On the Contrary

Was this a turning point?  Is he finally going to believe his own words, “This is the defining issue of our time. This is a make or break moment for the middle class, and all those who are fighting to get into the middle class.” not just for the middle class but for himself?  I don’t know.  He certainly has disappointed before.  What is different this time is that he laid out the argument for why the Republican answers for our economy are bankrupt.  It would seem that once you do that, it would be hard to go back and try to compromise and accommodate failed ideas (a theme of mine for the last four years).  But he has disappointed before.  The real question is can he now start hammering them because that is what is going to take to remind America of where we have been and how the Republicans got us there.

Wait, you say.  Americans want Washington to work together and stop this partisan bickering and get something done.  How can that happen if the President goes on the attack.  Well, my first reaction is you have misread Americans.  If they wanted everyone to work together they would not have done what they did in 2010 electing a room full of know-nothings.  Second they don’t give a rat’s rather Congress works together or not, they want the economy to get better.  My argument is and has been that for this Congress to work together, that would require total capitulation by Democrats to what the President has so eloquently pointed out are failed ideas:

“After all that’s happened, after the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, they want to return to the same practices that got us into this mess. In fact, they want to go back to the same policies that have stacked the deck against middle-class Americans for too many years. Their philosophy is simple: we are better off when everyone is left to fend for themselves and play by their own rules.  Well, I’m here to say they are wrong. I’m here to reaffirm my deep conviction that we are greater together than we are on our own….

‘The market will take care of everything,’ they tell us. If only we cut more regulations and cut more taxes – especially for the wealthy – our economy will grow stronger…It’s a simple theory – one that speaks to our rugged individualism and healthy skepticism of too much government. It fits well on a bumper sticker. Here’s the problem: It doesn’t work. It’s never worked. It didn’t work when it was tried in the decade before the Great Depression. It’s not what led to the incredible post-war boom of the 50s and 60s. And it didn’t work when we tried it during the last decade.”

So if you are an eternal optimist like I am, you think maybe this is it.  Maybe he finally gets it that compromise and accommodation with failed policies simply won’t work.  The Republicans have certainly made this quite clear to him since they won’t work with him anyway.  So will he finally lay out a real program for our future and admit that this is a battle for our soul?  He has definitely laid the ground work by laying out and reinforcing the vision of Teddy Roosevelt those 101 years ago when he said:

“But what hasn’t changed – what can never change – are the values that got us this far. We still have a stake in each other’s success. We still believe that this should be a place where you can make it if you try. And we still believe, in the words of the man (Teddy Roosevelt)who called for a New Nationalism all those years ago, ‘The fundamental rule in our national life – the rule which underlies all others – is that, on the whole, and in the long run, we shall go up or down together.’ “

This is the antithesis of Republican ideology.  This is the argument for the role of government in our lives.  Now he needs to take the battle into the lair of the beast.  He needs to take on Mitch McConnell and the Republicans by name and start hammering home this message.  If he does, there is still time to turn this ship of state around.  Oh, and one last thought.  It was the 99% who has focused this battle for us and I can just hope they get stronger and louder.  We can argue about the solutions, but until we were focused on the real problem we were running in the wrong direction.  Maybe leadership has finally taken hold.

Note:  The full text of the speech is on the Washington Post Web Site.

Apparently, although sadly I have not read it, there is a piece in the New York Times Magazine (probably for Sunday) that points out that Democrats simply are never happy with their President.  In other words we are just a bunch of whiners who are never satisfied as opposed to the Republicans who can get behind their President.  I heard this on Chris Mathews yesterday while I was working out on the elliptical and I burned an extra 100 calories doing a slow burn.  First as was pointed out, about 73% of Democrats support the President which seems to counter the claim, but the author of the article countered that supporting the President is way different than being happy with him.

But the better argument, assuming this article is kind of blaming Democrats for their own malaise, was put forward by Joan Walsh of Salon.com who made the point of asking why we should ever be satisfied with our leaders and should we not be pushing them to be better.  Maybe that is the strength of the Democratic Party in that as a leader you are never going to be allowed a free ride.  We are all not going to stand around and say, “Look what you have done, aren’t you special?”  We are going to say, “Look what you have done, couldn’t you have done better?”

But here is where I take real issue with this writer and I may have to take all this back after I actually read the piece.  In many ways President Obama has really let us down. There is no question in my mind that he had one of those once in a lifetime opportunities to move the country in a different direction and he chose to be the accommodater  Instead of playing outside the box, he played very much inside the box and a very defeated Republican Party regrouped.  I could list his cave on Guantanamo, or not investigating torture, or no public option in health care, or his failure to change the banking system, but most of all I fault him for not giving us an alternative narrative to Republican thinking.  When the Republicans attacked the debt instead of the real underlying problem jobs, he went right along with them.  It took the 99% to refocus the discussion.  He has let them set the agenda.

So in my mind, there is a lot to be disappointed about in this President.  Look around you.  Voters will vote on how they feel about the economy in the next election and he has barely moved the needle nor has he, until recently even been willing to communicate a plan forward, much less lead on it.  And I will tell you that what he has proposed in the way of jobs, which are really retread Republican ideas designed to show what obstructionists Republicans are, is a drop in the bucket for what really ails the economy and what is really needed.  He can thank his lucky stars that the Republicans have only light weight loony tunes  to run against him, and still it might be a close election.  What that is a reflection of is that the rank and file Democrats will vote for him, but his real support, the young, haven’t seen that much to be motivated about.  They were all excited back in 2008 and then it was accommodation and cave.  Sure you can say he did get a lot done, but do they feel it?  No.  They are out of work and their future looks more and more in jeopardy.

So should we lambast Democrats because they are never happy?  Should you be happy in this economy where we are heading for policies that force more cuts in our future?  Should we be happy that the President is rethinking making birth control free in the Health Care Act for special cases like every fruit cake religious organization who objects?  Should we be happy that he reneged on EPA rules because he bought into the job killing bullshit.  Actually I think he was just making political calculations to win the middle and he can’t ever seem to get the fact that as a leader he must do what’s right and then sell it to the middle.  So no we shouldn’t be happy, and I don’t think we ever should be.  Otherwise we are never going to “move the pile”.