This is a commentary I was bound to write regardless of the outcome of the midterm election.� I start by saying that your country is not so great, Americans.� Any discussion of �what went wrong� must be prefaced with that statement.� Harsh words, perhaps, but I do not utter them in haste.� And we need to say it over and over again until we change it.�

The United States is at the bottom of the barrel.� We don�t live well.� Since the 1970s, the bottom 90 percent has experienced income stagnation, while the top 1 percent has seen its wealth skyrocket.� In America, two-thirds of income gains in recent years went to the top 1 percent.� The gap between rich and poor hasn�t been so great since 1928, right before the first Great Depression, with the top 20 percent controlling 84 percent of the wealth.� In Sweden, the top 20 percent owns 36 percent.� Canada and Western Europe all have greater social mobility than the so-called �land of opportunity,� and with far more generous benefits, over a month of vacation, real universal health care�you get the picture.� If the citizens of all of these advanced nations are living better than Americans, then what is so special about America?

And yet, this recent election is a testament to this country�s proclivity�with help from the bottom 90 percent�to keep things the way they are, if not worsen them.� Some people vote with the oligarchy against their own interests because they simply lack the proper information.� There�s lots of blame to go around.�

Turnout from the base.� Young voters and African-Americans, a key part of the Democratic base, refused to show up in the numbers they should have to turn this thing around.� And 29 million people who voted in 2008 stayed home this year.� If you don�t use democracy you lose it.� But then again, perhaps many felt as if they had no reason to vote.� And their silence is as deafening as the noise made in the voting booth.� There is no question that the president lost touch with his soldiers, far more than a hundred interviews on black radio could ever make up.� This is not to excuse those who sat out of the race, but it�s trickier than that.� The reality is that the White House appeared arrogant and distant, even dismissive and impatient towards its progressive supporters-turned-critics.� Obama must answer to the voters, not scold them, but he got it twisted somewhere along the way.

Anti-Wall Street sentiment.� Clearly, the voters who went against the Democrats were mad at Wall Street.� One would conclude that an anti-Wall Street fervor should favor the Democrats.� But the Democrats are as much a party of corporate enablers as are the Republicans.� Obama decided to cozy up to the bankers and prop them up rather than tear them down for the havoc they engineered.� Plus, he surrounded himself with dead weight� Wall Street shills and neoliberal Clinton insiders among his closest advisors.� These individuals have utter contempt for unions, �the professional left� and other components of the base.� This was not the change the Obama supporters thought they were getting in November 2008.� Meanwhile, average Americans observed that as they struggled through hard times, with mounting bills, chronic unemployment and foreclosures, the banks were not left wanting.���

Compromise.� �We were in such a hurry to get things done that we didn't change how things got done,� President Obama said.� And he is right.� Cutting deals with lobbyists and watering down health care reform for the sake of putting another notch in your belt is the old way of doing things.� Compromising with the other side from a position of weakness and giving away the store before the negotiations even start�well that�s just plain na�ve.

Also na�ve was the administration�s belief that it could compromise with Republicans, the extremists who awake every morning wishing and hoping for his downfall.� Perhaps it would have been possible decades ago, but not now.� Wasting too much time on this quixotic dream of compromise as an end, rather than one of various possible means to an end, gave the Republicans their opening.� Now, the GOP is even more extreme, racist and uncompromising after its Teabilly infusion of white supremacists, Christian Taliban, conspiracy theorists and certified kooks.

A weak, fraidy cat administration.� Obama failed to exert his power and authority in many ways, often appearing weak and equivocating.� His heart just wasn�t in it.� The stimulus was a half measure that was not bold enough, and contained tax cuts designed to attract Republican support that never came.� The plan failed to restore the 11.5 million jobs needed to get America back to pre-recession levels.� And Obama continued Bush�s trillion dollar folly in Iraq and Afghanistan.� Bigger than the rest of the world�s armies combined, the U.S. war machine sucks up nearly half of the discretionary dollars in the federal budget, crippling our ability to compete with China.�

Obama did not take the jobs problem seriously enough soon enough, and the lunatic right gave him a beat down with it, dismissing his entire agenda as ineffective and creating a top-down faux populist movement to mess him up.� The Citizens United decision all but guaranteed a conservative multi-billion dollar buyout of the election by the Koch brothers, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Fox and an array of sketchy, shady interests, anonymous and unaccountable.

The Economy and F.D.R.� It�s the economy stupid, but it�s what you do and say as a leader in tough economic times that matters.� Oddly, candidate Obama�s effective communication strategy has not translated into President Obama the great communicator.� The use of the narrative is important, particularly in bad times, and Reagan knew it.� President Obama could have traveled the F.D.R. route and crafted a message of economic populism, with Wall Street greed and predatory capitalism as the clear enemy, and himself as the national hero who has come to make things right.� If the narrative resonates with an approving public, who cares which party controls Congress?�

President Roosevelt betrayed his class, saying �I ask you to judge me by the enemies I have made.�� In his inauguration speech, he said the �Practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men�. The measure of the restoration lies in the extent to which we apply social values more noble than mere monetary profit.��

Not having sought enemies�though the enemies found him� Obama chose not to follow F.D.R., and is paying a price.� Yet he must do this very thing if he wants a second term.���

A New Movement.� A sustainable movement for social and economic justice must help this president to place him on the path of greatness that these crisis times demand, that his campaign promised.� Nothing less than America�s future is at stake.� Whether it is an internal effort to wrest control from the corporatist neoliberals smothering the Democratic Party, or an independent movement, or both, it must be done.� I refer to this genuinely organic, bottom-up antithesis of the Tea Party as the �Hot Chocolate� Party, to coin a term from my father-in-law.� Hot chocolate is a sweet mix of diverse ingredients that brings comfort on cold days.� Minimally caffeinated compared to tea, it can ease fatigue and positively affect health.��

Despite their immediate victory, it is almost certain that the GOP Hate Caucus is running on borrowed time. �It is expected they will disappoint immensely.� Devoid of ideas, they will die from a combination of infighting, overreaching, and insurmountable demographic shifts in the nation.� But in the meantime, progressives must sustain a movement to provide cover and apply pressure to Obama and any subsequent presidents.�

Roosevelt asked civil rights leader A. Phillip Randolph to �go out and make me do it,� that is, make him use his power and the bully pulpit to right the wrongs and do the things they both agreed should be addressed.� We, too, must make Obama do it, for him and for ourselves.

BlackCommentator.com Executive Editor, David A. Love, JD is a journalist and human rights advocate based in Philadelphia, and a contributor to The Huffington Post, theGrio, The Progressive Media Project, McClatchy-Tribune News Service, In These Times and Philadelphia Independent Media Center. He also blogs at davidalove.com, NewsOne, Daily Kos, and Open Salon. Click here to contact Mr. Love.