Don't Mistake Discontent for Failure
This is, according to the punditocracy, the summer of our discontent, the moment when utopianism slides into profound disillusionment and "change" in D.C. morphs into "business as usual." There's an inevitability to the narrative: newbie hits town, promises change, gets corrupted by power, and the town changes him. And we return, ill-tempered, disturbed, to the status quo ante. There's a certain joy to the tone of the commentary, a "how could you be so naïve, I told-you-so" gloating at the voting public.
From "tea parties" designed to protest perceived tax-and-spend big-government programs to rent-a-ruffian brawls at town hall meetings on health care reform; from liberal angst about President Obama's purported spinelessness on said health care reform (see Paul Krugman's recent article) and the need for a second stimulus package to conservative jeremiads on Obama's purported desire to socialize the medical system, end American capitalism, and hand over the country to terrorists, (see Dick Morris's preposterous-but-popular new book Catastrophe) the tone has gotten uglier.
All bad, right? Wrong.
Corpses don't protest. That we, as a society, once again have the energy to protest and dissent, is actually a hopeful sign that after being knocked for a loop in recent years we're finding our footing anew.
Barack Obama was elected president with the country in freefall: the bottom was literally falling out of the economy; the country's moral credibility was shredded on the international stage; hurricane Katrina, torture photos, the endless manipulation of public opinion by Karl Rove and the more general army of spinmeisters, all of these had created dangerously high levels of cynicism about the political system; overwhelming numbers of Americans polled responded that they believed the country was heading in the wrong direction.
Obama posited himself as, and was elected to perform the role of, antidote to all of this, as a "change agent" who would usher in a new age. There was always something more than a little utopian about both the rhetoric and the expectations. The great danger was that the utopianism would become the whole story -- that President Obama, so manifestly, visually, a break from the past, so much the embodiment of an American velvet revolution, would be seen as a Superhero, a change-man simply beyond reproach. That's what happened to many post-colonial leaders in other countries and in previous decades, and the results were unhealthy both for their personal historical legacies and for their countries. Criticism was seen as disloyalty and the results were all too predicable: liberation heroes became tyrants, government became a purview for yes-men, rhetoric of change masked crumbling, decrepit, corrupt realities.
The deeper America's economic and political crisis, the greater the likelihood that all hopes would come to be vested in an individual, that the quest for salvation would come to assume profoundly personal hues, and that those same crises of governance would, or at least might, unfold when that individual was proven lacking in the wave-a-magic-wand-and-make-all-our-troubles-disappear department.
That Obama's post-election popularity ratings were in the 70-plus percent range was partly because he did, indeed, offer something profoundly new, but they were also partly a product of desperation: almost everyone felt he had to succeed, that his failure would mean the country's failure, even collapse.
Since Obama's inauguration, in January, the great ship of state has, slowly but surely, changed course. The economy is by no means "normal" again; but most experts believe the bone-jarring freefall has been stopped; the country's moral reputation is healing; the department of justice is again run by people who respect the rule of law; on climate change, for the first time adults seem to be setting the agenda; and on health care, the discussion is now about how to fix a broken system -- which is a world away from the dithering, do-nothing language of the Bush years.
And so, now, paradoxically, as the country's situation normalizes, as many different areas of communal life improve, so the voices of discontent will grow louder. Obama will be judged as a mere mortal, as a politician warts-and-all, rather than as an unreproachable creature-of-salvation. And again, that's a good thing. As Obama knows all too well, starry-eyed idealism alone almost never gets the job done. Combining idealism with hard-nosed real-politic, getting down to brass tacks to enact change, might be messier, might alienate opponents, might even more deeply alienate friends, but it's a combination that tends to get results.
Let's take health care: universal coverage has been a holy grail for every Democratic president since Roosevelt. And yet, in 2009, nearly 50 million Americans have no health insurance. If Obama fails to achieve reform, yes, he'll have wasted a golden opportunity and will join the list of presidents to have been humbled by this key issue. And then the harsh words already leveled by critics on his left flank will have some merit. But if, six months from now, a new system is on the books, even if its birth is messy, ugly, my guess is that fairly quickly the trials and tribulations of the summer of 2009 will come to seem insignificant.
At the very least, I'd argue, only seven months into the new administration it's too early in the process to write off either Obama's idealistic side or the prospects for real health care reform because of a few weeks of missteps and a slower, less comprehensive, move toward change than progressives would like to see.
As I detail in my upcoming book Inside Obama's Brain, Obama and his team generally think long-term; they analyze opinion poll data, but they don't obsess over daily fluctuations in the same way that most recent presidents have done. During the election campaign, Obama frequently told his advisers to think beyond the daily polls, to develop policies that would recreate the country over a period of decades rather than simply provide short-term bang for the buck. It's the difference between a driver who obsesses on the second-by-second fluctuations in the fuel-efficiency gauge and the driver who looks at the long-term fuel averages over the course of thousands of miles of driving.
If, and I recognize it's a big if, meaningful health care reform emerges from all the messiness, anger, discontent and fear that are the flavors du jour these dog days of summer, that strategy will be vindicated.
Yes, Obama's popularity has declined from the heights it reached in January. But, again, that's not necessarily a bad thing. In politics, the ultimate measure of success isn't simply popularity; it's effectiveness. And when all the huffing and puffing is out of the way, when we take stock at the end of the year and look at how much has changed in a mere few hundred days, we will, I believe, see an effective presidency unfolding and a revitalized social compact being crafted.
Follow Sasha Abramsky on Twitter: www.twitter.com/www.twitter.com
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Finally a progressive blogger who sees the forest for the trees.
We really need to be more patient with the man. Don't forget folks, the president's job is HARD. It's a difficult enough job as it is without it being compounded by the unparalleled ineptitude of his predecessor. The fact that Obama has succeeded as much as he already has is testament to his competence, his prescience, and his patriotism.
Barack Obama is already a great American and a patriot by the truest sense of the term. I am confident that he will one day be revered as a great American president. God willing, perhaps one of our greatest ever...
"Footing a new"?
It was a lack of help from the Left that helped knock Healthcare during Clinton down.
Just imagine the billions we would have saved by now had it passed?
And these days Kennedy wishes he had supported Nixon's health care plan.
I regret being one of those young people who helped bring Johnson down because of all that he did for civil rights and against poverty.
Ya gotta know WHEN to protest...
Not just in reaction to disinformation or a lack of it.
And by the way why is nobody in the Left REPEATING OVER AND OVER AGAIN
that WHEN WE TALK ABOUT healthcare reform THE COST IS $80-B100 **A YEAR**
not a trillion!
I'll take the current divisive, polarized political climate in a heartbeat over the post 9-11 flock mentality that swept us like birds in a hurricane into the stupid Iraq war.
Part II --
"The message will be unmistakable: caravan with us to Washington and help make a public demonstration of support for Single Payer Health Care that will be heard around the world."
"Imagine..."
"Thousands of cars pulling into the nation's capital for a protest on the White House lawn. The sidewalks are filled with supporters carrying signs in support of the Mad As Hell Doctors who have captured the imagination and the ignited the passion of their fellow citizens. We wave and honk at the camera crews, as do the endless line of cars behind us, as we wend our way toward the White House. On every antenna, on the backside of every car, and flapping like flags from sidewalk supporters, is the symbol of this new movement: the White Ribbon."
So far, this appears to be the most coordinated effort to demonstrate for the single-payer option. Many of us were focused on September 13th as the date to demonstrate in Washington. Maybe we should throw our support behind these physicians' efforts. Please help me spread the word.
If you click on the link their website it provides additional information, a sign-up for the events, and a map that indicates the cities they will stop in enroute to Washington.
http://www.madashelldoctors.com/
"On September 8th, a caravan will cross America to deliver a clear and simple message to our elected officials in Washington."
"On September 8, 2009 a group of dedicated Oregon physicians will take the message of Universal Health Care "on the road" in a wrapped and branded Motor Home headed for Washington D.C. Our cross-country mission: to stop in big cities and whistle stops alike, conducting pre-booked, local and national media appearances for a curious press. Every move we make along the way will be recorded on camera and then edited and uploaded to the internet that same day. This will allow our Mad As Hell Doctors Tour to leverage the edited video segments on social networking web sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, MySpace, et al. In this way, our effort becomes an unprecedented hybrid of reality television and political activism that offers people the opportunity to follow us, in real time, as our story unfolds."
This says it all
Wait...
...Dubya gets 8 years to screw up the country and everyone is screaming because Obama hasn't managed to clean up the cluster-of toxic garbage in seven months. Remember that it was 8 years of your beloved free market/no new taxes/war on terror bull that got us here.
Of course Obama's poll numbers are down. He stepped into a pile of doo-doo; with the economy, the healthcare mess and two wars--disasters all kindly left to him by the Republicans (and admittedly punted by the cowering Democrats after 2006, but what else is new).
Couple that with the messianic expectations of Obama and is anyone surprised that by not being Jesus down from the cross, having to take harsh and unpopular actions to try to prevent a New Great Depression, taking on the right-wing hate machine with health care reform and having the nerve to be black...how could his numbers NOT fall?
BTW, I'm no huge fan of BHO. I'm mad at him for:
- continuing the illegal Bush secrecy and spying policies,
- waffling on the closing of Gitmo
- refusing to go after torturers,
- caving to coal and lumber barons
- negating any real change in environmental/energy policy,
all of which are critical because they shape how accountable our government is to us. I'm willing to give the man a chance, unlike the hate-filled retards posing as Christians, and supporters of traditional values.
-- pacificwhim
It's not just that it's 7 months. He has had lots of opportunities to do something with the stroke of a pen, like close Gitmo and allowing gay military to serve openly. He's too busy building a "consensus" to take action. He has NO time to waste. He needs to lead.
This article is much too rosy--the economy has not hit bottom yet, it's just going downhill more slowly. There's no new jobs, there's no transparency, there's no accountability.
I guess Beck,Rush,and all the other Republican hacks find it easier to blame President Obama for every thing that GW Bush set in motion for the last 8 years things were done by the President to off set the terrible way Bush managed his administration. You can blame President Bush for squandering away a surplus and i understand 9/11 and the war to kill the terrorist but the war in Iraq is this countries wrong doing all the money that was squandered and for what? So in Rush & Glenns mind they don't want to admit the Republican President that they supported failed poorly!
Clearly you have never listened to Rush or Beck.
Way to miss the forest for the trees.
Obama has "saved us" by bailing out and propping up all the problems that nearly killed us last time. And he's on track to do the same for health care.
I think that we are seeing a sea-change here. It is being imposed upon both the Press and the Government, not just by the expressed will of the people (thanks largely to the Internet), but also by the very frank reality that we have come to the end of this line. There is no further distance to go in the direction that we have been going.
Greed, avarice, usury, "the love of money, etc.", all of these things are talked-about endlessly in truly ancient texts: the stuff we dig up in deserts, inscribed upon clay tablets. In the earliest books of our Bibles, our Q'orans, and our Torahs. In the fairy-tale of Rumpelstiltskin. Spinning straw into gold ... and, back again.
If we find ourselves, as a nation, repeating ancient follies to our own obvious detriment, then "plainly, there is something very wrong with this picture." The bankers are not "rich beyond all imagination." Rather, their "richness" IS imagination, and not one whit more.
If we live in "a representative democracy," or even a republic, but we treat the President like a King and the Vice-President like a Pawn, then we are ignoring the true role of the Congress ... and it would seem that they've been running out the door with all our money. "Human nature?" Yes. Whose fault is this? Our own.
Our system of Government works well, and it is working as-designed ... but that sword cuts both ways.
Well said. I know it won't help your cause here, but this is exactly the point that Glenn Beck has been making for the last few months.
i agree, "we the people" don't really exercise our role in government. sitting back and not saying much when something is being done that we don't like is letting it happen. we can only blame ourselves for that. we wonder why these big business are controlling our congressmen?? because we buy their products as if there is no alternative. we make them rich. we make them powerful. do you have the balls to boycott?? prove it. do you have to balls to get mad as hell and not take it anymore?? then I want to see your ass on the mall in a march on washington...
For anyone who wants a glimpse into the possible tactics of the Obama administration, I recommend reading a brief NYT column that appeared yesterday, called "Know Thine Enemy," describing the community organizing policies of Chicago activist Saul Alinsky. The author points out that these tactics are also being used by the radical right against Obama. I wish he had discussed in more detail what happens when two opposing sides are using the same tactics against each other:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/23/weekinreview/23alinsky.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=community%20organizing&st=cse
"...I wish he had discussed in more detail what happens when two opposing sides are using the same tactics against each other:..."
Google the Phrase "Firing on Ft Sumter".
Time “Get them by the ba**s and their minds will follow” was replaced?
With “Get them by the minds and their ba**s will follow”, maybe.
Well - if the corpses of past social movements are going to come back to life as progressive zombies -they better stop thinking through the prism of the punditocracy. It doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure this out.
The belief in what O'man said during the election is one of the greatest dangers to a country that allows the ignorant mice to elect their rulers. His election was also a statement on the manipulation of the voter...he could change government....from a party that is interested in greater big government and dependence on the government he was going make changes that would be seen and felt across this nation.
There are and were better ways to stop the economy from failing, no company is too large to fail, no government is great to fall, no two political parties could be worse, at this time of American history then the Democrats and Republicans...but the main reason for the O'man is the people of America, they did not watch what the parties were doing, instead each election was turned into a football game with a winner, the political parties and a great looser...the fans, voters of America.
O'man will fail, like the banks that are to big, they will fail and in four years you will see the people unwilling to listen to the truth...that Democrats and Republicans have not had a new idea since 1932 and the American people are still as stupid and able to be swindled at every election....
middleamerican2010
Well said... the two party political system is broken and in the hands of the lobbyists and campaign contributors with one of the biggest manipulators, Goldman Sachs, having bought Obama and many others... see this link .. http://bit.ly/DNc6w
Goldman Sachs contribution to Obama in 2008 was $997,095 ... that's some contribution.
Your derogatory use of " the O'man" is offensive and not helping anything. "The American people are stu*pid and able to be swindled at every election" is useless as well. I'd have someone over for dinner whom you might consider "stu*pid" way before having an arro*gant name caller like yourself. Try looking towards tomorrow instead of 2010. The novelty of winning and losing, or even waiting for elections is old.
Saying this You really sound stupid, sorry.
maybe should read more?
In general?
Than You would see the truth in this article about TOMORROW.
You say a democracy is, "a country that allows the ignorant mice to elect their rulers."
Churchill said, "Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time."
Churchill 10, you 0. Final score.
All this talk about "Big-Government",i just dont get it. If America really has a democratic government,which I am assuming you claim it does then by the very definition of Government by the people for the people,How do you expect a small government to manage over 300 million people? If its government by the people,by trying to make it small,who is being cut off? If all the people as it should be are involved,then wouldnt it be a big-government?
People always leave out what is most important about government, An EFFECTIVE Government. Thats what we should be talking about and not whether it is big or small.
Bush and Nixon have had some of the smallest government ever,by their "Exclusive " government policy in which anyone who doesnt reason like them isnt considered ,but they also have invaded the privacy of Americans more than any other government and also headed the most ineffective governments ever.
Like Obama said at his inauguration, the question isnt how big or small a government is,but whether government works.
The issue around "Big-Government" is about control. Do we want power centralized in a federal government or do we want as much control as possible distributed to more local governments that are more immediately accountable to "the people".
It is also about control of the economy. In 1900, federal spending was less than 10% of GDP. In the 1950s, it was around 30%. In 2009, it will be 45%. This means that the money, the resources, and the power of our country are increasingly controlled by the federal government. The Health Care industry is between 10 and 20% of our economy. Handing that over means that close to 60% of the economy will be in federal control. That's big.
Obama's results with the economy so far look very good. If he matches that performance, ultimately, with a healthcare plan that appeals to Dems and Independents, he'll be fine there, too. Let's hope he's not done in by Afghantistan, and the American public's usual isolationism, even after having the biggest landmark in NYC blown off the face of the earth. If Obama is given the LBJ treatment by the liberals for Afghanistan, we're all in very deep trouble, since Afghanistan has nothing to do with Vietnam, and is truly a desperately necessary war for our economic survival, since no adult can doubt that Al Qaeda's real goal is to vaporize New York with a nuke, just for starters. If Afghanistan, and then Pakistan, fall to the Taliban, any anxiety about Iran's potential nukes will pale in comparison to the real threat posed by Pakistan's dozens of nukes in the hands of Bin Laden, and nothing whatsoever that America or Israel can do about it. We MUST "win" in Afghanistan, or toss New York and the economies of America and the world to the wind.
I'd just like to point out that LBJ *earned* the treatment he received on Vietnam. He orchestrated the Gulf of Tonkin incident deliberately so that he could escalate the Vietnam war, and then he lied to both Congress and to the rest of America about it. Even so, as a former 1960s counterculture member, I fully support the Afghanistan War, and Bush was utterly wrong to abandon Afghanistan for Iraq. That is clearly an epicenter for terrorism and the most dangerous forms of Islamic extremism. Obama clearly wants us to get out of Afghanistan asap (he even wrote the retreat into his budget), but on the other hand, he fully recognizes that there are some major clean-up issues to deal with there, even more so than in Iraq. Finally the adults are in charge.
Imagine being on a baseball team where the guy in center field is planning to drop the ball if it is hit to him? That is the Democratic Party today. People are pissed off about the previous Bush/Cheney Republican, intolerant, religious right fanatic administration of corruption, greed and self serving buffet style rip-offs of politics. Now we have the spineless/ jello back Democrats who seem to see defeat in the jaws of Victory. I am a Capitalist with a conscience, a Libertarian, an Independent voter, a gun owner, an Atheist and a cat owner ( had to throw that in for the cat haters) who voted for our current President Barrack Obama. I firmly believe that he is a Good person and works for the people of the USA primarily, and for the others secondarily. Bush and Cheney thought that the Government was theirs to make money with. Yes, we are pissed off and are not going to take it any more. No more Birthers B.S., no more tea baggers, no more intolerant republican jackasses with false religion and false Patriotism.
"Imagine being on a baseball team where the guy in center field is planning to drop the ball if it is hit to him? That is the Democratic Party today."
I see Obama as a star pitcher losing the game, but what's needed is the same whether he's on the mound or in the outfield: If he doesn't shape up, he should be replaced before the next inning starts.
NO PUBLIC OPTION? NO SECOND TERM!
I DO believe in Our President.
And we really can see some results ( it is amazing - how fast).
And American Citizen i want to ask all media to promote American Pride and Honor and do NOT allow cheap harsh rude attacks on Our President . American President is a symbol of American Power. As far The President is in Power it is just American Way to respect The President - then our Country would be respected.
Otherwise what kind of citizens we are????
Yes, let's treat him with the same respect that President Bush was allowed...
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