The left of the left -- at least as represented by some of its commentators hovering around the Democratic Party -- has a choice: make a New Years' resolution to rejoin the reality-based community, or head for its own version of Tea Party la-la Land negativity.
Or put it this way: commentators like Paul Krugman owe President Obama an apology, an "I was wrong" about the economy, the direction of our country, the success of President Obama's methods of "compromise" (as opposed to their's of "bold" ideological intransigence...)
Why? Because 2011 will see the USA rebounding, the Democratic Party doing well in 2012, the country in boom times by 2013 and the President having a great second term.
I happen to be a white fifty-eight-year-old former Republican. I explain about why I left the far right movement my family helped found in my forthcoming book Sex, Mom and God: How the Bible's Strange Take on Sex Led to Crazy Politics--and How I Learned to Love Women (and Jesus) Anyway
We find ourselves in the position of survivors of a shipwreck clinging to a life raft. President Obama is that "life raft." Our young president is leading us at a time of extraordinary peril. He and we face overwhelming challenges including two wars and a financial crisis he had dumped into his lap by fools.
When we hear that jobless numbers are going down faster than expected, that shoppers spent money over the holidays, that economic forecasts are being revised upward and so on, it's time for a reassessment of the President's critic's claims of impending doom because of his many alleged "mistakes." (These include such "facts" as the accusations that Obama "sold out" to Wall Street, is "too ready to compromise" etc., etc.)
A reassessment should come from what might be called the Krugamites. They could do what Rachel Maddow did when she said "I was wrong" while speaking of how she'd given up hope that the President could pull out his year end list of remarkable victories.
Krugman never forgave Obama for winning the election. Krugman's support for Hillary Clinton over Barack Obama was clear in 2008. He argued that Clinton's economic proposals were more progressive than Obama's. Krugman -- and the Left of the left -- have been out to get President Obama ever since. If they weren't they would have admitted by now that time and again, Obama has outsmarted his opponents-- including them! They said the economy would tank: it didn't. Obama's policies are working.
I'm beginning to think that some people on the Left of the left (and there are lots more of them than just Krugman) have such an ego claim to having been smarter than President Obama that they really would rather the news stay bad to prove them right.
While President Obama brilliantly cajoled 13 Republicans to join every Democratic senator to ratify the New Start nuclear arms treaty with Russia, adding (as the Times put it) "the capstone to what now shapes up to be a remarkably successful legislative agenda for President Obama's first two years..."
and
While President Obama signed the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell into law
and
While President Obama orchestrated the push back in the Senate--that then unanimously approved a bill to pay for the medical care of workers who cleaned up ground zero...
the President also kept proving that his rabid critics on the Right, who have been working so hard to undermine his presidency at every turn, are dead wrong...
But the Left is also being shown up because it kept carping no matter what the President did.
The President keeps proving himself smarter that his detractors. (This must be tough to take for Krugman. When you are a Nobel Prize winner in economics and stake your claim on a place in history by second guessing a man who -- it's turning out -- is smarter, even about your own field, than you are, it's time to prepare to eat crow. Or if you're the leading Times columnist and keeper of the progressive flame, as Frank Rich is, and here's the first black president proving your dire political predictions wrong every other week or so... you might finally admit that you get the point: President Obama is a political master.)
Obama's lefty critics are smart enough to know history won't be any kinder to them than it's been, say, to the "art experts" who derided Vincent van Gogh. I think they also are beginning to get defensive knowing that they may WOW readers now but that history looks like it might not be on their side re Obama after all. They seem to be blind to the fact that the President is a genuine progressive but not a fundamentalist crank. He's proving that he'd rather get something actually done than achieving nothing while grandstanding, as do the ideologues of both the left and right.
President Obama also keeps proving that, compared to the talking-head Left of the Democratic Party he knows how to get things done that actually change lives and matter-- health care reform, actual gay rights (instead of mere slogans), actual education reform, etc. President Obama seems to be the only grownup, not to mention the smartest person, in many a room, or at least any figurative "room" where his detractors gather in the press, on TV and in blogs.
The President's Right Wing Republican critics are now thoroughly exposed as the hard-hearted empty suits and haters that they are.
President Obama's Lefty critics look more and more like petulant teenagers who are too small to admit that they are wrong.
Score One to President Obama, Zero to his critics.
We are a bitterly divided people. In these circumstances normal political squabbles must be laid aside in order to unite in a common effort for our survival. Patriotism demands this. So does common sense.
Be patient, realizing that the challenge facing our country is unprecedented because it combines economic, social and military problems coalescing into one of the most toxic periods of history any president has faced. And President Obama is facing this moment well.
And if you like the President you'll be heartened by checking out this tribute.
Frank Schaeffer is a writer and author of the forthcoming book SEX, MOM and GOD: How the Bible's Strange Take on Sex Led to Crazy Politics--and How I Learned to Love Women (and Jesus) Anyway
Follow Frank Schaeffer on Twitter: www.twitter.com/frank_schaeffer
And of those who are busy admiring the emperor's new clothes? What sort of la-la land is that?
The extension of tax cuts is a victory? Tax cuts, always tax cuts is a Republican dogma - he followed the majority of people in pushing for repeal of DADT. He allowed the right wing to dominate the national consciousness with talk of death panels. He has surrounded himself with advocates of Wall Street, the origin of the greatest economic catastrophe we have seen since the days of President Hoover.
He doesn't stand up for himself or for Democratic values. When he does stand up, it is to diss his base, the people more ardent in their support in 2008.
La-la land? Yes Virginia, there is a la-la land, and it is inhabited by admirers of that fine fitting and handsome suit of spun gold, that only "fools" can't see.
Because he did not stand up for reason and rationality, lunacy and stupidity are widely embraced and now dominate everything. It just need not have been.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/04/william-daley-rumored-chi_n_804254.html
Obama is now stocking his administration with people who don't even PRETEND to be for "reforms" that Obama once claimed to be for. Guess we know how Obama really feels now, huh?
And you want me to apologize to him???
ROFL!!!!! Don't hold your breath!!!!
When does hope become delusion?
Is this cowardice, confusion or cluelessness?
Fight the enemy at all times -and when the time comes - depose the commander if you feel he has not fought hard enough
But meanwhile - fight the enemy for heaven's sake
Given this outlook it is not surprising that merely putting a party player in place is not a satisfactory goal
The new party will see the labels such as 'Progressive' and 'Liberal', and the term 'social justice', as Positives.
I was SO VERY SURPRISED to find myself the enemy of my old party. I was instructed to hold some feet to the fire, and next thing I know, I am the enemy. Wow!Frank, this is just the reason that I left the Democrats and joined the Progressive Party. I am fighting for the same things that I have always fought for, the same things that used to be puillars of the Democratic Party. I, and many of the presidnts 'enemies' on the left, have never wavered in our goals and our moral stands. We never left the party, the party left us, and now many in the party, and many like you and demwolf, and the President, as a matter of fact, now see us as your political enemies, not your allies.
It is this schism that will see the formation of a new party sooner that you might think.
The new party will see the labels such as 'Progressive' and 'Liberal', and the term 'social justice', as Positives.
Frank, this is just the reason that I left the Democrats and joined the Progressive Party. I am fighting for the same things that I have always fought for, the same things that used to be puillars of the Democratic Party. I, and many of the presidnts 'enemies' on the left, have never wavered in our goals and our moral stands. We never left the party, the party left us, and now many in the party, and many like you and demwolf, and the President, as a matter of fact, now see liberals as your political enemies, not your political allies.
You are seeing this completely all wrong
Take a deep breath and find some positive things and build on that
Changing my voter registration from Democrat to my states Progressive Party is one of the most positive things I have done in a while, and we are building fast as we can!
Join us!
127 promises kept
40 compromises
28 broken
82 stalled
226 in the works
Let's say I go to the slots. I win 100 times at the penny machines, and I gained $20 in profits. Then I went to the $100 tables in poker, and lost once.
I won 100 times, I lost once. Why am I leaving the casino disappointed?
So... his critics need to apologize to him because of something that hasn't happened yet (and won't happen). Got it.
I think this demand alone points out who is living in LaLa land
Let's be clear. President Obama's leadership has kept us out of a real mess and fairly stabilized us. He has made some inroads. Krugman hasn't said otherwise; he just says, in a nutshell, that this is insufficient. Politically, Krugman also is concerned about leaving the door open for extremists on the right to sabotage and derail this stability and further progress. He probably also cares about the future of the progressive agenda, which at core is about promoting the common good and a dynamic, productive society arising from the engines of diversity and opportunity.
I can see it is easy to peg Krugman into the strident category, but only by not really paying attention. There are plenty of strident left wing voices that fit your thesis. Krugman, though, seems an honest, realistic forward-thinking (progressive) voice pushing Obama. Or at least not worthy of this kind of characterization.
Things are lousy for many of us. But that is different from being a real mess. Unemployment is bad but it was headed off a cliff. It is not now. It is still bad. I'm not following Frank Schaeffer on this. But keeping my perspective, yes.
Back in 2008 during the financial crisis, to give an example, my mother was calling us and telling us all to move back home and we'll grow our own food and hunker down and survive, like in the old days. Now—she doesn't talk like that.
So a somewhat humorous personal definition of a "real mess" would be having to move back home with my mother.