[Cross-posted at The Left Coaster.]
I haven’t written about the Obama administration response to Sandy Hook because although I highly approve I am even more surprised, so surprised I needed to wait to make sure they would come through on gun control attempts through Congress. The notoriously cautious Obama administration taking on an initiative with very small chance of success in the House? The facilitator of all time actively taking on one of the most vociferous, irrational, irate lobbying groups ever to stain the American political landscape because it’s the right thing for the little people? Why, our President is behaving precisely like a liberal Democrat!
I mean nothing snide, sarcastic or self-superior in the statement at all, it simply is true that very few Obama initiatives have been vociferously liberal (please, health care reform that mandates insurance wasn’t remotely liberal or combative) on long-shot causes, Obama loathes messy political fights that allegedly produce nothing and destroy his fantasy of getting along with Republicans. Now he’s going to lose while provoking some of the most irate lunatics we’ve got.
Of course I highly approve, odds are long but I’ve yet to find an accurate forecaster of the future, simply making the attempt will organize your constituent base, gel the messaging and provide invaluable knowledge for future tactics--making the assumption of losing. Much more importantly, I think, it sends the message to your people that you’re with them, naturally you see and sense the urgency of the issue and are willing to sacrifice for them. Political aloofness is one thing, detachment to the point of cruelty quite another, and the President obviously made the correct call in deciding that threshold of American public perception had been reached.
A possible 2013 loss means little, there’s always next year then always another round of elections. The opposition is never going to give up or stop trying, not making the attempt simply guarantees emboldening the opposition to confidently try more with ever aggressive tactics. Sound familiar?
Detachment to the point of cruelty. Has that political and societal threshold been reached with other issues because the Obama administration decided a losing fight wasn’t worth it? I would argue that it has at least twice, employment and the war in Afghanistan, if our people are worth a losing fight with gun control, why aren’t they over employment and peace?
It’s my perception on two precise issue evolutions, okay, it doesn’t mean the President is a cruel person or that I’m in any way qualified as a moral arbiter on individuals, please. It means that if gun control is worth an all-out effort then jobs and peace are too, it’s the way I’m wired.
Go ahead and fight like hell for a $500 billion 2013 stimulus, $220 billion to come from shutting down the Afghanistan war now. If you lose fight even harder in 2014 to precisely identify who hurt us so much by denying the little people jobs so we can take back the House. Then really pass a stimulus, $750 billion now, since the ridiculous Republicans held it up for 2 years.
As a little people liberal I will always be hurt that our Democratic President and administration won’t do that. Purity? Please, how is fighting for little people jobs demanding purity or too much? As a plain human I will always be horrified our suicide rate in the Marine Corps now exceeds our casualty rate in a useless war that does nothing but immeasurably harm us, that costs $120 billion a year, how is it possible the President bargains Social Security chained CPI (I love the way DC comes up with words no one understands when they decide a screwing is in order) with a disastrous $120 billion war on? How?
By giving up on messy difficult political fights that appeared to offer nothing but immediate loss. By a compliant, nauseating corporate press that sees nothing wrong with a useless $120 billion war with catastrophic unemployment and never asking any questions. By politicians taking the money and looking away.
Good luck, Mr. President, I fervently wish you the best and all the success possible in your gun control efforts. I respectfully request that the same effort—no matter the perceived immediate results—be undertaken for a 2013 stimulus and ending the Afghanistan war now. I would instantly, always expect as much from any Democratic President, and will continue to do so as long as those two issues of screaming urgency and tragedy exist.