Sister Souljah Speaks: Obama and the Crazies of the Left and Right...

[KoKo]

There was a moment in the 2008 campaign when Barack Obama stood up and denounced the left wing crazies at Daily Kos and other liberal blogs. The press loved it. They called it his Sister Souljah moment, after the event in the Bill Clinton run for the presidency when he attacked an African-American activist. That was interpreted as a pivotal time in the Clinton campaign, when he showed the country he was running as a moderate and could face down the radicals in his own party.

It was always possible that Barack Obama and his campaign managers were deliberately looking for their Sister Souljah moment, and the rabid and vulgar leftist bloggers were a convenient foil to be used exactly for that purpose. Even if the rejection was not anticipated and deliberate, it seemed heartfelt. Obama has always operated as if there are right wing crazies and left wing crazies, and his job as president is to ignore both and govern from the center.

This has become a big problem for him in the health care debate. He made the mistake of assuming the right wing crazies are on the fringe of the Republican Party, only to discover that they sit in Congress as Republican senators and representatives. Even a supposed moderate like Charles Grassley has proven himself a believer in the craziest of lies regarding death panels designed to kill off grannie by denying her coverage (we call these panels insurance companies at the moment).

The second mistake he made is to believe that the left wing of the Democratic Party is crazy. Liberals told him that Republicans are not to be trusted in this matter, and that negotiations with them are not only useless but counterproductive. They will promise this and promise that, extract all sorts of major concessions, and then vote against reform anyway. Liberals told him that the root problem with health care in the U.S. is the profit motive of the insurance and pharmaceutical industries. The greed that infects the system has driven costs to absurd levels, capriciously denied coverage to customers who have paid in premiums for years, and left almost 40 million Americans uninsured. Since the private sector health care industry has failed this country as miserably as the banks, it is time to get rid of them and go for a single payer system funded and managed by the government. If this can't be achieved, at a minimum the insurance companies need some serious competition from a government run program.

Obama doesn't want to hear any of this because in his view the left wing of the Democratic Party is crazy. His biggest mistake is not recognizing that the liberals in this country are the only source left for sensible, workable policies on health care, the banking crisis, global climate change, an over-extended military, erosion of civil rights, and many other critical issues. Obama thinks liberals are radicals who want a Revolution with a capital R. What liberals really want is a Restoration - a restoration of the New Deal that has been eroded by Reaganism, a failed political and economic philosophy if ever there was one.

Now the president is reaping the fruits of his misconceptions and misplaced trust in the Republicans. His health care reform is in shambles and dangerously close to failure. The Republicans and the right wing media are close to achieving their real objective: cripple and then destroy the Obama presidency as quickly as they can.

The vast political center of this country that Obama caters to and sees as his base is certainly not rushing to his defense. The majority of them now believe that death panels are an integral part of his reform legislation and they are scared enough to want to forget the whole thing and stick with the devil they know. As for the liberal base of the Democratic Party, including the unions, their support for Obama has plummeted from 84% to 71% in a few short weeks, according to this morning's Washington Post poll. Liberals are disillusioned by the way Obama has been manipulated and used by the Republicans. They are disgusted by the constant hints from the White House that the public option is expendable - just a minor component of the overall solution, as Obama has said.

MORE at.........
http://agonist.org/numerian/20090821/sister_souljah_speaks

[FrenchieCat]

1. So sad....

"Obama doesn't want to hear any of this because in his view the left wing of the Democratic Party is crazy"?

I don't believe that he ever thought or said this.....
the author implies it because it helps him make his/her case. That's disingenious, and intellectually dishonest. Making shit up never makes it true.

Perhaps these same folks who are so unhappy should see what they can do about the 24/7 media
that makes shit up a lot like this author just did. :eyes:

[frylock]

2. yes, the media makes shit up..

we get it. you post that multilple times, DAILY. what are the dems doing to counter that, or are you saying that they're INCAPABLE of getting the message out?

[burning rain]

5. Obviously, since they hold only the presidency,....

59 Senate, and 256 House seats, Democrats can't be expected to accomplish much of anything.

[frylock]

6. that's what i'm saying..

there's only so far you can take this "media makes shit up" mantra. great, so why aren't the dems out, front and center, calling the media out for the propaganda machine we all know it to be? because the dems don't know fuckall about message management.

[OHdem10]

3. That mystical center which changes size continously dependent

which Issue is at hand is indeed mystery. There is NO GROUP
of wizse people perched someplace watching life go by and passing
judgement on what is even handed.

Rather that"Center" is composed essentially of 2 kinds of people.
They call themselves Independent because they have given up on
the Democrats and Republicans. Therefore the center is made up
of Independents who lean Democratic and Independents who lean
Republican. People actually move into and out of this group
all the time. IMO, it is important to understand exactly what
that center is.

Centrists it would appear are people who really have no commitment
to Party Ideology. Therefore, they just try not to veer too
much to the Right or to the Left. Because they do not have
an ideology they can be swayed in one direction and leave
the center without realizing it. This has happened to most
current Centrists. We have not seen the Center in this country
for years. We have been a Hard Right to Center Right Country
for 8 years .

Find the Center first.

[burning rain]

4. Sister Souljah seems to view Obama as deluded.

I doubt it. He's too smart and wised-up for that. More likely he's consciously chosen to serve corporate economic conservatism--his cabinet picks would certainly make sense in that light. If he can poach much of the GOP's corporate support, how can he fail to be re-elected? And lefties have nowhere else to go anyway, right? Healthcare reform will indeed prove a revelation.

[Doctor_J]

7. Spectacularly reasoned

heartily recommended.