Lots of recent gnashing over whether Obama is good or evil or just lame, and how we should react.
I think it's the wrong question, and the right answer is to leave Obama out of this entirely. Here's why:
Obviously the progressive agenda is not moving fast enough. We are not on track to roll back the Bush Years' significant losses (anyone remember the bad Bankruptcy Bill? There's 50+ similar nasties still on the books), even if Democrats have six more years controlling the Congress, the Senate, and the White House.
Obama is not pushing hard on our agenda. Why not? I see five general possibilities. Either:
- Obama is a true corporatist centrist and is content with the Patriot Act and all the rest of the unrepealed Bush garbage,
OR
- Obama believes he is playing his political cards very carefully, gradually building support behind the scenes and maneuvering the country to a place where we can make incremental improvements,
OR
- Obama believes that the current historic Congressional majorities are inadequate, and he is waiting for a future, even-better Congress, hopefully filled with better democrats selected by the progressive blogosphere,
OR
- Obama IS trying hard, but he is functionally crippled by the Senate, and he is as frustrated by it as anyone -- in fact, this is what Obama looks like when he is frustrated,
OR
- The Power Elite in the military and corporate gangs have made credible threats to Obama that they will destroy him if he messes with specific areas (e.g., NLRA, Military Budget, Acquisition of Middle East energy and mineral reserves).
Based on Obama's background and his work in the Illinois legislature we can rule out the first. The lack of serious institutional/structural changes rules out the second; common sense rules out the third. The fourth is plausible, but he doesn't look frustrated; instead, he looks like he's not trying.
But it doesn't matter what the reason is. We know two things for sure:
(1) Obama cannot or will not drive a Progressive Agenda through Congress, and
(2) Obama is not likely to veto any good progressive legislation that reaches his desk.
And that's all we NEED to know. Obama will be there to sign any good bills we can power through to him, and he will play adequate defense in the judiciary and federal bureaucracy. That's all we're going to get. Boo-hoo.
Once we're done crying, let's face the fact that if we progressives cannot or will not force the key parts of our agenda to his desk quickly, then we will not be able to reverse the vicious cycle that is enthroning the corporations.
The fact that California's political viability is crumbling under our feet, see, e.g., Edrie's Diary, Why Californians Are Sooooo Stoopid, underlines the difficulty of our task. As always, the Right is attacking on a hundred fronts at once to keep us on defense. The fact that an army of Democratic legislative committee chairs cannot employ the same tactic is disappointing.
But we did it before, a hundred years ago, against longer odds. This time we have the Internet, which is a breathtakingly powerful tool on the side of Democracy. They, by contrast, have the Right Wing Noise Machine, which is the most powerful propaganda device yet created, executing Hitler's "Big Lie" strategy like a well-memorized script.
Where does that leave us? Whining and without a good plan of attack -- at least for the moment.
So we talk. But words won't be enough.
I have a few ideas that I will share soon, but don't listen to me (at least not yet). Instead, why not re-read Markos' book, Taking On The System and see if we are doing what he said we should do. If we are doing what he said, then why isn't it working? If we aren't doing what he said, then why not?
Cross-posted from Right of Assembly.