There is an old adage in the service industry that goes, "an opportunity to lean is an opportunity to clean". It is a rather crude way of pushing people not to relax, but to recognize an opportunity to get something done.
I think this applies to politics as well. In reading the constant stream of criticism that now seems to be the lifeblood of Daily Kos, it struck me that we have settled for complaint over action, and are wasting opportunities to advance our agenda.
To paraphrase Al Sharpton when he challenged Cornell West to move from critique to leadership, "If you are afraid to help, say you are afraid, but don't blame President Obama"......
Today there is a FP diary that is pretty much boilerplate Obama bashing disguised as concern about immigration and Latino political concerns. The bashing isn't what I find the most objectionable, it is the wasting opportunity to call for action.
The diary selects certain quotes and promises and then rightfully points out that these promises have not been kept. The disturbing part is that readers are told:
Obama made some campaign promises, then never bothered to fight for them until now, in the early stages of the 2012 election.
Now putting aside the fact that President Obama took on the pernicious "immigration law" enacted in Arizona, it wasn't as if he never "bothered" in the time he has been in office.
Don't believe me? How about Nancy Pelosi speaking to The Hill:
I don't think he broke his promise, what he found is that it is almost impossible with the resistance in the Senate of the Republicans to pass it," Pelosi said Sunday in an interview on Univision. "But that doesn't mean we don't keep on trying and keep coming up with new ways to do it."
So what was the problem? President Obama didn't fight? Of course not, the problem was Congress, including some Democratic Senators:
Obama and Democratic leaders in Congress had talked consistently over the past two years about their intention to push forward with immigration reform, as they'd promised to do on the campaign trail in 2008. But the protracted healthcare battle and stagnant economy deprived Congress of the time and political capital to tackle comprehensive reform.
Instead, in the lame-duck Congress, the House passed the DREAM Act, a more limited bill providing a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children. But even this measure failed in the Senate, when most Republicans and some Democrats joined together to sustain a filibuster of the legislation.
Why is it that of all of President Obama's quotes, one seems to be ignored time and again:
..."We may not get there in one year or even one term, but America I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. I promise you, we as a people will get there." ...
In other words, he told us that some things he promised were going to have to wait. More importantly he said that "we" would get there, not just him. He clearly thought that his supporters would keep fighting, but that didn't happen as many sat down to smell the roses and put pen to a checklist of campaign promises.
Why did we not identify and move these Democratic Senators to do the right thing? If the D.C. political climate or pushback is what is standing in our way, then it is up to us to show up and correct the circumstances.
Frankly, with the exception of a very few kossacks, I haven't seen any sustained urgency for immigration reform here at DK. I haven't seen much attention given to Latino issues at all, again with the exception of several kossacks.
That the Congress, not President Obama, did not want to do the right with immigration, should have been given more attention in the diary if it's purpose was concern about the issues. It should also be noted that we failed to get out and organize and agitate for this issue that we now supposedly care so much about.
But here, again, is another opportunity and instead of embracing it, we find fault with only President Obama and waste an opportunity to help deliver on the issue or at least keep it at the forefront so that the urgency isn't lost on those who do not wish to do the right thing.
Where is the call to action? Without such a call, I find the timing of the concern about this issue to be suspect.If you care about immigration and/or Latino issues, then do something, don't just complain about President Obama.
I have done, and will continue to do, work in the Rio Grande Valley area. Where are you kossacks who are so upset at President Obama on these issues? Where is your support? Where is the acknowledgement of the complexity of the issues? To some of you, it appears this is just another box to be checked-off on some list; another chance for nonproductive, ineffective complaint.
We don't need permission from President Obama or the Democratic Party to organize, change hearts and minds, and thus help our elected representatives keep their promises. There is nothing Fox News, or Rush, or the Kochs can do to keep us from working hard and effectively, only we can stop us. I am reminded once again by what Van Jones told CPC CO-Chair Keith Ellison (YouTube)
“…you walk with the president when you can, you walk ahead of him when you can’t. That’s how you make change.”
Shame on you for only caring enough to bash President Obama for raising issues but not doing much, if anything to actually help him or ourselves. Too many here settle for critique when action is what is needed.
Honest critique is good, and President Obama is not above being criticized. I have some of my own. But disappointment and abandonment of "bottom-up" politics is our failure, not his. Are we a movement or not? If we are, then we need to stop waiting on D.C. to do the heavy lifting and get out there and change hearts and minds and the lives of people ,in the Rio Grande Valley and elsewhere, who may not survive if we continue to settle for critique over action.
This diary's purpose is not to tell anyone to clap louder or not to criticize President Obama or any other politician. No, the point is to remind people that "disappointment" is opportunity. We are empowered. We fill the void left by politicians and we don't do so by conceding to, or enabling Republicans.
Are we that change or not?