Why are liberals so desperately unhappy with the Obama presidency?
Here is my explanation: Liberals are dissatisfied with Obama because liberals, on the whole, are incapable of feeling satisfied with a Democratic president. They can be happy with the idea of a Democratic president—indeed, dancing-in-the-streets delirious—but not with the real thing. The various theories of disconsolate liberals all suffer from a failure to compare Obama with any plausible baseline. Instead they compare Obama with an imaginary president—either an imaginary Obama or a fantasy version of a past president.
So, what if we compare Obama with a real alternative? Not to Republicans—that’s too easy—but to Democratic presidents as they lived and breathed?
This article "When Did Liberals Become So Unreasonable?" is from New York Magazine (http://nymag.com/...), and imo it hits all sorts of nails on the head. More than opinion, it looks back at our (progressive) contemporary critiques of Democratic presidents from Obama back to FDR. Though I imagine some few might be tempted to get defensive, it is not an attack on Liberals or Progressives. After all, facts & reason are good, no? As the saying goes, truth has a liberal bias.
I'll pull out a few provocative paragraphs to whet your interest...
For almost all of the past 60 years, liberals have been in a near-constant emotional state of despair, punctuated only by brief moments of euphoria and occasional rage. When they’re not in charge, things are so bleak they threaten to move to Canada; it’s almost more excruciating when they do win elections, and their presidents fail in essentially the same ways: He is too accommodating, too timid, too unwilling or unable to inspire the populace. (Except for Johnson, who was a bloodthirsty warmonger.)
Is it really likely that all these presidents have suffered from the same character flaws? Suppose you’re trying to find dates online, and everybody you meet turns out to be too ugly. Might it be possible that the problem isn’t the attractiveness of the single people in your town but rather your standards?
I really just want to get this read & discussed, so this diary is just a few excerpts, along with only a very little bit from me. I'm taking care of an ill son today and down with a flu myself, so please accept my apologies if I don't participate in the comments as actively as I might otherwise. Gotta get us better for Thanksgiving, my favorite holiday. (The harvest feast, not the genocide). Here's a last quote...there're lots more in the article.
Which brings us back to Obama. Is it understandable to believe that his administration has been a disappointment to date? Of course. On the other hand, maybe there is something to learn from the frequent (anguished) comparisons liberals make between Obama and FDR. Part of the reason Roosevelt’s record looms so large from a distance is because historians measure these things differently from political activists. Activists measure progress against the standard of perfection, or at least the most perfect possible choice. Historians gauge progress against what came before it.
That's probably enough quoting. Hope you enjoy the article.
Happy Thanksgiving!
(If anyone would like to educate me on how to get the link-to-highlighted-word thing to work, please do and I'll edit it in. I just can't figure it out.)