In coming years, political scientists and just people who enjoy studying this kind of stuff, will study the year 2009 with great interest. What occurred this past year was incredible, something that scarcely could have happened unless it was pre-meditated, something that ITSELF will be studied and debated. So, what is this thing that will have political nerds and nabobs scratching their heads in coming years? Quite simply they will be conducting an Autopsy of a Political Movement, the Obama Movement, or maybe they will give it a cutesy name like the "Yes We Can" movement when MSNBC gets ready to do their 90 minute special on it. Fine, they have my permission to call it that; for a PERCENTAGE, of course. Why should I be the only one who DOESN'T cash in?
A genuine Political Movement is a very rare occurence; they don't come around every four years. What got Obama elected was a full blown MOVEMENT of people who were willing to march, speak, protest, do WHATEVER the MOVEMENT NEEDED THEM TO DO IN ORDER TO EFFECT THE CHANGES THAT THE COUNTRY DEMANDED. This was that rarest of movements, a true grass roots movement of millions. Those millions showed up in unprecedented numbers for the Obama inauguration. Looking back at that day I wonder what really went through Obama's and his handlers' minds as they surveyed that crowd; after all, politicians DREAM of being at the head of MOVEMENTS like that!
Looking over that crowd that day from the warmth of my own home in Florida I marveled at the power in the hands of our nations first African American President. If that many millions of people could come out in sub freezing weather to listen to speeches, this guy can REALLY change the world. Or at least America, anyway.
By then it was already very obvious what the opposition was going to do, or try to do: OBSTRUCT. This President was not going to get any honeymoon, no period of bi-partisan co-operation, not even PHONY co-operation. It was obvious from the comments leading up to the Inauguration by the GOP and their propagandists, Fox News, Limbaugh, ET AL, that the "Loyal Opposition" was not even going to pretend to be loyal. If this President was going to really effect the Change that captured the imagination of his movement, he would have to fight, and fight hard. The rhetoric already coming from the GOP, "Socialist, Communist, etc." foreshadowed that like the movie title of a few years back, "There Will Be Blood". The members of The Movement that I knew all felt like I did: Let's Get It done, whatever it takes.
This Movement was all the more remarkable, after all, in that so many of it's members were people like myself, guys who had gotten jaded in recent years. Guys like me were disgusted; we pretty much realized that there were really very few differences between the two political parties. What differences there were were of the cosmetic variety, and both parties gleefuly would sit back and let us argue over abortion or gays, while the MAIN THINGS never changed. And those things never changed because the real people in power, no matter if there was a Democratic or Republican administration officially "in power", those REAL LEADERS called all the shots behind the scenes. We all knew these things going into the 2008 election; they were hard lessons learned over the years. Our dreams of a political revolution were long dead.
Then along came Obama, and a Movement took hold. And joining with the young and the naive, and the excited African Americans who finally seemed like they could say "look, we ARE equal Americans", came a lot of guys like me; the armies of the jaded. We got caught caught up in the excitement and although we certainly had our share of doubters who said "you guys are crazy if you think Obama can really change anything", we joined up anyway. One last hurrah, and all that. I remember thinking of all these things as I watched the inauguration. I said to myself "well, we did it; we actually did it, got this black man elected President of the United States. Un-FREAKING-believable. Now, is he gonna come through? Looking at that crowd assembled on the mall in Washington on that bitter cold day, I had no doubt that he COULD. If he had the WILL for the upcoming fight.
It didn't take long for the opposition to spring in to action. On the very day of the historic Inauguration, Fox News was already disgracing itself, throwing mud on what was a true joyous and proud moment in American history. And the GOP made clear in the days following the Inauguration that this President would get nada from them. Nothing. Zero. The Party of No was thus born and they tore into this President with a viciousness and savagery not seen before in the modern political age. They soon made clear that nothing was "Off Limits" and that no low was too low for the once great Party of Lincoln. Battered as they were by this election in which the American people rejected not only Bush, but the entire Far Right philosophy, they responded by deciding that their "problem" was that they weren't CONSERVATIVE ENOUGH, and they thus began a fratricidal purge of all Republican moderates. Those remaining wanted to prove to Limbaugh & Fox News (who somehow became the new GOP leadership) just how FAR RIGHT they were, and they did so by launching into the vilest, most disgusting attacks on a newly elected President in recent memory. Commie, Nazi, Socialist, all tinged with racial undercurrent became the GOP lingua franca. It was obvious to me that these guys were going to be a formidable enemy! Good thing we had "The People" on our side, right? That's what I said to myself, remembering those freezing millions on the Washington mall.
But the GOP did not stop with mere name calling. No, they ORGANIZED their own "grass roots" movement, and dubbed it the Tea Party movement. Now, this was anything but a REAL grass roots movement, nothing at all like ours; that's what our left wing political pundits sneeringly pointed out. Yeah, we sure had a lot of laughs at the "Tea Baggers" (we changed their name; get it?) expense! Night after night Maddow & Olbermann& Ed Shultz and all our bloggers made fun of these "clowns" who were hysterically demanding "their America" back. What a bunch of buffoons they were, these tea party fools, right? Yes, I laughed too.
But I stopped laughing during the summer of 2009. See, by this time, POLICY was being decided in Washington. Important things like Universal Health Care were being brought out in front of Congress, and by extension, in front of the entire American nation. These were some of the things that we had all joined the Movement for! These were some of the things that we were promised would Change. And the opposition was ready for the fight. They got their people out into the streets. They protested. They rallied. They took over town hall meetings. There really were not that many of them, but they sure made a LOT OF NOISE and the networks covered all of it. And there I was in my South Florida home wondering WHEN ARE WE GOING TO GET OUR PEOPLE UP AND OUT INTO THE STREETS? I just couldn't help it; I still had the vision of all those millions on the Washington mall, and I said to myself "why are we not mobilizing our Movement?" Surely any fool could see that the GOP was winning the battle for Public Opinion, right? If someone put on the TV in August 2009 he would think he was witnessing an attempt by an unpopular government to force some unpopular policy down the throats of the American people. It was time for the Democrats to pull out their secret weapon - The Movement! It was time for the left wing and the unions and their supporters to mobilize all those folks who froze their asses off in January - "hey, did you think the war was over with the election? No, it's just beginning! We need you all to join is in demonstrations in SUPPORT of Health Care! In support of a Public Option! In support of YOUR PRESIDENT!"
That's the call to action I expected. After all, this President had a MOVEMENT behind him! What use is a movement if you don't USE IT? I expected a rousing call to action from the leaders of the Democratic Party; after all, they were starting to lose momentum. The unending attacks and the Tea Party demonstrators were starting to have an effect. Poll numbers were going down; support for health care was eroding. Somebody has to get the MOVEMENT in gear! But nobody ever did. Not the Democratic Party leadership, not Rachel, nor Ed, nor Keith. The blogs? They did do one thing: they SPAMMED the hell out of people for money.
I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Here we had a President and a political party at the head of a hugely popular, genuine, grass roots MOVEMENT, one that was even inspiring people OVERSEAS, and they were squandering it. They could have used it to push through every single thing that this President said he wanted to do when he was campaigning. But they did nothing. Here's what they did: they thanked everyone at the end of Inauguration Day and said "go home. We'll take it from here". Stunning; absolutely, completely stunning.
So I have been sitting here in my South Florida home wondering what happened. Were we all duped? Did they just USE the Movement to get elected and once they had the prize they disbanded it? Was it all bullshit from the get go, all this Change talk and Yes We Can? I started to have serious misgivings even before the inauguration, once Obama announced his Financial People were going to be the EXACT SAME GUYS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE GREATEST ROBBERY OF ALL TIME, the Goldman Sachs crew. That was a serious red flag right there, but I still refused to cash in my chips about this Movement. But then came the Health Care Debacle, and there really is NO other name for it. It was during the fight for universal health care that the Democrats did the UNTHINKABLE - they squandered a genuine political movement. It will be to others to write the sequel to this chapter; the results of all this squandering of political muscle. Will it lead to Obama losing in 2012? A resurgence of the GOP? Will the DISGUST and the feelings of BETRAYAL among members of the Movement lead to the formation of a viable 3rd political party? I have no idea. I'm just a guy sitting in his house in South Florida who witnessed the SQUANDERING of a political rarity - a genuine, powerful, grass roots Movement, and I thought I should at least write it down for posterity.