This is actually an open letter to Al Franken, who I'm afraid has been ingesting too much kool-aid.
Compare Franken's insistence that we shouldn't let "perfect reform be the enemy of a good bill" with folk hero Michael Moore's preferred governing style in which Obama would eviscerate obstructionist senators and have them do push-ups when they don't fall in line. As Moore puts it in his open letter to Obama, "It'll be fun -- and we may just get something done. Whaddaya got to lose?"
My question to Franken: What happened to YOUR sense of fun? You used to adore a good fight filled with scathing humor, scandal, and threatened lawsuits! Now you're sounding like some sort of history professor soberly reminding us of how FDR actually succeeded in making this country more progressive.
Snooze.
Al, you've got it all back-asswards when you say "make us do this."
You're starting to sound like the Great Disappointment himself, Barack Obama!
Al, YOU'RE the guy with power, not me, so YOU should be following Michael Moore's advice (especially if the great Disappointment in Chief won't do it): bust some heads! RUN THE COUNTRY! TAKE CHARGE! ORDER ALL OBSTRUCTIONISTS OUTTA THE WAY!
Now doesn't that sound like more fun than giving history lessons? Besides, what have you got to lose?
I know, I know. President Anemic is technically probably right when he says he can't do it alone. If he just ordered everyone around every day, barking commands at all our institutions -- Congress, the media, the courts, the military, the Justice Department, the voters -- yeah, technically, he'd probably alienate everyone except the left-wing blogosphere. But, as Moore points out: What would he have to lose? And wouldn't it be so much more fun than grinding out compromises and deals and unsavory flip-flops?
I'm telling you, every time the Compromiser in Chief acquiesces he's telling us he doesn't understand what makes good TV. In the primaries he took away the Right's ability to make an issue out of his failure to where a lapel pin -- by wearing a lapel pin!! Didn't he realize how much more FUN it would be to feed the viewers a protracted mud-fight over his patriotism? Now he's considering reversing Eric Holder's decision to try that terrorist in NYC -- just because he's getting absolutely no support from the media, the pundits, the voters, the state of New York, etc. It's like he's inviting us all to debate these things rationally -- to be players in the process -- instead of just reacting outrageously to his commands. In other words, he's robbing us of a whole lot of fun!!
Now, I know it's possible that after a few years of governing like dull history professors, you people might have a moderately impressive string of progressive accomplishments. Yeah, you might keep control of the House and Senate and the White House. Yeah, you might start to reverse the sense among voters that government can't do anything anymore. But what good is it all if you're not having fun??
Yeah, this hopey-changey strategy of treating other players and institutions like adults -- like nothing will get done unless THEY step up to the plate too -- maybe it'll actually start to change political culture so that Congress will gradually start to realize they're part of the governing process, and the media will start to realize that they'll be held accountable for not fact checking, and the voters will start to realize that the fear-mongering jingoism of Fox News wasn't as relevant to their lives as they once thought....
But, God, wouldn't that be SO boring and gradual. NOT FUN!
Michael Moore's got it right, Al. What the hell happened to YOUR sense of good television??