesney drafting media policy than lobbyists for Time Warner or AT&T.