'Change You Can Believe In', You Better Not Believe It

In: Critical sociology, Band 38, Heft 5, S. 747-768

Abstract

This study evaluates the extent to which the moneyed establishment influences Obama's politics and policy positions. Drawing on insights from power structure theory, the article elaborates on how Obama's acceptance of the moneyed elite's political, economic, and cultural hegemony as normative and determinate of everyday reality configures his policies. Drawing primarily on secondary sources (i.e. journal articles, public speeches, newspapers, magazine interviews, and Internet sites) that scrutinize government policies and the appointees who formulate them, this study suggests that the American political system's narrow commercial parameters incline Obama to govern as the presidential facilitator and protector of private financial interest.