A presdient's power to reform
inspired by http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023390825
OK, I know Obama has shown, at the very least, a lot less willingness to fight than the candidate I elected. I am not posting this thread to say Obama could not have done a lot more, more aggressively, be it LGBT rights or attacking Wall Street, so put away the rotten tomatoes marked "obama-bot."
However, let's suppose he was a pitbull, coming out guns blazing for everything we want on the left, from Wall Street prosecutions to an executive order for LGBT marriage, to one that legalized Marijuana. Suppose he went on to sell it, reviving the fireside chat.
The fact is, the Congress, both Dinos and tea Party, would have said "NO" to everything. If you think popular pressure would have worked, well, it does not, but let's say it did. Heck, let's wave magic wands, lets say that every member of congress was replaced overnight, POOF!
The problem is twofold, there is a structure that writes the ending long before any congressperson is elected. The bills are written by Alec,and the Pacs determine who has TV time, which is more effective than putting armed guards that refuse to allow anyone but one chosen. The Tea Party types know that their voters will vote for them because their voters want an outlet for their hate,it's the Civil War, just fought with lawyers. The bottom line is, If Congress does not want to give you something, they won't, and today, the arm twisting an LBJ might do has a lot of competition from Pacs and other forces that do not even have to name themselves. For all we know, the Iranians could fund Pacs to ensure that the Mideast stays hot, and the Chinese could fund pacs to ensure our awful manufacturing policy stays in place.
Now, am I excusing Obama, NO NO NO. Even if he understood that congress would vote down EVERY SINGLE THING, he was obligated to resist. However, would we have thanked him for it? Or would we have said "he's a failure!" The reason I say this is thus. In America, we never quite understood how much power the congress had. The biggest shock was when we saw people like Reid and Pelosi, people who assured us that we would get our ponies once they had that super majority, suddenly slink off. If we are going to make changes, we will have to realize that a presidential election means less, when you have congress that have outlived presidential administrations the way rocks outlive cities. I say this as 2014 comes down the pike. 2014 will determine 2016, regardless of who wins, as the forces that control congress will gladly either villify or deify a Hillary or Christie, whatever suits their needs.