I'll get this out of the way first - I want Barack Obama to win, and I voted for him in the primaries.
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It was a little more than 2 1/2 years ago when Senator Obama posted his first of two diaries here, and needless to say, it caused quite the stir at the time. It was around the time that John Roberts was confirmed as Chief Justice of the SCOTUS, and (rightfully so) there was a lot of concern and anger about the fact that no real challenge was made by Senate Democrats to his nomination.
At the time, Senator Obama’s diary called a filibuster of Robert’s nomination "a quixotic fight I would not have supported" and his diary was viewed by many of us here as more of a chastising than bridge building. His next diary was around a month later, which he closed by indicating that he "looks forward to continued dialogue in the future".
That was October 2005, the last time he posted here. And that Senator Obama is not much different from this Senator Obama on a great many levels.
Now, as I said above, I want Obama to get the nomination over Clinton. However, this is more of a preference on their tone, style and the promise of galvanizing more people to the Democratic Party. In fact, Senator Clinton scores higher with me on the issues than Obama does (and substantially higher than Edwards, despite the campaing that Edwards ran and what he was able to do in term of steering the discussion), and their general positions are pretty similar.
But while I think he is a solid candidate, I know that he is hardly the progressive that I wish was the nominee, and he was far from my first choice of candidates - if you break it down by positions, experience, how progressive he is, voting record or a number of other metrics.
And with the amount of support - even incredibly ardent support (especially after Edwards dropped out) - that Obama has received, it makes me wonder what will happen if he gets the nomination and wins the White House. While I am cautiously hopeful that he will be able to bring some of the "change" he is talking about (not to mention the transformative change that is needed and that he could bring if he takes the bold steps with what could be a solid mandate and an increased majority in Congress), I’d like to ask what his most ardent supporters here will do if he fails to come through as many of you are promising that he will do.
What will happen if he fails to live up to the promises he has made - or even worse, promises he has not made but so many people have assumed he made, or ones that have been attributed to "what he will do when he gets there - you just wait and see"?
For example, what if the drug and insurance industries have too much of a say when it comes to healthcare reform?
What if Obama doesn’t explicitly overturn the entire "unitary executive" nonsense that the current administration has taken so far over the line? What if he doesn’t even repudiate it strongly enough?
What if his pragmatic, center-left approach to the economy gets pulled too far to the center by big business? What if, in the spirit of bringing all sides together (a noble idea, as long as too much isn’t sacrificed), there are still too many corporate tax breaks at the expense of a higher minimum/living wage or a rollback of the AMT which has become more and more unfair over the years?
What if there is no filibuster-proof majority in the Senate and the minority republicans start to throw up roadblock after roadblock on key legislation, and Obama doesn’t (or isn’t able to) push back hard enough to get his measure through?
What if Obama listens to some of his advisors who have very recently suggested maintaining substantial forces in Iraq for the first half of his (first) term? What if he doesn’t completely repudiate this and there is a much longer presence in Iraq?
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It is our duty to hold our leaders and elected representatives accountable when they don’t adhere to progressive principles or when they are not serving in a manner that they promised. It is our duty as progressives to ensure that our leaders are moving the country in this direction - especially when those leaders are Democrats and show the potential to involve many millions of people in the Democratic (both large and small "D") process.
Obama, more than any other candidate in a long time, has the ability to bring more progressives into the political process. It is up to us progressives to make sure that he is pushed more to the "left" side of that "pragmatic center-left" approach that he has been associated with for many years.
Are we willing to do this? And more importantly, will we do this - regardless of how ardent we support him now?