I'm tired.
Tired of "Dear Obama" spam diaries, that all seem to consist of identical fallacies, pompous declarations, and ignorant characterizations.
Tired of purity trolls, who couldn't care less what is achieved so long as nothing mars their perfect vision and perfect identity.
Tired of bigots who, lacking a unifying enemy, have decided that the most courageous, visionary liberal leader in generations is to be their Goldstein for not being carved in their ugly image.
Tired of seeing ideologues spew poison on auto-pilot at their own people because they're too incompetent to win against anyone who's actually their enemy.
Tired of people believing any source that feeds their hate or fear.
Tired of magical thinking and malevolent ignorance by people who dare to call themselves progressives.
Tired of ideological purity tests and vicious, paranoid questioning of loyalties at the drop of a hat.
But I am a patient man, so I will be clear and assertive:
President Obama wants to do as much for the American people as he possibly can, and that doesn't include "noble defeats" whose only purpose is to make left-wing activists feel good about themselves. If he decides that "drawing a line in the sand" in explicit terms would help secure passage of the public option, then he will do so, but he will not burn bridges as part of an ideological purity test.
This is not a president who accepts false dilemmas any more than he accepts false "third ways," and the amount of outrage that has attended even the rumor that he was looking at ideas other than the public option shows that many people simply don't understand what it means to be a progressive. Many of us have examined co-ops and triggers since they became an issue and decided they could not be realistically formatted to deliver on the objective, but I am not such a narcissist as to believe that my conclusions necessarily apply to all possible ideas remotely associated with those concepts. I expect that the President has reached the same conclusions as I, but if he has not, I will consider whatever proposals he does lay forth on their own merits.
That is the President I voted for, whether or not some others thought they were voting for a dogmatic leftist because he's black and liberal. I voted for a President who will not accept defeat, ever, but will be constantly working forward, building on possibilities, assessing ideas, and not losing sight of what is important in the thicket of ideological rhetoric and symbolism so many seem to have gotten lost in.
This is the President as he has always represented himself to be, and as everyone who ever actually paid attention to him in the first place recognizes to be his chief asset: The man operates in reality, not fantasy. He does not believe that the world will move if he just wishes it strongly enough, or screams at it loudly enough.
He is a working President, not an impotent shoe-pounder who will accept failure so long as he can blame someone else for it. And he encourages us to be active citizens who work to overcome the actual obstacles to the legislation we seek, not just whine, and moan, and beg, and furiously demand that he do more for us.
If his speech on Wednesday "draws a line in the sand," then some of us will be relieved, although I have no doubt many will still find an excuse to consider it insufficient. If it strongly supports public option but issues no Mutually Assured Destruction ultimatum, some of us will be disappointed, and I'm sure the ugliest and most insane of the fringe elements will fly headlong into demands for primarying or even impeaching him. But I will find it satisfactory.
And if, in the weeks (hopefully not months) following that speech, we are able to pass a bill with a strong public option, then all but a truly ugly, embittered fringe around here will rejoice. If, instead, we find that all that can get through is something less than what we want, then I will be disappointed - in the Senate and our own lack of influence over it - but I will look carefully at the bill, and discuss its provisions rationally and without ideological pique. Because that is the kind of citizen I am. I am not a member of a teabagger mob, spewing rumors and demanding loyalty tests. I am a liberal, and I don't have to care where ideas come from or who endorses them, because my mind is strong enough to evaluate them on their own merits.
It is, however, precisely that fact that allows me to be confident we will get what we seek. Just as Barack Obama will not be pigeonholed on questions of ideology, neither will he be cornered in pursuing the most critical item of his presidency. I would not want to be on the wrong side of an imagination that could dare to think, let alone prove, in the midst of Southern right-wing cultural hegemony, that a liberal black Northerner named Barack Hussein Obama could become President of The United States. I would not want to be in the path of that tsunami, standing in the way of a President who knows how to attack problems sideways, slantways, from beneath, and from above, or from all directions at once, and has the patience to choose his own timing.
I made the following predictions several months ago, and I reiterate them now to give a sense of the progress occurring:
- The media will declare the public option dead. (check)
- The media will fellate Republicans like never before. (check)
- Republicans will celebrate their newfound power, and begin planning their 2010 victory parties. (check)
- The far left will wring its hands and form a circular firing squad to attribute blame for this "failure." (check)
- Public option will pass, and President Obama will sign it.
- The far left will take credit for it, belittling the President as much in its backhanded praise as it did when it was attacking him as a "betrayer."
- The right-wing will explode in violence.
To that I will add #8: The public option, in addition to the right-wing violence, will solidify the left and the public behind the President, and his poll numbers will soar.
Just to prove my level of confidence in my prediction of victory for the public option, I had challenged another Kossack to a $50 bet, also redeemable by a self-denigrating diary. The bet will be determined by what legislation the President ends up signing, so it will not be decided by the speech. I encourage other Kossacks to indulge in gambling on the issue, either monetary or fun-based, just to test how confident in you are in your assessments.