My Top Ten Political Stories of the Decade
From Politics and Society published by USC.
December 18, 2009
The Aughties? The Ohs? Whatever you call them, the years 2000 through 2009 were eventful ones. Marc Cooper of the USC Annenberg School recalls the media moments that captured our attention: September 11, Obama’s election, the expansion of presidential power…
1. The unconventional election process of 2000. The drawn-out match between George W. Bush and Al Gore revealed an antiquated and unreliable electoral system.
2. The attack on the Twin Towers, September 11, 2001. It didn’t change the world as we knew it, but it reshaped global politics.
3. The invasion of Afghanistan, 2001. We are still dealing with its consequences almost nine years later.
4. The invasion of Iraq, 2003. The first purely “preemptive war” in recent American history, based on deliberately exaggerated — if not nonexistent — evidence.
5. The introduction of torture techniques as official American policy. Perhaps no single policy has so besmirched the global image of the United States.
6. The unprecedented expansion of executive power. The Bush-Cheney administration offered little regard for constitutional norms in granting itself extra-judicial powers.
7. Hurricane Katrina. It not only devastated New Orleans, but also washed away a two-decade-old governing conservative consensus, by revealing the gross ineptitude of the heirs of Reaganism.
8. The election of Barack Obama. The election of an African American as president was, in itself, historic. The election also heralded a profound demographic shift in the electorate, with implications of a long-lasting political realignment.
9. The global financial crisis of 2008-2009. If the election of Obama signaled the end of the Reagan Era in politics, the crash of 2008 equally represented the crisis of the free market economic consensus. The conventional wisdom of the previous 30 years evaporated along with Lehman Bros.
10. The media revolution. The death rattle of legacy media and the emergence of new social media opened the doors for a mass democratization of information production.
Marc Cooper, director of Annenberg Digital News and senior lecturer at the USC Annenberg School, is an expert on political journalism and new media.
My
December 18th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
May we live in interesting times…
December 18th, 2009 at 3:41 pm
“The invasion of Afghanistan, 2001. We are still dealing with its consequences almost nine years later.”
We are still dealing with the consequences of the break up of the Ottoman Empire, too!
December 18th, 2009 at 4:37 pm
he he…this is a satire, right? The realignment due to the Obama people? I had to look at the date, thinking this was written months ago.
No, but the Constitutionalist and Liberty Tea Party people, recently given a higher percentage of approval than either the Dems or the Repubs might just be the real thing.
December 18th, 2009 at 8:43 pm
Happy birthday, Marc.
December 19th, 2009 at 2:29 am
My man Sergio, I was thinking about you as I read the fine Chris Hedges full blast column today. He articulates, with some rigour, some of what you try to express here, albeit in your own unique and reductionist fashion. Here’s Hedges
http://www.alternet.org/politics/144419/are_liberals_pathetic/
December 19th, 2009 at 7:31 am
For everyone who isn’t in a link-clicking mood, here’s all you need to know about the article Ahmed’s linking to:
“I vote socialist, which in my case meant Ralph Nader, but could have meant Cynthia McKinney.”
Yes, of course, how “pathetic” of liberals to not be this loony. If that’s “pathetic”, I’ll take it.
December 19th, 2009 at 9:25 am
You’re doing this a year early. The decade will not be over until the end of 2010.
December 19th, 2009 at 11:02 am
Hmmm, while “Kyle” is, um, well just “Kyle” the “pathetic” Chris Hedges is; a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist who was the New York Times Middle East correspondent, the author of a universally praised book “War is a Force which Gives Us Meaning” which, on a personal level influenced me profoundly, he has since written fairly prolifically including penniong one fo the better meditations on the psychological background and historical origin of the Christian right, he’s thoughtful public intellectual and gifted speaker widely respected amoung his peers and readership…
December 19th, 2009 at 7:51 pm
Kyle – Chris Hedges has a Pulitzer Prize – just like George Will, Charles Krauthammer, Dorothy Rabinowitz, Paul Gigot, Robert Bartley, Thomas Friedman, Anne Appelbaum, and David Broder – and you’re just a guy making the common sense point that you’d have to be batshit crazy to vote for Cynthia McKinney for President. So shut up. Pulitzer Prize Winners are smarter than the rest of us and their political judgement shouldn’t be questioned by peasants.
December 19th, 2009 at 8:01 pm
Incidentally, Hedges is the one calling people “pathetic” for not choosing to vote Nader/McKinney over Obama, Clinton, Gore, et.al. Kyle is just choosing what he obviously considers – and IMHO is inarguably – the lesser of two “pathetics.” Hedges is a provocative writer on various subjects. I don’t think he’s “pathetic” – but I think he’s totally off the rails and bat-shit crazy when it comes to advice on electoral politics. It happens. I also find these arguments totally boring, they’re so fucking puerile and predictable.
December 19th, 2009 at 9:14 pm
I’m a liberal 90% of the time. The other 10% of the time I’ll tilt toward the socialist side. I like Hedges. He can be really good at times. But I’m more than a bit turned off when he starts trading in GOP talking points like referring to Obama as a product of Chicago machine politics. He can do better than that. Hedges has a litany of complaints but his piece linked above is pretty slim on remedies.
He cites a professed position for unions. Hurray. So do I. So I guess both Hedges and yours truly are pretty bummed when 30% + of union members vote for Republicans. Guess we all have to work on that solidarity thingy.
I remember right after the election, when Michael Balter chimed in these threads about Obama winning as a liberal. Michael made a very good point that this past election didn’t have much to offer leftists — because leftists didn’t have a candidate. Pretty sound analysis, imho.
December 20th, 2009 at 11:17 pm
War is a Force which Gives Us Meaning” which, on a personal level influenced me profoundly, he has since written fairly prolifically including penniong one fo the better meditations on the psychological background and historical origin of the Christian right, he’s thoughtful public intellectual and gifted speaker widely respected amoung his peers and readership…