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When
it comes to the 2008 election of Barack Obama, the mistake
people made was mistaking voting for activism.� I believe
that before we have any discussion on whether and how we
can bring Obama home to progressive values, we must first
come to terms with this reality.
It�s not as if you can blame them.� After eight years of
a disaster that was the Bush administration, voters wanted
and needed a major change in the direction of the country.�
We needed to wipe the slate clean and set a new tone for
America.� A new man for the times came on the scene.� He
was a person of color, clean and articulate, and with lofty
rhetoric.� And he provided hurting, hungry people with hope
and promises of change.� In fact, he was the embodiment
of change.
Now, in 2011, things are a little different.� Main Street
is hurting, and unemployment is high and seemingly intractable.�
Meanwhile, as poor and working people struggle and fail
to keep their necks above water, Wall Street and the corporate
elites never had it so good.� Profits are at a record high,
and the gap between the richest of Americans and the rest
of us is higher than at any time since the first Great Depression.
In the midst of this, the current administration has lacked
the backbone, the heart and the intestinal fortitude to
fight for ordinary folks.� There have been some successes
for progressives over the past few years, to be sure, but
sprinkled among a larger host of disappointments and missed
opportunities.� The President made no attempts at a public
option or single payer health insurance system, opting instead
for a watered-down compromise plan that has proven itself
as a giveaway to corporate interests.� He extended the Bush
tax cuts for the wealthiest people in this nation, and embraces
budget cuts that support the fraudulent Republican narrative
of austerity and trickle-down economics.� The Bush military
policies continue, as does the practice of rendition and
detaining terror suspects at Guantanamo.� And when the President
goes to the bargaining table to negotiate with the Republicans,
he gives away the store right away and asks for nothing
in return.� Democrats, progressives and other Obama supporters
are shaking their heads in disbelief.� Where is the fighting
spirit, the will to work hard for our values?�
Part of the problem is that Obama took the Goldman Sachs
money in the presidential campaign, and has to play their
tune.� He stacked his inner circle with Wall Street water
carriers and Clinton-era neoliberals with a deregulation
fetish.� These are the people who helped create the country�s
economic mess, in which the plenty greedy were allowed to
plunder America�s resources by gambling it all away at the
casino.�
The other part of the problem is Obama�s quixotic journey
to the political center.� There is nothing in the middle
of the road but yellow lines and road kill, and you�d better
believe it.� Although his campaign rhetoric was progressive,
this president chooses to govern from the middle.� That
decision in itself is questionable for a number of fundamental
reasons:�
- First, the people who elected Barack Obama did not want a centrist who stands
for nothing, sees how the wind is blowing and splits the
difference.� They wanted bold, decisive leadership, not
a referee-in-chief.
- Second, such a strategy hopes to garner support from undecided independent voters
who want Democrats and Republicans to play nice together,
while ignoring the base.� Sometimes, compromise is not
a prudent step, particularly if your opponent has an unacceptable
point of view.� These voters live solely in the minds
of inside-the-Beltway prognosticators and pundits.�
- Third, governing from the center is a tough proposition when you fail to define
what the center actually is.� Ultra-rightwing Christian
fundamentalism is driving the center in its traditional
sense rightward.� So, if your desire is to be Republican-light,
be forewarned that when a fake Republican runs against
a real Republican, the Republican always wins.
- Fourth, President Clinton as able to get away with triangulation, but that was
Clinton�s style.� Plus, Bill had the benefit of a booming
economy.� So, although the base was angry when he sided
with the Republicans to end welfare as we know it, he
remained popular.� But there is a sense today that voters
are done with the foolishness.� And the protests in Wisconsin
and elsewhere point to a pushback against a conservative
onslaught that would dismantle the New Deal-Great Society
legacy.
If
the disgruntled Obama supporters thought they would get
everything they wanted from this White House - without lifting
a finger other than to cast their ballot in the voting booth
- they were sorely mistaken.� Elections are important, but
are no substitute forth hard work of building movements,
coalitions and institutions.� At the same time, diehard
Obama supporters and apologists who say he is just one man
and cannot do it alone must realize that he is not doing
it alone.� He has an administration filled with intelligent,
capable individuals.� Yet, Democrats have not put enough pressure
on Obama, which is why we are here today.� But Democratic
leaders�including progressive lawmakers and members of the
Congressional Black Caucus� and groups such as MoveOn.org and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) are pushing back, challenging
the President to reject the Republican budget agenda, and
not to cut programs for low income people.�
President Franklin D. 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.� That is precisely what today�s progressives
must do with Obama.� They must build the infrastructure
of an independent movement that supports the President when
he deserves it, and pressures him out of love, like a wayward
family member, when necessary.� Most of all, this movement
must look toward the future, with the goal of surviving
beyond an Obama administration or any other presidency.
Progressives must also craft a media narrative that places
their ideals squarely in the political center, with the
President having no choice but to embrace them.� Justice
for union workers, a living wage and benefits, a clean environment,
social safety net and fighting against wealth inequality
are mainstream policies.� Triangulation is both unnecessary
and counterproductive for a president who already enjoys support among moderates, who have fled the GOP in droves.� The once mainstream
Republican Party is now dominated by conspiracy theorists,
crackpot Birthers in the mold of Donald Trump, self-righteous
religious zealots and morality police, and Neo-Confederates.� They want to turn extremism into
the mainstream, and make ignorant the new smart.� It is
hard to imagine finding common ground with a party whose
core constituencies include hate groups.�
Further, the base must remind President Obama that the Republican
goal is to run the economy into the ground
- and his presidency with it - all for political gain.� Therefore,
he has no choice but to come home.� And progressives should
make it clear that if he wants a second term, he most certainly
must come home in order for his supporters to come out next
Election Day.� That is not to say the Obama voters will
flock to a viable challenger from within or outside the
Democratic Party.� Rather, many of them, demoralized and
lacking in enthusiasm, simply will stay home and, by default,
bestow victory upon the Republicans.� That�s what happened
in the 2010 midterms, and the rest is history.��
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BlackCommentator.com Executive Editor, David A. Love, JD is a journalist and human rights
advocate based in Philadelphia, is a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Pennsylvania
Law School. and a contributor to The Huffington Post, the
Grio, 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.
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