Why Are People This Optimistic About Obama?
By Emily Rutherford - Nov 19th, 2008 at 12:52 pmAt The Blog of Pro-Porn Activism, Ernest Greene posted a very detailed and informative piece on why folks in the (for lack of a better euphemism) adult entertainment industries should not think that Obama will present an end to challenges to the porn industry’s legitimacy or acceptability. That’s fair enough, especially given differing attitudes about “adult” media on all sides of the political spectrum, but I think it points to a larger issue as well.
Clearly Greene wouldn’t have tried to address what he saw as a problem in the pro-porn community if, well, there weren’t any indications that it was a problem in the first place. This causes me to wonder what, exactly, people who belong to niche groups, such as those who work in adult entertainment, think an Obama administration is really going to do to radically change their situations. Yes, Obama is definitely not more of the same. He’s going to bring a completely different sensibility to the White House. But not only does he have bigger fish, like the economy, to fry, he had to get elected by the majority of a very large country. His positions are progressive, but they are by no means radical.
I’m not saying that’s a bad thing at all–it’s wise as the chief executive to focus on huge issues of concern to all Americans. Nor am I saying that it’s wrong for those who work in adult entertainment to consider how Washington will impact their professions. But to then sort of combine the two, to the end result of having your expectations brutally dashed, is just unproductive.
Fair points all, Ms. Rutherford….but I don’t think that Ernest Greene’s antipathy about Obama’s appointments and their potential impacts upon his profession (in this case, adult sexual media) are in any way a knock on the reflection of Obama’s electoral impact on most issues.
The economy is probably the most important (along with the issue of resolving the war in Iraq and reversing some noxious civil liberties policies)…but to a civil libertarian and sexual rights activist like Greene, the issue of censorship and supression of legal consensual adult sexual depictions might be as important to him as the economy or the war or other “more pressing” issues.
Just because his views may seem “niche” to some doesn’t mean that they should be so readily dismissed.
And…it should be noted that very few people have ever noted Obama to be “radical” (well, other than te Far Right); most liberals and progressives and Leftists, whether they support him or not, seem to concede that he is mostly a typical centrist Democrat of the Bill Clinton/Democratic Leadership Council mold, with a slight bent towards mors liberal social views (though, like Clinton, Obama can pander to the social Right like the best of them).
Anthony J, Kennerson
November 20th, 2008 at 2:12 amLafayette, LA