Interview: John R. MacArthur on the US election

When Barack Obama entered the White House in January 2009, millions of citizens across the United States believed it was a new dawn for the American political system. Obama promised a presidency that would tear up the rulebook when it came to party loyalty; campaign fundraising, corruption; and the petty issues of partisan politics. But he would soon learn that attempting to transform the money machine and vested interest groups that run Washington would be near impossible.

First released in September 2008, John R. MacArthur’s ‘You Can’t Be President: The Outrageous Barriers To Democracy in America’ is a book that openly criticizes Obama from the liberal left.

MacArthur argues that populist politicians with a strong democratic mandate are often sidelined in American politics by the ‘professional political class’, in favor of those candidates who have greater access to the cash donations of big businesses. In a new revised edition –  to coincide with the 2012 American Presidential Election –  MacArthur contends that Obama’s time in office has simply reinforced the status quo of the ‘political boss system’: which encourages multi-million dollar election campaigns, and the hostility of party establishments to outsider candidates.