He signed into law the largest tax increases in history, which probably made a lot of his party mad as hell. He failed to cut spending as much as they wanted him to, and government grew under his administration, despite his promises. He didn't destroy Medicare, he in fact helped institute the payroll taxes that pay for much of it, as part of a deal to save it.
He made many compromises that infuriated his party, but what choice did he have? The House of Representatives belonged to the other Party. He had the Senate, though, and that at least meant that the other side's legislation was stymied somewhat.
Which is not to say that Ronald Reagan wasn't a Conservative, didn't shift policy in a rightward direction, or any of that. No it's just to say that even with one of the most dominating figures in recent political history, the actual track record of that administration is not so powerful as its legacy.
There's a lot of narrative flim-flam going on with politics. Republicans love Clinton in retrospect as a reasonable fellow, despite the fact that they nearly impeached him. But compared to Obama, who's managed the neat trick of being right in front of them, but also a thorn in their side, he's reasonable by their view.
Some people call him a traitor, some people call him a weakling.
Me? I think Obama's having to fight against worse resistance than Democrats ever put up against Reagan, and is having to do so as a recession that dwarfs the one that Reagan faced hobbles the economy and maintains a historically high deficit.
Reagan, though, had his share of challenges, because when he was in charge, there was still a great deal of historic inertia favoring robust government presence. It wasn't until Gingrich and company took over that the shit really hit the fan on small government politics.
I can't say what Obama's legacy will be yet. We're not even to a second term, yet.
The fact that people were, in 2008, willing to take a chance on him, and even now still willing to re-elect him, though, says something. They want something different. The potential energy is there to move the country in a different direction.
It may not simply be a thing of what Obama does, but what Obama symbolizes. Symbols can be powerful. It's not so much a matter of lying about what he represents. brooklynbadboy suggested that Obama and the party push the infrastructure bank idea. That's an example of what we might do, one of a number of policies we can drop in the conversation with people, get them to support, so on, so forth.
Political movements depend on the notion that there's something worth uniting for, fighting for as a group. Even if Obama doesn't get to fulfill all his promises, or doesn't do all that we would ask of him, what's there to keep us from pushing on those things anyway? Goals are important to the movement. Republicans had their low taxes, their smaller government, their libertarian ethic about regulation. Like them or not, these were things that attracted Republicans and independents, that got them out there, making their votes.
These are the things our politicians can promote, the hooks we can get into people's imaginations. If they're sick of ther current government, so much the better for us, we can take that potential energy and funnel it into things.
Now we don't need talk that Keynes is dead, or anything like that. Pre-emptively giving up is not an inspiring goal. Obama the politician may not live up to expectations, but change he was supposed to bring doesn't have to die on account of our disappointment in him. We can keep on pushing, keep on advocating, keep on manuevering to change the way we do business and govern here in America.
If Obama is like Reagan, then it is helpful to remember that Reagan was only the start of his party's rise as a governing majority, and that all the characteristics of a unified, politically strong governing majority were the product of years of preparation.
We don't have to wait for Obama to do these things for us. Let's start raising our voices above the din of disappointment, and start seeking what we want, and what Obama promised and promises on our own initiative.
12:08 PM PT: Now here we have what might be a good framing for the upcoming budget fight.
Republicans loved to call us spendthrifts for not agreeing to all their cuts. I think the hostage/economic terrorist meme is a good fit for the current right. They've certainly earned it.