I'm going to have to make this short and sweet - I have to get to work.
I threw this video together last night after the craptacular bipartisan capitulation that was President Obama's tax deal.
The above video was pieced together from media reports, statements from administration officials, statements from Obama, various bloggers, MSM pundits, and various arguments I've gotten into with OFA staff, supporters, critics and other interested parties who have way too much time on their hands. It's not an exaggeration. If anything I've pulled back.
Now this morning, I see there are competing diaries on the efficacy of OFA. (You can read them here and here)
This is as good a time as any to repost part of diary I put up in September, 2009 in response to a speech Obama was about to give to a joint session of congress about health care reform.
To this day I still tear up when I remember how, at the end of Camp Obama, our facilitator told everyone in the room to close their eyes and envision Obama and his family on January 20 - to envision Michelle and her girls as they stood to watch their father take the oath of office. And I can tell you, when I was there on the Mall and watched it happen for real, it was all I could do not to break down.
But whatever alchemy created this understanding during the campaign has all but vanished in the last few months. I know so many OFA staff and volunteers who do everything they can to keep this spirit alive, but it's not really coming from Obama anymore. The arguments for health care, even the pledges OFA asks constituents to sign - contain not one whiff of emotional truth. Even the health care horror stories collected by OFA have been stripped of their emotion, filed away to be trotted out in mild DNC ads or handed over to congressional members. These stories need to be used, repeated, and ritualized for the entire country - they need to become our nation's emotional truth.
That is not happening. Instead the administration is pushing policy arguments, lists of ideas, pieces of paper. And they shrivel and die next to Sarah Palin's Baby Trig and the reptile fear of people clinging desperately to whatever they have left after a brutal recession.
So here we are. What now?
Well, if Obama really does punt on the public option, it will be a disaster for him and for us. And not because of policy. No, this will be our Waterloo moment because emotional truth and actual truth will collide.
Those of us who feel the most passionately about this, the "left of the left" if you will (although, I live in Venice, there are people here who equate me with George Bush, honest to god), will see a President who did not respect, empower and include them. We will feel that we have no more voice in this administration than we did the last.
That will be our emotional truth.
Worse, Republicans will see that bullying, being disruptive, and tapping into people's worst fears and instincts works, and will use it on each and every piece of legislation the White House tries to pass for the next 3 years. It's happening on climate change legislation now. Combine that with a disillusioned, disempowered activist left and I'm seeing damage to the Democratic Party well past the 2010 election cycle.
Folks, this was 15 months ago, and the handwriting was already on the wall.
I didn't want to believe it. I didn't want to believe this transformational candidate would turn into a transactional president.
I get that governing is hard. I get that governing involves compromise and disappointment. But what I don't get, and can never forgive, is why the greatest social movement in the last 25 years had to be been ground down the moral equivalent of Disney Land - bland, non-offensive, and complete fantasy.
Today I see a President who does not respect, empower and include us. We have no more voice in this administration than we did the last. And there's not much, I think, we can do about it. Primary the President? Forget it. You'll cleave African Americans from the party for a generation and just hand the White House to President Teabag.
That is our truth, emotional or otherwise.
UPDATE
First the obligatory "I can't believe this made the rec list!".
Actually, I really can't believe it did. The video is pretty fucking harsh, and I'm not unaware this will hurt the feelings of a number of OFA staff and volunteers, some of whom I count as friends. If you're one of them and you're offended, I get it. But if it's any comfort, my ire is less directed at you than at the brain trust in Washington who decided to corral your activism like so much veal.
Besides ideology, the big difference between Tea Party activists and Progressive activists is that the GOP is afraid of theirs. Ours, they sell "Hope" posters to have them over for cookies and a quick photo op.
UPDATE #2
A few in the comments have asked "what now?"
Call for the DREAM ACT
Alaska - Lisa Murkowski - (202) 224-6665
Arkansas - Mark Pryor – (202) 224-6342
Florida - George LeMieux - (202) 224-3041
Illinois - Mark Kirk - (202) 224-2854
Louisiana - Mary Landrieu - (202) 224-5824
Maine (1) - Susan Collins - (202) 224-2523
Maine (2) - Olympia Snowe - (202) 224-5344
Missouri - Claire McCaskill – (202) 224-6154
Montana (2) - Max Baucus - (202) 224-2651
Montana (1) - Jon Tester - (202) 224-2644
Nebraska - Ben Nelson - (202) 224-6551
North Carolina - Kay Hagan – (202) 224-6342
North Dakota - Kent Conrad - (202) 224-2043
Texas - Kay Bailey Hutchison - (202) 224-5922
West Virginia - Joe Manchin - (202) 224-3954
If, like most Americans, you do not live in any of those states, then call 1-866-587-6101. When you call that number, Reform Immigration For America will automatically redirect you to one of the Senate offices listed above. When you are redirected, quickly state your name, and politely ask the Senator whose office you are connected with to support the DREAM Act tomorrow.
That’s it, and this is it. There won’t be another chance at this for at least two more years. Call now.