I think its about time we admit reality and view the obama administration as what it is - Bush's third term. This is a bold statement but a quick review of legislation should make the case quite clear.
- Environment: So, what do we have from obama and the democrats supermajority: nuclear energy, tax credits, and possibly a weak version of cap and trade (weaker than republicans have supported in the past - see Al Gore's hearing a while back when republicans are recommending cap and trade, tax cuts, and nuclear power). How is this different than Bush's third term?
- Labor: demonization of EFCA (or card check) and unions goes unchecked, the National Labor Relations Board remains understaffed - unless obama makes recess appointments - not holding my breath on that.
- Education: the same Bush nonsense about accountability (i.e. standardized testing and merit pay) but no accountability for charter schools which a Stanford study showed perform worse than public schools on average. Student Loans are still subsidized by the federal government yet private banks get to reap the profits (obama said it was a 'no brainer' to change this) now change seems dead.
- Health Care: to see what Bush would have done with health care we need to look to his Medicare prescription plan, which unnecessarily filters money from government through private insurance companies before it gets to those the government is paying to cover. it was heavily criticized on the left for being a unnecessary corporate give away. Yet, this is the kind of plan (w/o a public option) that obama now supports. [well, at least it's paid for - with a tax on the middle class]
- Jobs: rather than a real jobs bill, the kind where the government actually hires workers to complete a needed project like upgrading our crumbling infrastructure or building green energy power plants, we've got the republicans favorite solution to everything: tax cuts! And the democrats can't even pass a republican plan. so the democrats have managed to move to the right on virtually every issue and adopt republican policy proposals and end up with a more partisan congress than ever.
- Gay Rights: obama has consistently refused to stand up for gay rights - including the repeal of DODT (that Cheney is now in favor of)
- Poverty: has Obama even mention poverty since he has been president?? what happened to his promise to John Edwards? Some politicians couldn't keep it in his pants, so Obama now has license to ignore poverty.
- Foreign Policy: Gitmo still open, two wars still going on, military budget still expanding, even the same idiotic rhetoric about 'evil' and just wars. for fuck's sake, blackwater and halliburton still have their contracts!
I could go on but i think we get the point. so what now? Well i think first we admit reality: the two parties are both controlled by the same powerful actors. one of the most disturbing things about the 2008 election was that the power dynamics in our country did not change. in other words, the election had no real effect. Big Pharma, Insurance Companies, Goldman Sachs and Wall Street, Military Contractors etc. were no more or less powerful and influential under Obama then under Bush. the same goes for those groups on the left - particularly Labor which seems to have no more power than they had under Bush.
Frankly, I am somewhat out of ideas of what to do next. But i think we need to rally less behind particular candidates (pouring over every latest poll) and shift to a laser like focus on legislation and the specifics of that legislation. From there we need to push democrats to 1. eliminate the filibuster (nothing happens without this step) and 2. to add specific proposals to bills - i.e. rather than support or oppose cap and trade we need to better pay attention to the details and call and email our legislators on specific points. Any other ideas?