Wall Street Journal: "Glenn Beck Counts For More At the Obama White House" Than the Progressive Movement
Needless to say that when you wake up one morning and find yourself the subject of the lead editorial in the largest conservative publication on the planet, it is a bit jarring. However, I flag today's Wall Street Journal topline editorial today not because it is about Van Jones and me, but because it makes a genuinely important point for the progressive movement.
After citing my earlier post about how the firing of Jones "will inevitably create a chilling effect on the aspirations of other movement progressives," the Journal says this:
Mr. Sirota is speaking for many on the movement left who believe they helped to elect Mr. Obama and therefore deserve seats at the inner table of power. They are increasingly frustrated because they are discovering that Mr. Obama will happily employ "movement progressives," but only so long as their real views and motivations aren't widely known or understood. How bitter it must be to discover that the Fox News Channel's Glenn Beck, who drove the debate about Mr. Jones, counts for more at this White House than Mr. Sirota.
Bitter? Not quite. Unsurprised is a better word, really. As I had been incessantly writing before and after the presidential election (and indeed, for years before Obama ever announced as a candidate for president), Barack Obama has ties to the progressive movement, but he is an inherently cautious -- and, at times, frightened -- politician. He is first and foremost desperate to appease his opposition, even if his opposition is political terrorists who can never be appeased. And that's especially true as the progressive movement refuses to "make him do it" -- that is, refuses to put real, organized and even unfriendly pressure on him to deliver.
The Journal is absolutely, and unfortunately, correct -- right now, today's White House officials answer more to Glenn Beck, Blue Dogs and Republicans than it does to progressive members of Congress and the progressive base of the Democratic Party that got them into the White House in the first place. You can see that in the negotiations over health care and climate change. You can see that in the plans to escalate the war in Afghanistan at the urging of people like Karl Rove, and the refusal to stop Wall Street bailouts and push real Wall Street reform. You can see that even in who the president opts to give exclusive interviews to. You can, in short, see it everywhere.
Progressives don't just "believe" they deserve a seat at the table -- we actually do deserve that seat, not just because we worked to elect this president, but because our stance on major issues like the public option, climate change, Wall Street reform and the war are the majoritarian positions in America. That's not speculation -- polls show that's an empirical fact.
But we won't get that seat at the table unless we demand it. That means the Washington-based progressive groups have to stop kissing the White House's ass and selling out their grassroots membership. It means rank-and-file Obama supporters have to stop framing legitimate progressive pressure on Obama as some sort of disloyal desire to see Mitt Romney elected President in 2012.
It means, as I said in my last newspaper column, that we have to start thinking and acting like a real movement, and not just like sycophantic political partisans. If we do that, we'll get that seat at the table -- and more importantly, we'll get the legislative results Obama originally promised, but now hesitates to champion.
This is going to take real work -- and it's not going to be psychologically easy. As a personal example, my email box has been flooded with the worst kind of threatening hate mail today and over the last few days, as the conservative hate machine is keyed up by the Wall Street Journal's editorial and the CNN appearances I made this week. And I'm sure that's emblematic of the larger blowback all progressives are feeling right now as we work in communities across the country.
But that's to be expected. We are fighting for real change, and if there is one lesson from history, it is that exactly the people we are confronting today -- the right-wingers, corporatists, Establishmentarians, and status quo devotees -- will do everything they can to intimidate us. We can stand down or stand up -- and it's long past time for the latter.
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We wait and wait for "our guy" to get in, and he invites Rick Warren, the Republicans, Glenn Beck, Big Pharma, and the Insurance Lobby to the table.... But leaves the Liberals behind!
Where is My "Andrew Shepherd"; I wanted a "Liberal Decider" to follow up "The Decider" -- Not someone who decides what to do with Liberals..
The diatribe continues at http://www
Mr. Sirota, can you tell us the polls you're reading that show your side has the majority approval on the subjects you mention? I've seen no such polls anywhere. In fact, the majority is deeply opposed to the issues you mention, because they are tired of the government trying to control more and more money; tired of the government trying to sell the defunct Global Warming idea, in the face of mounting scientific opposition. You posit the war as if it were felt to be bad, but the polls have shown over and over again that what the majority opposes is the poor manner in which it is being prosecuted.
Please try to get your message straight, if you wish to actually sway thinking people who pay attention to the world.
Semper fi
I think the Blue Dogs need to take a lot of the blame for where we find ourselves in the health care debate. We would have had a bill out of the House if they had not obstructed the process and progress. We can not place all of the Blame on the President. I am reminding myself also of this.
We would've had a "Cash for Clunkers" type of bill that was rushed and not well thought out. The president knows that this health care reform is probably the maker or breaker of his second term. If the President doesn't provide a great deal of clarity tomorrow night then he is doomed and the lack of confidence will greatly effect his ability of getting any solid reform accomplished.
Our President is starting to look weak and I for one, don't like it one bit. I hope the speech tomorrow night will change my mind.
What he has up his sleeve is three plus four more years. I know he has done so much in such a short period of time but there are those little things that make us frustrated. Things like not realizing that the Republicans meant it when they said that they wanted this administration to fail and not seeing that Baucus and Conrade were obstructionist just as the Republicans, when it came to real health care reform and the big one, bending down to Glenn Beck and his masters. I also think that this administration has failed to call the lies what they are comming from the extreme---"lies and hate mongering".
David I could not have said it better myself. I am a loyal Democrat and still think that President Obama is the greates leader in the world, but I think that it was a big mistake for this administration to give in to the desires of Beck and his corporated masters. In principal, this was the biggest flap made by the administration since we elected them. I think the only way to get the high ground back on this one would be to bring Jones back. I could not believe that they excepted Jones resignation and did not attempt to defend his character against what we all know was hate and blind revenge.
You got it, Mr. Sirota. If we could somehow actually quantify just what progressive positions are on a great number of issues, we would indeed see that those are, or will be shortly, majoritarian positions.
You state it as empirical fact. I agree. While I don't have the actual polling data, it is quite obvious that we are in a situation where the political color spectrum has shifted from Blue and Red, to Blue and something like Green. The evidence is everywhere, especially in advertising.
Go into any solid red district and you'll see every product and lifestyle being promoted as 'green'. Even oil and coal companies know how to sell soot these days; by stressing positive environmental impacts.
What we are seeing is the political alignment lagging behind the social reality. That's nothing new.
What's our job now? 1. Realign our attention to the new social reality. 2. Stop reinforcing the idea that it's Dems and Reps. It's Dems and us. Let the Republican organzation continue its movement to the right wing fringe, just as the Communist Party, the SWP and those organizations are the left wing fringe. 3. Organize, organize, organize, and run as something really new.
You wrote:
"Barack Obama has ties to the progressive movement, but he is an inherently cautious -- and, at times, frightened -- politician
I was thinking about how intelligent and centered, and to some extent, wise his remarks were to questions from students I watched excerpts of on CNN, and wondered why that kind of character could be an actor who pretended to be a progressive during the campaign and now revealed himself to be a neoliberal DLC conventional corporatist as he seems to be now - the opinion of him I have held for many months?
I wonder if he is frightened and timid, or just showing his true colors now. It's hard to believe he could be so timid and frightened to do back deals with PhRMA, be so aggressive in his ramping up the war in Afghanistan, contiuning Cheney et al's trampling of the Constitution, and VOLUNTARILY appointing an economic team in bed with Wall St. and Mr. DLC, Rahm Emmanuel as his chief of staff last November. Call me cynical, but I don't buy the timid explanation. He may have held progressive beliefs at one stage in his life, but it appears he has abandoned them for corporatist estblishment cozying up to the powers-that-be "principle
Someone convince me that I'm wrong about this.
I'm still hoping he has something up his sleeve, and will show us that the man we voted for is still there after all.
Hope, it's all I've got left.
Progressives and neocons are two sides of the same coin.
Hardly.
Hate mail? I'm sorry.
Here's some love for ya: this post was one of your best yet. Keep up the good work!
Quote: "Progressives don't just "believe" they deserve a seat at the table -- we actually do deserve that seat, not just because we worked to elect this president, but because our stance on major issues like the public option, climate change, Wall Street reform and the war are the majoritarian positions in America. That's not speculation -- polls show that's an empirical fact."
That is where you are tripping. Majoritarian? Ha.
I support taking care of the environment.
Wall Street reform... Do you mean end deregulation? That is part of what caused the first Great Depression. Yes, there are things we can do there, too, but for the most part Wall Street is going to have to keep having its ups and downs and we need to stop using tax payer dollars to protect people from the downs while helping unions prevent the ups.
The war? Having been part of the war, I can tell you it was a good thing--that simply went on too long. Most Americans are not against the war, only indefinite commitments.
Finally, the public option is deeply unpopular at the moment, which is why Obama is struggling to pass anything like it.
The Progressive movement that counts today is the 912 movement, because it moves us forward, not backward or sideways or inside out. I can't believe anyone would subscribe to a movement led by people like Van Jones. I can believe in one led by the Constitution.
since reagan, this "class" war has been overt. until gnats like beck and limbaugh are dismissed and the means of dealing with them/it are addressed in some constructive manner (and DGoA i'm not bright enough to know what that is)...
i've come to believe that governments -- any government -- are simply appeasers.
even Obama has come to seem like an appeaser..
you have a problem with free speech - but for whom?
free speech and dealing with issues that directly affect our lives are not necessarily the same thing...
Agree almost completely with what you have written, Mr. Sirota, but I think Obama sold out to the "conservative" or Republicans he considered "good" and "bi-partisan" months before he actually ran in the primaries. He and his handlers, IMO, believe that he can't be denied anything, can't be defeated because he is a smooth-talking, intelligent black man so they gave him a progressive set of issues to talk about and turned him loose. Those issues, those progressive principles mean little or nothing to him......
Amen to that
David, I can't even imagine the horror of having Beckheads bombarding my in-box.
Your computer must be about to burst at the seams from all the crazy. Hang in there.
You rock David. You have reached the big time with the most ELITE conservative rag takes you on. I only hope you continue to keep us informed. I have to admit i am very disappointed in our President. After all the hard work and organizing we did for him he kicks us in the teeth.
I would like to get what has been promised at least once in my voting history. I'm 64 and I'm not sure I'll live to vote for another president. Very disappointed. I think that are all thieves and liars and we need a real revolution to make progressive change.
Keep up the good work and "rocking the boat."
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