Kabuki Democracy: Why a Progressive Presidency Is Impossible, for Now
Eric Alterman | July 7, 2010Few progressives would take issue with the argument that, significant accomplishments notwithstanding, the Obama presidency has been a big disappointment. As Mario Cuomo famously observed, candidates campaign in poetry but govern in prose. Still, Obama supporters have been asked to swallow some painfully "prosaic" compromises. In order to pass his healthcare legislation, for instance, Obama was required to specifically repudiate his pledge to prochoice voters to "make preserving women's rights under Roe v. Wade a priority as president." That promise apparently was lost in the same drawer as his insistence that "Any plan I sign must include an insurance exchange...including a public option." Labor unions were among his most fervent and dedicated foot soldiers, as well as the key to any likely progressive political renaissance, and many were no doubt inspired by his pledge "to fight for the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act." Yet that act appears deader than Jimmy Hoffa. Environmentalists were no doubt steeled through the frigid days of New Hampshire canvassing by Obama's promise that "As president, I will set a hard cap on all carbon emissions at a level that scientists say is necessary to curb global warming--an 80 percent reduction by 2050." That goal appears to have gone up the chimney in thick black smoke. And remember when Obama promised, right before the election, to "put in place the common-sense regulations and rules of the road I've been calling for since March--rules that will keep our market free, fair and honest; rules that will restore accountability and responsibility in our corporate boardrooms"? Neither, apparently, does he... Indeed, if one examines the gamut of legislation passed and executive orders issued that relate to the promises made by candidate Obama, one can only wince at the slightly hyperbolic joke made by late night comedian Jimmy Fallon, who quipped that the president's goal appeared to be to "finally deliver on the campaign promises made by John McCain."
None of us know what lies inside the president's heart. It's possible that he fooled gullible progressives during the election into believing he was a left-liberal partisan when in fact he is much closer to a conservative corporate shill. An awful lot of progressives, including two I happen to know who sport Nobel Prizes on their shelves, feel this way, and their perspective cannot be completely discounted.
This means that between this group and the MIDDLE ..there can be nothing but permanent enmity. And for the conservatives and this group ... OPEN UNRELENTING POLITICAL WARFARE.
These people who believe that Obama is a conservative shill because he cannot override congressional brakes in place SPECIFICALLY to prevent too radical change don't regard this as a valid form of american govt. These people who only see the end as success, who believe that even though they are a diminishing minority SPECIFICALLY BECAUSE SUNLIGHT HAS HIT THEIR RADICAL SOCIALIST VIEWS AND PROGRAMS SINCE OBAMA TRIED TO HEADMAN THEM ... they know best and must have this triumph ... cannot ever be satisfied that their 'leftquranic' shariah fails among the people.
What they cannot accept is simple. The american people, a basically right of center people, for good or bad reason came to greatly disapprove of the Bush admin and Obama was the most not Bush available in Nov 2008. Those people who pushed the message of fundamentally changing America are a minority within a minority.
As we see.
But like their more crude Bolshevik forbears who seized power for the good of the people, even knowing they did not represent any kind of even PLURALITY, let alone majority, they have the knowledge and the right on their side.
Imagine what Harry Truman, Hubert Humphrey and Henry Jackson would be saying?
Imagine what Barry Goldwater would be saying.
But this gets WORSE...
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