Abstract:
M EMORIES of President Obama's election and inauguration, which electrified
the American, world, and pan-Mrican imaginations
approximately two years ago have
almost faded under the harsh demands of
governance,
in
the
face of Washington's
descent
into
political gridlock verging on
ungovernability. The euphoria that temporarily
lifted the country from the abyss of
collective despondency has dissipated as the
Great Recession continues to devastate lives
and
livelihoods and mock the fantasies of
indebted
consumption
of
the
American
dream. The increasingly embattled Obama
administration finds itself buffeted between
the angry Tea Party rabble on the right and
the impatient progressives of the left. In the
meantime,
African American leaders are
beginning to question the president's commitment
to a "black agenda" more openly.
