Grand Illusion No More
Wednesday night Cinderella's gilded slipper comes off -- perhaps never to find its rightful bearer in our lifetime. By midnight it will be made painfully obvious that we have been gulled. Hopes for a renewed America given their coup de grace. It will grieve us far more than him. We know how much is lost. He will look forward to celebrating something that his White House shills will proclaim an historic accomplishment for an America going forward. With alchemic spin, and heavy infusions of money from Big Pharma et al, it might even allow him to win a second term in the Oval office. And that, sadly, we now know is what it is all about. Yes, a few lucky souls may avoid having their insurance terminated upon the discovery of a pre-existing condition. The big winners, though, will be the usual suspects who have the power to dictate our life conditions. The 'health' industry's lusty voices will join the choruses already echoing through the canyons of Wall Street: " Happy days are here again." Soon, they'll gang up to hawk bundled health insurance policies alongside the life insurance derivatives fresh on the market.
The rich, who were given a $1.7 tax gift by the Bushies, won't have to cough up a cent. The rest of us will be told to make do with the thin gruel of faded dreams and a handful of crumbs -- the eternal comfort of the deprived and exploited.
How did this happen? Barack Obama is the personification of generation 'X' -- that elusive cohort whose political identity and personal character is so hard to pin down. The record of pledges broken and favors curried with the nation's vested interests since January makes it starkly obvious that we are in for a rough -- and confusing -- era. Obama's failings have become glaring, as highlighted by his vacillating and spineless performance on health care reform. His headlong plunge into the Afghan quagmire and his cosseting of Wall Street in mishandling the financial crisis confirm the impression of a man whose convictions are too feeble to set fixed bearings for an effective presidency. That is to say, to govern on behalf of a serious reform agenda in accord with the times rather than to follow the course of least resistance marked out by established power centers.
The real Obama turns out to be very different from the Obama imagined by so many who projected their own hopes and needs onto a neophyte whose courage on issues never matched his audacity in pursuing personal ambition. That is as much the fault of naïve admirers as it is his. This concocted Messiah has neither message nor mission. A close look at what he says, resisting the dazzling rhetorical flourishes, should have revealed that early on. He is very much a man of his times: weak or absent convictions, dispassion about even grievous wrongs, incapacity for moral outrage, a ready assimilation of fads and fashions. And that man is someone who tips his hat to every form of authority he encounters; someone who believes deep down that the locus of American political sentiment lies well to the right of his own party's mainstream -- the territory occupied by the notorious Gang of Six; someone who imbibed the Reaganesque vision of America during his formative years in the 1980s; someone who has found in Ronald Reagan his inspired model -- as Obama himself said in a May 2008 interview.
What is to be done? Two things. First, no avoidance behavior. We are betrayed, we are beaten, we are bewildered. That's the inescapable reality. To have a large majority of Americans with us only makes the pill more bitter. Second, from now on be as ruthless and cold-blooded as they are -- the special interests, the 20 percent of Americans who form the phalanx of the radical Republican right, as the occupant of the White House who always puts himself first. The last is our main hope. Obama the self-serving egoist needs the votes of progressive and simply decent, responsible people to enjoy the personal gratification of being president for eight rather than only four years. He must be told in the bluntest way possible that if he acts as if Reagan's America is the true America, he will join the ignoble roll of one-termers and find himself nursing that delusion back in Chicago. In truth, he more likely would wind up as Chairman of Goldman Sachs or President of Harvard or a Supreme Court Justice. But he wants the White House. The one threat that can shake him is a credible threat that he won't get it unless he changes his ways. No appeals to conscience, no elaborate argumentation as to why reform at home and abroad best serves the national interest. Just simple electoral arithmetic.
To be credible, to break through the Obama conceit that he can talk his way out of anything and into anything, there must be anger, there must be righteousness, there must be stern demands that are unyielding. We know beyond any doubt that it is the only thing he responds to. Let's use that knowledge -- however unsavory it is.
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I think obama's major problem , might be having Rahm Emmanuel.
An excellent piece Michael; however not many have the courage to say this.
Somehow nothing about your article lends itself to the notion that you feel that such demands are "unsavoury"...
Oddly, its Obama willingness to listen to all sides that affords Mr. Brenner et al the sense that he is worthy of such a condemnation. But rather than truly focus your efforts on the individuals that stand in the way of progress you feel your efforts are better served giving ultimatums to someone who for all intents and purposes is actually on your side.
You call out a single individual for not turning around an entire industry that’s been corrupt for many many years, 7 months into his term and somehow feel just in doing so. You must have missed the dozen or so speeches where he acknowledged that he would not be able to do it alone.
Why not lend your efforts to the actual cause vs. spending your waking moments affixing blame long before the fight is anywhere near over.
Wouldn't that seem like the admirable thing to do..
President Obama needs to stop campaigning and start leading..
It is with sadness that I read these letters of disappointment from lilberals who are looking for their chosen One to do what they want him to do, only to see clearly that "He is very much a man of his times: weak or absent convictions, dispassion about even grievous wrongs, incapacity for moral outrage, a ready assimilation of fads and fashions." When I read Brenner's comments, I had to ask, "Am I reading commentary from Rush, or Hannity, or Gallagher, or (locally-Dallas TX) Scott Wilder, or even Michael Savage? Nope. It was a liberal -- another in a long line of Obama voters having second and third thoughts about this bigger Than Life Savior of the Republic. Brenner is simply repeating the same descriptors of President Obama as those nettlesome "far right" talkers proclaimed about Obama BEFORE the election. Here is a man who described himself in statements for the world to read, "I serve as a blank screen," Obama writes, "on which people of vastly different political stripes PROJECT THEIR OWN VIEWS," adding, "my treatment of the issues is often partial and incomplete." And therefore votes "present" instead of "yea" or "nay." What are you guys complaining about? YOU ELECTED A BLANK SCREEN. Serves you right.
If you are from the Right side, you shouldn't be sad. Yes, he was a blank screen. The problem is that he made it sound like he would govern from left of center. What he's shown us so far is that he is forever moving right of center. He never tacks back.
Teddy would be very upset to see how much power Baucus wields. If Obama honored his friend's early support, he would ditch the Finance committee's worthless "work" and go with the Senate HELP committee bill.
That would be an FDR moment all Dems could get behind. We'll see tomorrow.
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...first...you are an idiot....we are disappointed because we thought, and were pretty much told, what the agenda and goals would be...we have NOT seen the kind of fire in the belly reaction.....shrub told us of his "mandate" when he stole the 2nd election (think ohio).....this president HAD a mandate by any reasonable standards when he was elected....even when the rebubliCONS were a minority (less than 60 votes in the senate) they accomplished much of their agenda...it's our turn now...we won and now we want governance for WE, THE PEOPLE....and certainly not for more of the same....yeah right, NOW the health insurance industry will help and protect us.....and big pharma...they got theirs when the shrub administration decided we could NOT negotiate drug prices...seeing a pattern here?...if, at the VERY least, we DON'T get a public option, he might be a two term president....BUT, it will be WITHOUT my vote....
I'm glad he's a Statesmen and not an ideologue.
The earliest clue of Obama's mercurial politics: His rejection of public campaign financing. A lot of progressives cut him slack on that, but that was his first broken promise.
The second clue was his 180-degree turn on FISA. Another broken promise; a lot of progressives cut him slack AGAIN. The third clue was his total support for the September '08 bailout of the banksters. He won the election because his opponent (and running mate) were totally unacceptable post-Shrub.
Jane Hamsher at firedoglake has doggedly investigated the REALITY behind the "reform" bills: It's all about gaming the money chest for 2010 and 2012 and keeping that money from the Rethugs. Reform that truly helps the little people is just about off the table.
To all those who hang on to that ethereal notion of change, read another stark analysis: David Michael Green at CommonDreams.org: "After Obama" http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/09/05-5
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Maybe you will be happy when Cheney is President.
Perhaps we deserve it.
Obama just needs to ignore all of you and do his job. He has only been President for eight months and has been the pragmatist that he promised but you put a messiah spin on him according to your own definition of what he should be. If anything he is trying to do too much at one time and all these constituencies are nagging at him to take care of their agenda. I just want the problems to be solved without all the ideologes.
"The real Obama turns out to be very different from the Obama imagined by so many who projected their own hopes and needs onto a neophyte whose courage on issues never matched his audacity in pursuing personal ambitions. That is the fault of his naive admirers as it is his..."
I do not think so. I think people like to create this caricature of Obama supporters as all starry-eyed worshippers who believes he walks on water. There may be a few like that. The overwhelming group of us know that the problems are as difficult as any faced by a President and that there will be no easy solutions. We know he will make mistakes and do things we don't like but recognize no one is perfect and I would never expect any President to do exactly what I want.
There will be no meaningful public option because the Dems and the GOP are the same -- both are chock full of Enthusiastic Piggies fed at the trough of Big Pharma/Healthcare. Don’t waste your time anymore voting for either; it’s like deck chairs on the Titanic.
What you should work for, IMHO, is:
1) implementation of proportional voting (what they have in Europe that has allowed the Green Party to get some modicum of power). Proportional voting does away with winner take all, so a party that gets, say, 30% of the vote will have 30% of the representatives rather than nothing. Proportional voting is the main thing that will help third parties get power; and
2) stronger control of campaign finance.
3) The big media outlets must be pressured to allow third party candidates access to the debates (they kept Nader out, and will do so with any third candidate).
If you keep voting for the same two parties, you will continue to be GAMED. The Dems talk a more progressive game, but watch the RESULTS.
WAKE UP, AMERICA.
He's been office for all of eight months. This fight isn't even over, and so many of you are already giving up?
He gave up first!
when and how?
here are a few things that he has accomplished:
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_are_Barack_Obama's_accomplishments_as_president
He awakened the sleeping giant known as conservatism. The fight is far from over, but we are going to win.
What have "conservatives" ever conserved?
This article amd many others are the bane of the Democratic, progressive, liberal movement. They are just has hyperbolic and ideoligical as those on the right and far right. It's my way, how I want it when I want it and it's unfortunate that Libs, progressives and some Dems to great pride in sowing doubt and discouragement within thier own. I'm all for constructive critisim when it is logical an needed. But this is exactly why I'm independent. There is a much...much bigger picture and Libs are suffering tunnel vision. They only see what they want when they want how they want udging by the comments I could hardly stomach. So intent on looking for falut that they will follow and believe right wing shills no realizing they are being had. for example the Drudge report ran some random sotry from some random anonymous source that the President no longer want the Public option, the story was then linked to the Politico sight and promptly posted here on HuffPo which started an explosion of left wing hate.
Good work you've been hoodwinked
I'm afraid that you are not correct. When the truth of a situation is revealed, when the consequences of actions are correctly predicted, when the real motivations are laid bare, people do not want to see the truth of a situation. Ire is not hate. Diapproval is not hate. Condemnation of corruption is not hate. Disgust at politics as usual is not hate. This administration has proven itself to be so much less than it could be, and certainly so much less than it promised. And as time goes by, it will become less of a representation of the publics voice, and more of an enabler of the status quo. It, like the banks, is bankrupt. Unlike the banks, its bankruptcy is moral. And, I might add, I speak these words as a life long Democrat. No more...
Thank you, it has been tiresome to post my doubts elsewhere and be accused of bigotry..Those of us who had such passion for this Presidency are growing a bit weary..I don't care any more about the "Bush Mess"..strong leadership could have made a big start in cleaning it up..Nor do I care about his or his wife's "style"..I have lost interest. I posted elsewhere that I would bet even money that the health care industry is already in his re-election war chest, and he is slipping quickly into their back pocket..Modern society, a "junk culture" all about Style and no Substance..I thought I was too old to be fooled. Turn's out there's no fool like and old one. One ray of hope is that if the polls continue to slip, maybe he'll get the message and grow a back bone and find a moral compass.
Hope is never foolish.
"And that man is someone who tips his hat to every form of authority he encounters; someone who believes deep down that the locus of American political sentiment lies well to the right of his own party's mainstream..." -- I have read through dozens of the comments appended to this article, and so far, nobody among his many and able defenders/acolytes has made mention of this portion of Mr. Brenner's thesis-- most likely, because even the most wide-eyed among them senses the truth in the statement, and so, they ignore it-- but there it is anyway, on view in Obama's defense-establishment foreign policy, his banker-centric economic policy and his pharmaceutical and insurance-friendly health care 'reform'. He has merely repainted the corridors of power. The architecture remains intact.
But the problem is not solely Obama. What we have to represent us today in the White House and both houses of Congress are self-regarding pols who cannot bring themselves to do the people's business if it means they might risk losing corporate donors to future campaigns. Money madness has ruined our democracy.
Yes, the problem IS solely Obama. He can't seem to resist making another campaign speech. His numerous health care diatribes have simply muddied the water. The guy is trying too hard to be important. He should become the president he was elected to become. Nothing much will happen until he does, and stops barnstorming all the time.
A week ago, I was all for healthcare reform.
Now I don't care, because it won't happen in a meaningful way.
I've said for years that repubs and dems are just two sides of the same coin. A year ago, I had hope that this may change. Too bad really...
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