Michael Brenner said a lot of the things I've been thinking about Obama's endless capitulations, sell-outs and broken promises here:
Let's make one thing perfectly clear. These actions were not imposed on Obama. They are not the inescapable outcome of political circumstances. He chose this path. It conforms to his behavior from the very start of his presidency. It was a newly-elected Obama who hand-picked Geithner and Summers. Who installed as his right-hand man Rahm Emanuel from the board of scandal-ridden Freddie Mac and deal-maker at Dresdner Kleinwort. Who declared at a press conference on the eve of his inauguration that he would not seek to repeal the Bush tax cuts but rather let them drain Treasury revenues until they expired, which of course he has conspired to prevent. Who met clandestinely with Big Pharma to cut a secret deal that ruled out the government's bargaining on drug prices. Who met clandestinely with health industry giants to cut a secret deal that ruled out the public option.
This is the same Obama who does not know the main provisions of the Social Security Act of 1935 -- as evinced on repeated occasions. Who put Social Security and Medicare on the rack by rigging his deficit commission with the appointment of Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles. The Obama who avowedly takes his inspiration from Ronald Reagan; who spent his holiday in Hawaii reading an account of how the Gipper's White House office was run for him. The Obama who has reserved his harshest and heartfelt words for attacks on progressives. Political expediency is not the reason for turning his back on his supporters and on his pledges. After all, spurning his constituents and kowtowing to the entrenched interests led to the biggest off-year disaster in American electoral history. In short, all the evidence is that an old-school "moderate" Republican occupies the White House.
I'm watching Ed Shultz damning near pleading with Obama to take a tougher stand on what's going on in Wisconsin and thinking to myself, is there any democratic policy he's willing to taking anything more than cursory stand on? I like Obama but enough's enough. That's why I'm siding with progressives now. If the DC Dems had this big an opportunity and didn't use then they never will. And there has to be consequences for that.
I remember how exhausting the Bush administration was, and remember the elation when I truly grasped that it was over. I never thought these two years would be just as exhausting, and defending Obama is exhausting work. I know the "now make me do it" line. But it shouldn't be this hard. You shouldn't have to fight your own party every step of the way. At some point it simply becomes easier to replace those Dems with new ones, preferably ones whose default settings is not to screw their own constituents and then berate them for complaining about it.
His supporters answer that by patting those silly little progressives on the head and telling them to go to their rooms until 2012. We are assured that Obama's greatness will be recognized in time and that screwing his followers is both great and necessary. The left's beliefs were great on the campaign trail but they shouldn't expect them to become policy once in office. The insinuation is that the left's policies are stupid, counter-productive, and have no merit. If Obama couldn't do it, then, by default, it couldn't be done. They entire range of existence for left is completely dependent on the president's intellectual and political abilities. He is the head of the party. The only progressives who could challenge him on a national stage are either followers or working for him.
And we're all supposed to be OK with that:
The New Realism is to take our place dutifully behind Mr. Barack Obama as responsible people must. Responsible people should not even think of doing otherwise. For that means those awful (albeit maladjusted) right-wing fanatics will take over the country. Of course, we have a duty to tell Mr. Obama that we think he's gone astray -- in some respects. But not too loudly, not in a way that could hurt his feelings. We must remember that he is all that stands between us and the Tea Partiers. Oh my gosh!
I can't imagine what Obama could do in the next who years that would make me vote for him again. I'ts time for the Democrats to do what they always do when back in the minority: keep their heads down and wait for Republicans to self-destruct. It's the only way they ever get in power anymore. It's what happens when there's no leadership, or when a leader refuses to lead.