It is possible the vernal equinox has something to do with my mood today, but I am happy to report that the spark is back in my relationship with President Obama.
Might you still be trying to get excited about supporting and working in some way on the President’s bid for a second term, and to get Democrats back in control of the House? If you are just not feeling the love yet, and the idea of any one of the current GOP contenders occupying the Oval Office doesn’t fill you with enough motivational terror, I suggest you pick up a copy of David Corn’s new book, Showdown: The Inside Story of How Obama Fought Back Against Boehner, Canto, and the Tea Party.
Like most progressives, I’ve had my moments of feeling disappointed or jilted by Obama, and I suppose my lack of enthusiasm was further complicated by an extended illness and recovery, which happened to coincide with the period that started the day after Obama was elected, and in many respects lasted until this winter. At times early on when I did feel well enough to pay close attention, I became very disheartened by what I perceived as Obama’s lack of guts in fighting for the public option (at least!) in what ultimately became the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Later on, I admit to not having paid as close attention to the minutiae of the various budget, tax-cut and debt-ceiling battles as I would have, had I not been engaged in a more personal fight. I relied on mostly headlines and soundbites, and the odd longer piece of reporting through much of Obama’s first term.
Yes, I’m embarrassed to admit that, as I know the wonderful community here at DailyKos is heartily engaged in the details of how this country manages—and fails in many instances—to run itself. Of course, many Americans don’t have the time, inclination, passion or devotion to ideals that you possess, in order to dedicate the time or energy that even I spent. Many voters are only beginning to pay attention to this election cycle and are operating on and parroting conventional wisdom formed in Beltway circles, and liberal and conservative mindsets as the country moved through day-to-day, minute-by-minute coverage of what transpired.
The problem is, that first draft of our recent history, the one that paralyzed many of us with apathy, or pissed off the majority of voters only enough to keep seated and yelling at various screens, is just not a sufficient amount of knowledge on which to base informed opinions. It’s the duty of all citizens, but in particular activists, to read books like Showdown, which give insider and often corrected histories of what’s gone down.
Corn’s book takes you into the rooms where the battles of the last three-years-and-change were fought, and into the various heads of Obama administration officials as they struggled to find ways to get anything at all done while facing a dangerously irresponsible and nearly 100% obstructionist Republican party (even to ideas that originally emanated from them). This book is for two groups of people: those who want to know the details of what really happened, and those who think they already do.
Gaining Corn's insight into back- and side-door negotiations made a difference for me, and some of the dish about how Republicans "seriously soiled themselves" was admittedly fun to read. I feel I have a far better understanding about what occurred in the healthcare fight, with a stealth stimulus that Obama, in effect, managed to get through, and much more. But it's the detailed accounting of how seriously delusional and dangerously irresponsible the Tea Party Republicans were in holding our country hostage during the debt-ceiling crisis that made me stand up and say, "Charge!" to myself...and then sit right back down and write this post.
Reading Showdown, I gained new respect for Obama’s strategic patience and savvy, for his ability to stay focused on the long view as setbacks and various crises presented, and while contending with very vocal and righteous discontent from the left along with the willfully-damaging shenanigans of the GOP. I also like how Corn outlines Obama's pivot to publicly taking on the obstructionist GOP after trying compromise time and time again. But while I thought he simply caved and rolled over time and again for them, this book makes clear that it was more a matter of lying-in-wait to exploit GOP missteps and move toward whatever progressive change could be enacted.
Of course, what this book really is, is an ear-drum-splitting alarm that should wake us all up to how dysfunctional our two-party system, elections and government truly are. Yet, we can’t just stew in anger. We have to stand up and fight on several fronts at once.
First and foremost, we must work to ensure that the nearly-medieval GOP radicals don’t get control of the White House, and work to get more Democrats back in the House. I know many of you here are already hard at work! But I'm talking to myself and those like me who've been, to date, otherwise engaged or unmoved to get involved again.
This is not going to be as easy a win as some might think, given Super PACs, Fox and folks like the Kochs. I know many of us are disappointed by the two parties from which we must choose but women, in particular, are very aware these days of the fact that despite what we often think and say, there are still some very big differences between Republicans and Democrats. My dear and fellow sluts, the Republicans might have us wearing some Christian version of a burka soon if we're not vigilant.
Once Obama is re-elected, then by all means, let’s hold his feet to the fire and build support for a much more progressive agenda. And hopefully, we’ll be looking at much more fulsome and worthy list of accomplishments by the end of his second term. I, for one, will be working toward overturning Citizens United, and toward public financing of elections and true health care for all.
But the first step is not handing over the keys to those who want the dark ages to return. It really is up to us to excite the Democrats and independents to turn out. We can’t be complacent. Not in the face of what life would be like under GOP control at the federal level, particularly given their wins, contraceptive fantasies and transvaginal striving at the state level in their war on women. And, then of course, there's nearly every other area of our lives and society the far-right wants to radically regress.
So, read Showdown, friends, or suggest it to others looking to get up to speed. We need to arm ourselves with well-reported facts and greater detail, and spread the word about what Obama really managed to get done in this era of utter dysfunction. Light a fire in your belly and let’s bring back that loving feeling.