Invite Regular Folks to the White House

What to learn from how hard the slog has been to enact meaningful health care reform? In the beginning the White House assumed that all parties would can the theatrics and act like adults. It invited Big Pharma and the insurance cartel to the White House assuming that public shame would corral their most aggressive resistance. It wasn't a bad plan, especially for Democrats who historically have aligned themselves more with the populace than the power brokers. As soon as a Democrat mentions "health care reform" the opposition will certainly start shouting, "socialized medicine" (whatever that means), so including corporate interests from the beginning should have provided some cover.

It might have worked... if we all acted like adults and told the truth.

Politics, however, is still a theatrical, creative art. Feelings and mood count for more than logic. What is clear to everyone right now is that Obama's adult, solicitous attitude was rewarded with treachery. The health care cartel and the banks that we bailed out have both rewarded us by stabbing us in the back.

The GOP has brilliantly filled the void left by the Obama administration tacking to corporate interests by rebranding itself the maverick party of the people. It worked once for Newt Gingrich and his Contract With America and it's the GOP's best hope for it working again.
How to fight it?

The administration needs to remember that it leads the biggest, most surprising and successful popular movement in recent history. Don't tack right or left, what does that mean anymore anyway? The Independents that Democrats will need at the midterm don't see themselves as either Left or Right.

The battle is between the powerful few and the angry many.

And the next battle is over the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Agency.
To reenergize the angry many that elected him and to neuter GOP attempts to woo them, Obama needs to publicly bar representatives of the powerful few from the White House until they agree, concretely, to better serve the angry many. No more ceremonies in the Rose Garden. No more summits.

Then, with as much pomp as was accorded the major health care players and the bank CEOs the president should invite twenty regular Americans who were lied to by shady mortgage brokers and other financial service charlatans to the White House. He should listen to them, in his house, and then pledge in front of them that he will not allow the CFPA to be watered down.

The White House loves to appear evenhanded and in general that's a rare and positive attribute. If your opponents know that about you beforehand, however, and if they are unscrupulous, they can outmaneuver you. Sometimes you have to call a villain a villain. The White House realizes that Fox News is not the only entity out there wishing this administration to fail.

 

 

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Comments

[devadasi]

Excellent advice Trey. The White House should absolutely invite folks who have had issues with insurance companies.­....they should have been doing this a long time. ago. Your comment about filling the void was right on target; that's where the White House and dems tripped up. It's great to have Weiner and Grayson speak so forcefully and of course Keith Olberman and Rachel Maddow and Ed Shultz, but it's going to take regular folks telling their story to impact support for the public option.

[alibeamish]

I didn't like the teaparties, but now I admire them . At least they make their voices heard, while progressives don't.

[alibeamish]

He won't invite us because we have nothing to give him. We are nobodies.

[damali]

"angry many"? Please. you watch too much cable news. I believe the "angry many" really are just the people who are lucky enough to get cameras and mics thrust in front of their faces and have blogs where they can perform for an audience. I don't believe, nor do i see in REAL LIFE, this "angry many" that you speak of. People are really becoming way too gullible.

[WilliamL]

I have scene many angry citizens all over the country.

The anger is def. real.

[mikeant50]

I love how bloggers give advice from behind a keyboard, but don't have the guts to run for public office. If you want to affect change, run for public office. Get into the halls of Congress and affect change. I can be a genius on how to fix the world's problems while sitting at my computer, but solutions cost money.

[consumerist]

And provide another photo-op and speech giving op to Obama?

All the progressive bloggers are giving advice to Obama on what he should do. It is like cheer-leading a tired and aged ex-boxing champ. Its not going to work. Your champ is history. Think hard for an alternative. Obama is SOLD!

[bioluminescence]

When Obama the campaigner said, "Are we a nation that values only the wealthy? Or are we a nation that values the people who created that wealth?" We thought he was asking a rhetorical question. It turns out we were wrong.

[consumerist]

Sad, but true. Well said.

[Carl Caroli]

We used to vote for representatives. Those representatives used to represent their constituents. No more. Now they represent the special interests that give them lots of money to waste on campaign ads short of actual facts, information and voting records and long attacks, slander, mud and yes, lies and distortions. How this became acceptable is beyond me, but the fact remains campaign finance reform and prohibiting lobbyists from working with, for or anywhere near our representatives is really the only solution. All of our representatives, including the president, need to spend more time with the man on the street, not the man in the penthouse.

[nancytheragingliberal]

CC: I liked your comment: "All of our representatives, including the president, need to spend more time with the man on the street, not the man in the penthouse. " The Dems used to represent the weak, poor, downtrodden, sick, middle class.....­..Not anymore. The elite/penthouse $ has filled the coffers of our representatives and now the American people are merely fall colored leaves blowing in the wind. Campaign finance is the only way to end this madness, but I doubt that will happen. Plus, our corporate friendly S. Court will soon decide that the corporations are a living/breathing entity and should be given the same rights as all Americans. Thus, the corps. can give oodles of money to anyone or anything they deem to be in their interests. It will be a sad day in American when this happens.

[mountainweb]

To late to bar them, they have already bought the democratic party and walked away with the loan papers in their hands.....

[William50]

The O'man is failing simply because he believed his own words and feels if he can just keep talking the people will move on with his agenda. The problem is the real America can count. They understand a bottom line and know that if they are not working then things are not good. Every action he has taken has been staged for reception by a group that is blind and deaf. But Americans are not blinded by his words nor deaf to his actions. We can hear the red on the federal balance sheets and we the people now understand that the companies too large to fail were not owned by Americans and that money went not to save America but to buy off the other investors who have invested in the Democratic party.
I can do better. You deserve better. We need to think America needs to be strong then we can save the world. I can make it strong again
middleamerican2010
Casey

[BLBass]

Totally off the cuff here, how about a sit-in preventing access to the White House by any lobbyist/corporate representa­tive/...? Surely there are enough people fed up with the access culture that remains the Washington way -- despite Obama's rhetoric -- that we could completely surround the White House, and possibly the Capitol as well, to a depth of at least 1/4 mile. There's an obvious risk of arrest, but with proper planning and preparation (besides legal volunteers and bail fundraising, ensuring such a crowd stays nonviolent would be both vital and difficult!) this could be a viable means of expressing public outrage, and hopefully enough to push the even-handed approach away from the top of the President's agenda. Civil disobedience can be more than just (uncivil) shouting and sign-waving.

Barry's point is depressing but probably true. How about a beer sponsor, and make the whole thing a big party! (Probably wouldn't work so well with the nonviolent thing...oh well.)

[JHawkKC]

I think the representatives in Congress are worse than they lobbyists that are trying to stop what these morons in congress are doing. The answer will come in 2010. Individuals and corporations have a right to lobby congress. That is called freedom. Harry Reid scoffs at 54 billion per year that torte reform would save. That is 540 billion over ten years and the estimate cost of health care by the CBO is 840 billion over 10 years. Crazy math huh?

[BarryS]

They'll only do it if it is paid for by a corporate sponsor. Without a bribe or influence peddling, it wouldn't be right. Even the beer summit told us over and over again the brands so we knew what they were consuming. Maybe a bank or better still a health insurance company can pay for "a day at the white house." We might as well share the wealth around.