One Year Later: No Longer Time for Dancing

I was awoken to the sounds of a celebrating crowd one year ago just after midnight at the end of Election Day. The President's House at Wesleyan University sits in the middle of campus, and we suddenly could hear cheering and music coming from the Student Center a hundred yards from where we live. I got dressed and went outside to find young people dancing, singing and waving American flags. It was official, Barack Obama had won, and the students were buoyed by a surge of hope. A more conservative young man approached me and explained that although he didn't vote for the Democratic candidate, he knew that "this was a great night for America." "Patriotism," he explained, "isn't just something you feel when you get what you want."

One year later, it's this thought that echoes with me the most.

This is no longer the time for dancing. The euphoria of last November has turned to disappointment for many of the young men and women who celebrated so raucously on campus. The candidate of change and reform has not been the president who could reinvent Washington politics. The idealist who many saw on the campaign trail turns out to be a realist trying to govern without losing the support of the middle of the political spectrum. The dancing and flag waving has been replaced with calls for deliberation and patience. The Left feels betrayed because the pace of change has been frustratingly slow, particularly in regard to unemployment, the war and governmental transparency. The Right feels threatened because the momentum for change will challenge some of their core commitments, particularly in regard to government interference in the private sector and national security. But patriotism is not just something you feel when you get what you want.

This is no longer the time for dancing, but it is the time to work for progressive change. The Obama administration did pull the economy back from a precipice of collective ruin that would have dwarfed anything we'd seen for generations. Shoring up the financial system and saving the automobile industry may already seem like old news, but these successes are key elements in a sustainable recovery. We must continue to work for job creation and extensions of unemployment insurance, and we must insist that a healthy banking system is not only for the rich.

This is no longer a time for dancing, but it is a time to work for peace. The president has been criticized for taking too much time in making his decision about Afghanistan. The United States has a corrupt partner, but it also has real enemies and genuine security interests in this region. How do we create the grounds for a lasting peace as opposed to simply planning for either endless militarization or a withdrawal that only delays more deadly attacks? The decision to send more young men and women into harm's way only makes sense if it contributes to our long range goals for security and peace. This judgment can't be based on what we wish to be true about the conflict but on our capacity to create the grounds for stability in one of the most challenging areas of the world. Information gathering and deliberation, rather than ideological purity or witless determination, is what we need (and are getting) from the Commander-in-Chief.

This is no longer a time for dancing, but it is a time to work for social justice. The president has been reluctant to deal with past abuses of power, even violations of the law, in the name of "moving on" and getting things done. Most surprisingly, he has maintained his predecessor's pursuit of secrecy and efforts at concentrating power in the executive branch. We must remind President Obama that Candidate Obama was right about the virtues of transparency, and that the idealistic Senator from Illinois was right to critique the Cheney mania for enhanced presidential powers. The pursuit of justice can only be energized by more freedom of information and less deal making behind closed doors.

This is no longer the time for dancing, but neither is it the time to abandon a president who still represents the best opportunity for progressive change in decades. Candidate Obama proved that he was a man of integrity, but also a man of focus, compromise and deep, pragmatic intelligence. President Obama has shown us many of these same qualities. Pragmatic compromise will mean that not all of us who supported the candidate will get what we had hoped for. But patriotism, like solidarity, isn't just something you feel when you get what you want.

 

Comments

[William50]

If you want change, if you want reform, if you want to be a part of the future that is a re-awakening America you are wrong to chose the same two parties that put you into the hole. The college youth were ready for a Kennedy style change in government. Where Kennedy said "Ask not" the O'man said "here's the check book, spend like mad!" They were lied too, cheated out of ten years income and now are silent instead of venting their wrath on the two parties and the President.

America has poor leadership. America is strong. Americans are not unable to work they have had their jobs and wealth stolen by the political con men in Congress and by the banks who have bought them.

If you want a new America you have to get rid of the fools and bought slaves in Congress that have harmed you.

Give me two years, I will have this nation moving forward with jobs, into space, safer cities and low cost home loans. No other person in Congress or on the media has said this! I! No! We can change the face of America....the fools in Congress and the bankers only want to continue to harm America.

middleamerican2010
Casey

[Flavor]

I thank god, President Obama won the election, we were headed down zero's road. I don't have a clue how we will get out of this mess,and it's gonna take double that time, to make a dent in seeing some movement towards relief. I too believe, that now is the time to move a team foward for job creation, for the American people. What I would have liked to have seen is money given from the stimulis, to those who want to go back to school for retraining for jobs in technology, green jobs, health field, ect.... this would have prepared those who would be ready for the new job creation. I know this president is briefed daily and he has so many irons in the fire, I don't envy him at all. Now, the reason the change pace has been slow, is because he needs a party that will be on board with him and change, I don't see that right now.

[a6intruder]

Mr. Roth, you seem an intelligent, well-educated man. Could you take a few minutes of your time and explain just what the term "Progressive" means? Is it pretty much the same as "Liberal"? And what is "Progressivism"?
Thank you.

[Hollywood Dick]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressivism

[marxmarv]

I wonder if he wasn't hoping for a table-turning referencing that video from a while back where some teenage Republican dupe with a misspelled shirt, when asked by an interviewer what "socialism" was, utterly failed and had to pull out his smartphone.

[gemcando06]

I am so glad that Obama won...mercy.. what if he didn't win?

President Obama has what seems to be an impossible job. He has to correct the biggest mess in USA history, in my opinion. He cannot dare announce how screwed up things are now from years of total mismanagement, in my opinion.
He has to deal with Congress that is top heavy with " do-nothing" persons - blocking progress, and he has to deal with two wars, one of which has turned into chaos.

And a population that wants him to do it all in a matter of months.

[j mcdouglas]

People aren't going to work for Progressive change.

They're too busy trying to find work to actually... work.

This of course was part of the Wall Street/GOP plan to undercut the Democratic agenda, both by de-funding change via the economic meltdown and to distract average people from politics by putting them in desperate circumstances.

This is why wealthy employers aren't employing anyone despite the fact that consumption is up and things are stabilized. They don't want people working. They don't want people to have the luxury of working for Progressive change.

Our Republican ownership society is too smart to allow working people that luxury.

Change isn't going to come from the bottom up any time soon.

Leaders will have to lead in the Democratic Party, or we will lose.

Average people are too busy just trying to hold on to their apartments, because they sure as heck no longer own their own homes.

[marxmarv]

If instead of looking for work they were out in the streets, they might actually do better for themselves and the rest of us.

[terramartom]

Afghanistan, one year later, after the elections nothing has changed, it has only gotten worse.
Remove the troops from Afghanistan now, and speed up troop withdrawal from Iraq.
Both of these failed Bush/ Cheney wars for profits were American tragedies that could have been avoided.
President Obama - another Vietnam, or repeat in Afghanistan or change that most Americans voted for?
Peace prize, either make choices to earn it, or give it back?

http://www.richmonk31.blogspot.com

[Inquisitr]

If I still had hope that Obama would bring change you would have my support.

I feel betrayed and disappointed and like I have invested enough of myself in a man who did nothing of what he promised.

When Obama starts to actually lead I'll consider actually getting involved again, but I won't push against the ocean.

[Hollywood Dick]

I keep hearing comparisons (mostly negative) between Candidate Obama and President Obama. But what I see is a consistency of vision that began for me with Obama the author of The Audacity of Hope. This is a man with a sweeping view of history and government who is facing some very tough challenges. History does not conform to a 24 hour news cycle or to the capricious whims of a finicky constituency. And implementing one's vision does not always fit the fantasy that inspired it. I am impressed by Obama's leadership and continue to have faith in the man I voted for. Now is the time he needs our support. You don't just elect a President for one day.

[sonoffestus]

Yes, I continue to support the President. I have given up on the citizens. Too much hate, division and ignorance. You folks are toast.

[Hollywood Dick]

"...fearing not that I'd become my enemy
In the instant that I preach..."
Bob Dylan

[rad28]

Thomas Friedman said it best. Obama has gotten caged back in the trees and has lost the forest. He needs to present all of his initiatives within the context of his overall vision (architecture), that is, how each initiative will contribute to changing the way that Washington works (and all hopefully all other levels of government in the US).
On top of that he needs Plouffe or someone else to help him to maintain a map of the vision along with some sort of a true national mandate on each issue that can be held in front of legislators at all times. ......Something like a web site plebicite accompanied by a simple but true explanation of each an every major issue. The more visual, the better.
The Financial Industry handed Obama a slap upside the head as an electrion present just to let him know who's his daddy. Maybe election reform should be moved closer to the top of the agenda.
Huffington, the MSNBC crowd, and the like could help to keep the 'NO sayers' honest and instantly kill inane attempts to whitewash reality with the likes of the Republican health (or was it wealth) plan.

[marxmarv]

Election reform is the only agenda. Everything else is window dressing.