This diary will, in itself, be short. But I want to make this a starting point for an important discussion that will challenge the media's Conventional Wisdom about the 2010 elections.
The meme is that President Obama didn't compromise enough. He didn't work hard enough to find common ground with Republicans. He "shoved Obamacare down our throats". He didn't change Washington. Etc., etc., etc., ad nauseum.
Kossacks, we must challenge this misconception. As a reality-based community, we must tell the truth to each other and the world.
I can think of several examples where the President has been willing to compromise:
Guantanamo: President Obama made one of his first Executive Orders to close Gitmo within a year of taking office in January 2009. It didn't happen, largely because of the outcry from Republicans who were more concerned with covering up their crimes than protecting and defending the Constitution.
Recovery Act: President Obama added the largest middle-class tax cut in history as an olive branch to draw Republican support. While most liberals and Democrats believed that tax cuts would not do as much good as infrastructure spending or investments in green technology, the President made full one-third of the stimulus package a "Making Work Pay" tax cut. This was, in a way, keeping a campaign promise. But it was also an overture to Republicans to say that tax cuts can stimulate economic growth.
As it turned out, this compromise was an epic failure. The vast majority of Americans didn't even know they got a tax cut. Many believed (wrongly) that Obama and the Democrats raised their taxes. And the tax cuts were not stimulative.
Offshore Drilling: President Obama made an early commitment in March 2009 to approve the offshore drilling project of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig. The Interior Department agreed to allow the project to move forward with few, if any, checks on the safety of the project. The results are historic, disastrous, and well-known.
It's also worth noting that just weeks before the Deepwater Horizon disaster, President Obama gave the green light for offshore exploration off the coast of Virginia. President Obama also expedited the process of removing restrictions on offshore drilling after the Deepwater Horizon spill, after repeated requests from Louisiana Republicans (and, it should be noted, many Democrats too) to let them go back to work and avoid losing the jobs and income from these offshore rigs.
Healthcare: The idea that President Obama and the Democrats "rammed Obamacare down our throats" is just ludicrous. To be sure, there was a heaping helping of outrage and fearmongering from Republicans, who refused to compromise and told lies about the health reform plan from the outset, believing that it was going to be "Obama's Waterloo" if the reform package could be delayed or killed.
There were months of committee meetings, a public bipartisan forum in March 2009, a speech to a joint session of Congress in September 2009 that appealed to Democrats and Republicans to put aside their differences and get reform passed, a willingness to forego single payer as an option, a willingness to trade away the robust Public Option for a plan that looked like the Heritage Foundation's plan in the 1990s (and Mitt Romney's plan in Massachusetts), and a willingness to delay passage of the bill in June 2009 to allow a bipartisan group in the Senate Finance Committee to keep working.
Obama compromised all right. He compromised so much, that he lost many Democrats' support in the process.
Small Business Tax Cuts: President Obama has repeatedly called for targeted small business tax cuts, but hasn't given up on PAYGO rules. Every tax cut has been paid for by a spending cut or an increase in taxes somewhere else. President Obama has cut taxes for small business more than a dozen times (specifics needed, please) and has worked to spur competitiveness for business start-ups.
Immigration Reform: President Obama called for, paid for, and implemented an increase in the number of Federal border security agents to address the problems expressed by (mostly Republican) border states, including Arizona and Texas. He compromised, but has not seen a similar compromise from Republicans who continue to demonize immigrants and use immigration reform as a dog whistle for nativists, racists, and fearmongers on the extreme right. While Republicans fanned the flames of hatred by calling Obama a secret Muslim, questioning his citizenship, etc., President Obama has steadily and quietly worked to do all he can from the Executive Branch to promote border security and address the concerns of border states.
That's a start. What else?