I’m not sure exactly which stage of political grief I’m at — probably anger/bargaining. So forgive me if I sound defeatist, cynical, and naïve at the same time, as my own Obama-honeymoon grinds to an end with this whimper.
Although work and family have largely pulled me away from activism at this point in my life, I like to think that my political instincts have remained progressive, if not radical. The sense of hope and excitement I felt around Barack Obama’s campaign was a big deal for me, going back to the days when he was a State Senator who showed up on picket lines to support the struggles of working people in Chicago. Throughout his Presidential campaign I never forgot that he was just a politician working within a compromised system, but I still allowed myself to trust him and hope.
Now it feels like déjà vu all over again. I can’t help thinking of Bill Murray in Groundhog Day, with progressives apparently caught in an endless cycle of being sought after during campaigns and then ignored when it comes to ruling and making policy. Sure, we can vote-in the B-team every 8 to 12 years when frustrations mount and power needs a friendlier face. But it feels like all we’re doing is temporarily bolstering opportunists and setting up increasingly conservative counter-swings of the pendulum.
You can see it in the attitude of reactionaries, with their wounded sense of entitlement and outraged refusal to accept the rule of democracy when things don’t go their way. But at this point I’m less worried about the tea-partiers and the Republican reactionaries than I am with the reactionary influence over the entire political system – including "our" side.
I'm no expert, but isn't this period a critical test for the Democratic Party, living out a best-case scenario, with majorities in Congress and a President elected with an honest-to-goodness mandate for change? This appears to be one of those "If not now, when?" situations. It’s hard to imagine a better opportunity for the Democrats to make real reform and change, and it’s hard to reconcile this with the reality we’re faced with: refusal to prosecute torturers, continued secrecy, marriage inequality, imperialist wars, environmental backsliding, and an economy propped up for the benefit of corporations while ordinary people are allowed to suffer.
And while I can see truth in some of the conventional responses to all of this, when strung together and endlessly-recycled they just sound like excuses for a bad system:
We have to be reasonable
Change takes time
It’s because of the Republicans
It’s because of the tea-partiers
It’s because of the Blue-Dogs
It's better than having a Republican in office
Progressives have to stay with the Democrats because there is nowhere else for them to go
What scares me is the possibility that we may be watching the hope and energy of a generation run up against the clear limits of a corporate-oriented democracy -- the gnawing suspicion that the powerful stakeholders have the ability to absorb, deflect, or appropriate that hope and energy, and that the kinds of reform that many of us want to see happen may simply not be possible in this system.
I may not be completely ready to throw in the towel, but that day is coming. In the mean time I’ll throw a few questions out there:
What can we realistically expect to accomplish under a Democratic Congress and Administration?
Exactly when will Democrats stop taking progressives for granted?
And how are we going to change this dynamic so that we're not banging our heads against the same wall 12 or 20 years from now?