Barack Obama has made it very clear that he intends to govern as a bridge-builder. Ideology is a bad word in Obamaland. He will lead as a pragmatist, and also reach across the aisle to Republicans.
This stance has stimulated a passionate debate among progressives, on HuffingtonPost and elsewhere. For some, this is just the latest disappointing case of a candidate arousing the hopes of the center-left but governing from the center-right (viz. Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Tony Blair, Gerhardt Schroeder). Hey, it's capitalism, what did you expect?
For others, this is neither politics as usual nor capitalism as usual, Nor is Obama the president as usual. And so it will not be opportunistic pragmatism as usual.
In the new normal, what is pragmatic is actually fairly left wing. If massive public spending, and re-regulation of Wall Street, and green energy, and universal health coverage can be characterized as mere pragmatism, bring it on. We can acknowledge later that we have moved the center to the left and shifted the prevailing ideology. Clever guy, this Obama.
But what about the post-partisan part? Here again, it may just be shrewd positioning. But if President-elect Obama actually believes that this is a bipartisan moment, he is in for a rude awakening.
The lame-duck Senate Republicans have just blocked the bill to provide temporary financing for the auto industry needed to give the new administration and Congress time to work with the automakers on a restructuring plan. Not much bipartisanship there. Indeed, it was George W. Bush, the least bipartisan president in decades, who came to the rescue of the industry and the Democrats by relying on emergency use of the bank bailout funds. Just imagine what Republicans will do in the next Congress.
If you have been watching or reading Republican pronouncements lately, just about nothing in the Obama program is likely to get the support of the Republican leadership. Bank re-regulation? The Employee Free Choice Act? Hundreds of billions for green energy? Universal health insurance? A trillion dollars of stimulus as the downpayment on a permanent increase in public investment?
The Republican story is that the best stimulus is more tax cuts, and that the money should be found by reducing the deficit. That leaves no room for more public spending, only for more spending-cuts. And despite the fact that deregulation caused the financial collapse, Republicans still insist that regulation did it--the evil Community Reinvestment Act (which in fact explicitly required that sound lending standards were not to be waived. Most subprime lenders were not even covered by CRA.)
Here is an easy prediction: When President Obama reaches that hand of bipartisanship across the aisle, he will find that the Republicans bite it.
Of course, it is smart politics to pick off Republicans for a progressive agenda wherever possible. Splitting the Republicans is much better than splitting the difference. By January, when Congress takes up the emergency stimulus bill, unemployment will be heading toward double digits, and state and local governments will be slashing public services. In that emergency climate, Obama may well get some Republicans to cross over and vote for a Democratic plan.
But that strategy is not being bipartisan. It is being an astute partisan. And there will be many other times when Obama will need to rally all of his Democrats to enact progressive legislation over the strenuous objection of most Republicans. This economic emergency and its political opportunity is no time to compromise for the sake of hollow unity. If Obama can win over a few Republicans for a progressive program, great. If he put can Republicans in the position of haplessly opposing popular and urgently needed legislation, so much the better.
By the end of his first year, either Obama will have put the economy on the path to recovery based on a progressive program that represents a radical ideological shift; if he achieves that, he will have done it with precious little Republican support. Alternatively, much of his program will have been blocked by Republican filibusters enabled by a few conservative Democratic allies.
Let's hope it's the former. And let's hope he has the audacity to call progressivism by its name. Either way, one thing Obama will not be is post-partisan.
Robert Kuttner's best selling book is "Obama's Challenge: America's Economic Crisis and the Power of a Transformative Presidency."
Let the next vanity presidency begin!
Another, true progressive politics, is possible.
Eric C. Jacobson
Public Interest Lawyer
Culver City, California
The dirtier Clinton and McCain got in their campaigns with the "kitchen sink" and "gloves off" tactics, the worse they looked to the public. By refusing to come down to their level PE Obama makes it clear to the public how low his opponents level is. It's beautiful and inspiring to watch.
He absolutely is, and we can be sure that he is very aware of the partisanship he'll get from Repubs. I believe the way he handles it will in some ways force their hands (in other words, he'll get the public behind him) and on other occassions, it will only result in making Repubs look bad when they are hyperpartisan. Because of Bush, we've very fed up with it, and because of how Obama presents himself, his behavior will highlight how rediculous they're behaving at times.
But like you Robert, many of us can also see how clever Obama is particularly the way his is able to respond intelligently in the depths of pure d silliness on the part of others. Though my fingers are crossed for him just in case he gets a little to close to the wolves in sheep clothing. He has so far proven that he is no little red robin hood.
The GOP can't seem to get it through their thick skulls that this is a different world, and this country is in such an awful mess left us by 8 years of GWB, that it is going to take all of us IF indeed it even can be fixed. The reason why most of us voted for Obama is because he seems to have the vision to get us started back on the right track, and this has given us HOPE.
Now that I think of it, this whole thing reminds me of what happened to the country in the movie "The Lion King".
Just like the budget war during Clinton's presidency, O can use the media to show the R's as obstructionists who would hold our middle class hostage to make further attacks on labor. If he can play that game, he's got them licked.
--Mugabe is e v i l. Free Zimbabwe.
Repubs are all about "me"....personal responsibility, individual rights
Dems are all about "we".....community responsibility, needs of a nation as a whole
The current crop of Repub leadership is all about "me" with an overriding arc of power. They control the media and the message and hope to convey to the moderate middle that the Dems cannot accomplish anything. Look at the approval rating of Congress-well publicized and at an all time low. Not well publicized-the Repub filibusters that have paralyzed it. They're betting that more of the same gets them Congress in 2010. If several million people lose their jobs, well, then, they probably deserved it anyway. See the "me" definition of the Republican party.....
unfortunately, all good things can be TwistedPerverted&Corrupted.
Capitalism
Christianity
Patriotism
Republican congresspersons are a dying breed. Unless they have something believable to say, they will look vengeful, as they already looked once the Republican memo leaked out.
To lower the trade deficit is one of the most critical initiatives Obama MUST solve. Unless he does so, consumers will continue to send their dollars overseas to China and elsewhere. Autos, oil, and a manipulated Chinese Yuan are the culprits. According to Dr. Morici, of Univ. of Maryland, he feels such a resolution would increase our own GDP and lower the trade deficit.
I suggest, if GM and Chrysler reject a massive reconstruction project, then the US government should nationalize these two companies, and then once remolded, and downsized, and have worked out a reasonable deal with the union, and then offer lifetime warranties for certain models, such a the Aveo, Malibu, Vibe, Caliper to capture market share away from foreigners, we can they resell the company to a private buyer.
http://eye-on-washington.blogspot.com
You certainly don't have to be a "neo-con" to see what government has done to everything it touches. Remember when it was going to fix Amtrak?
Can you imagine what would happen if the government decided to "fix" the auto industry? Every congressman would be working to get THEIR companies in the mix. Cars would double in price and work half as well. There would be NO competition to improve. Look at any government controlled housing - or how well government did with Ethanol.
The next step after Congress destroyed the automobile business would be to slap a 50% tax on Honda and Toyota -
Bigger government is NOT the answer -
Not all government is bad.
Carol