... or at least putting some cracks in it.
I’ve been reading Daily Kos for years for a few simple reasons: It has never been any kind of perfect journalistic enterprise (it does have a slight liberal bias…) but it reports on important stories in a mostly good way. Sometimes there is a little bullshit to sift through, but in the end it is great at what it does: Getting information out to progressives. A center that progressives can organize around. A place for healthy debate. That last point is why I, about four years after I signed up, actually started commenting here: It’s fun to debate people. I started getting tired of the extreme negativity around here, particularly surrounding Obama, so I decided to wade in to the comments and see if I couldn’t engage in some good old back and forth. And I’ve been very happy so far with what I’ve encountered; a lot of these conversations have been just what good conversation should be: You bounce back and forth on the issues until you get to the key difference: the key root of the disagreement. I debated a fellow about Obama's foreign policy and eventually found that he considers FDR a war criminal. Different strokes, I guess... But that was the point. No shit he doesn't like Obama's foreign policy if he didn't like FDR's. It's a valid viewpoint, but not one I'm, or even most progressives, are inclined to agree with. But this diary will focus on domestic policy. I find that one of the main reasons that many progressives are so mad at Obama in these areas is actually not really due to “action” but “strategy”… Namely, they want Obama to use a concept that was originally a Republican strategy and talking point: the Overton Window.
I don’t think the OW needs much of an introduction. While this isn’t the true definition, the concept with regards to Obama is simple: You want a policy here [----------x--------------] then you start here [---x---------------------]. So the disappointment with Obama has been this: The fact that he wasn’t shifting the window to the left, which he would have done if he had been more aggressive on more progressive policies. It’s not that he didn’t get things done… It’s that he didn’t “try.” He didn’t try hard enough to push the Overton Window to the left. There are valid points to make with regards to using the concept as a basic strategy: Many compare it with buying a house: You want to buy it for x, so you start with 0.7x, or whatever: Basic negotiating. This is a valid point, and I don’t want to discredit the strategy. It certainly has a way to work.
Here is what I will argue though: It is the exact kind of political bullshit that Obama campaigned against. Namely, when Obama has what he believes to be a workable solution, a solution that should be able to pass through congress, that is the solution he will try to sell. Is that so wrong? Also, using the Overton Window would allow progressives to criticize the president for the exact same reasons they are doing now: He is just pretending to push for progressive policies, but he settles for less progressive ones. So far, Republicans have been successful with the strategy when it comes to some specifics. They used it decently to counter HCR, though not enough to stop its passage. They used it pretty well to keep the Bush tax cuts in place, though I never did hear the correct strategy for Obama to use here… What leverage did he have, exactly? Getting a bill where either signing or vetoing it violates a campaign promise is an unfortunate reality in politics.
But here’s the main point: I believe that, while they have used the OW successfully in some small ways, possibly the biggest blunder Republicans have made in the last few years comes from the exact same line of thinking: The Ryan Plan. Progressives can all agree: The Ryan Plan was the Republican’s big push to move the OW to the right… And, so far, it has completely and totally backfired. If Obama and Democrats can keep on the attack (which I strongly believe they will) the Ryan Plan will be suicide for Republicans: Finally, we have it on paper, as a vote: The official policy of house Republicans is to privatize Medicare. This is an insanely unpopular issue. And it was an issue that they bought in to because they bought in to the Overton Window philosophy.
Because Republicans never seriously wanted to dismantle Medicare or SS… Not in the short term. Remember that these are popular programs even among their own voters. Republicans, simply, want SS and Medicare to be weakened significantly enough to the point where public opinion, or at the very least Republican opinion, turns sour on it. They think that by demanding a complete gutting, they will at least get significant enough cuts in to weaken it... And once it is weakened, it won't matter that it was a Republican idea to do so in the first place. Will this strategy work? Not if Obama, Dems, and us progressive activists can counter it… And so far, I think, all three of those parties are doing a mighty fine job.
My own problems with progressives championing the Overton Window lie deeper than strategy. There is a reason that it is essentially a Republican tool: It reinforces many beliefs that are essentially beneficial to Republicans, beliefs that Obama specifically campaigned against: That politics is a game, to be won and lost. That this side is good and this side is bad. That our differences are irreconcilable. That political successes should be judged solely on a left v. right spectrum. To be sure, we on this site are guilty of this kind of view… But, shit, we’re progressive activists; it’s inherent in the way we think. Is that the way the president should think? An example would be HCR: We don’t just want single payer… We want a strong single payer system that will be effective and popular. We don’t want single payer, we want good single payer. In a similar way, the ACA wasn’t exactly a progressive’s dream HCR bill… But there is no doubt that it was a good bill. Maybe not for left v. right, for pure capitalism v. good-old-mix-of-capitalism-and-socialism issues, but at the very least for some God damned American issues. And that’s the thing: We have Republicans fighting tooth and nail to repeal what is essentially a moderate plan. A plan that does only good things in the short term. When the ACA becomes more popular (and I strongly believe it will) they will look all the more foolish for doing so.
This is basically what I am saying: The biggest Republican mistakes in the last few years are direct results of the Overton Window line of thinking. Also: That by buying in to the OW, you are buying in to what is basically a Republican way of thinking (not "conservative" but Republican). That is the specific kind of bullshit that Obama campaigned to try to stop, and Republicans responded by flinging back as much bullshit as they could. Does Obama’s way of going about the specifics always make for the best short term strategy? Perhaps not… Maybe it would have been better for him to fling a little shit back. But it has made him look like the most reasonable man in the room, time and time again, and that will certainly be good for long term strategy. And this point can’t be made enough: OW thinking can easily backfire, as it is with Republicans right now.
Obama has his strategy, maybe it’s 11 D Chess or whatever, but at least the Overton Window is nowhere near it, and for that I am glad.