Much of the agony on the left side here has centered around our frustration with the pace of progressive advances. We complain that our leaders are too conciliatory, that they triangulate to get things done, and that George Bush got everything he ever wanted so why can't our President just be a unilateralist?
Well, that's not how progress happens.
We can't just take power, grab everything we want, and run off like a mob of rampaging chimpanzees. That is what the GOP has done, and we're frustrated that we can't do it too. But seriously, is that the kind of tactic that will lead to a lasting period of peace, growth, prosperity, whatever? Rushing in under cover of night to pass a bunch of questionable legislation is called "overreach" and it just deprived Scott Walker of his safe Senate majority.
Would we be happy if, after passing Single Payer by some hostage-taking mechanism, radically rewriting the tax code under the cover of darkness, and de-funding the military, to watch the opposition party mount a successful set of recall elections because our side went way too far, too fast?
No, we wouldn't! And neither will we succeed using dog-whistles and baseless scaremongering to whip up the base, nor will we succeed by throwing raw meat to the base but ignoring the long-term expectations.
These are all things that the right has done, and will continue to do. Their ephemeral successes in politics are ALWAYS bookended by massive reversals of their agenda by an outraged and often suffering public. It's taken the GOP 70 years to get to where they could even think about completely undoing the New Deal. And the public is having exactly none of it.
So, what makes anyone think that being a block-headed unilateral "Deciderer-er" would suit the Obama agenda? What makes anyone think that pulling a $2 trillion dollar coin out of his ass, or simply putting Treasury bonds on the market without any authority to do so would make Obama stronger? It would make him WEAKER.
A true leader in a Democracy MUST ACHIEVE CONSENSUS. In a very, very, very factured political landscape this is extremely difficult. The fact that Obama has managed to pass so much legislation (routinely ignored by so many on the left) is remarkable. The fact that a lot of this legislation is going to be making changes months, and years down the road is something many do not seem to comprehend -- Obama made damn sure that some of the more important provisions would come into play only long after the raucus shrieking about the legislation had passed.
No, I don't think Obama is a tremendously progressive President. I also don't think such a creature could get elected in today's political climate. If you are disappointed with Obama, I understand. I am too. If you wanted a pony, however, I can't sympathize. Obama is a bridge to the future. The dynamics of the last 30 years in politics are so stacked against a true liberal gaining any power anywhere that it's remarkable we got what we did.
Changing that will be impossible if we abandon the Democrats. Take the bridge. It does lead to the left, but the left's biggest problem is our inability to recognize that to get the country over to the left, to return to the progress that made our nation great, we have to cross that bridge. Obama IS THAT BRIDGE. Let's use him, get the nation to stop wobbling to the right and at least stay where it is for a couple of cycles. Entrench true consensus and bipartisanship as a way of thought in DC. De-legitimize the Villagers, relentlessly, mercilessly. This new media that we didn't have 10 years ago is an amazingly powerful tool for doing that. Even now, I have to admit it is hysterical watching David Broder clones scurry to close up their comment sections when they crap a typical Villager screed that is the opposite of everything real Americans know. They are not used to being talked back to. They are not used to being organized against.
I've done my share of yelling on this site. It's frustrating to see these patterns over and over again and helplessly watch another Democratic politician get rolled by a system that is stacked against him in every conceivable way, and then to watch the true silent majority of the nation abandon him . . . . because he wouldn't cheat to win.
But cheating or rigging the game to win does not actually win anything in the long term. So why do we imagine it will work for us?