ClassWarrior
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Mon Dec-13-10 05:51 PM
Original message |
Obama's failure? He doesn't attempt to change the narrative. |
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He simply accepts the premises of the RW power elite, and begins dealing from there. And then expects us - whose value system is based on a whole different sent of narratives - to be happy.
Take the health care battle, for instance. Going in, he said, single-payer Medicare-for-all was off the table. Why? Because the RW overlords would never accept it. In other words, whole-hearted acceptance of the RW narrative, with no recognition that the public acceptance could be used to pressure the the Republicon hacks.
Thus, Obama made no attempt to change the narrative, to educate the public on the value of Medicare-for-all (or even his own public option), to use his bully pulpit to shape the debate. He simply acquiesced to the RW narrative.
The same's true with the billionaire bailout. Rather than even make an attempt to educate the voting public on the damage that this RW greed will do, he simply bought into the RW narrative and made a deal based on those flawed premises.
Yes, Congress makes the laws, but a good President sets the tone of the debate.
NGU.
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truedelphi
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Mon Dec-13-10 05:54 PM
Response to Original message |
1. Is that some sort of failure on his part? |
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Or is that the assignment the Powers that Be dictate to him?
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QC
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Mon Dec-13-10 05:56 PM
Response to Original message |
2. All indications are that he does not challenge that narrative |
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because he generally believes in it.
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ClassWarrior
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Mon Dec-13-10 06:05 PM
Response to Reply #2 |
8. For the sake of argument, I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. It's easy to... |
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...adopt false RW frames without even knowing it. They've spent close to 50 year ingraining them in our brains. See Prof. George Lakoff's latest. This is should be a moral debate, not a material one: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/george-lakoff/untellable-truths_b_794832.htmlBut yes, you're right, appearances are damning. NGU.
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ClassWarrior
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Tue Dec-14-10 09:34 AM
Response to Reply #8 |
ClassWarrior
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Tue Dec-14-10 11:08 AM
Response to Reply #45 |
KoKo
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Mon Dec-13-10 08:07 PM
Response to Reply #2 |
33. He's what we have as a President and if we don't want Supreme Court to Go More Right ..we Have to |
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Keep him. Obama is all that we have between the Tea Party and Us. We elected him...he is working for us ..even if it is in "Mysterious Ways" that makes us want to get out on the streets and become anarchists. Obama is holding that passion off with his calm and collected way of governing.
We can't see now...how he's had to compromise to keep us safe and our enconomy secure. But, in two years America should be back in solvency and way ahead of Europe. We should be thankful for "very small favors."
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ClassWarrior
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Mon Dec-13-10 10:53 PM
Response to Reply #33 |
43. It's not up to "us." It's up to him. "We" are not the problem. The independents are. |
ProSense
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Mon Dec-13-10 05:57 PM
Response to Original message |
3. "Going in, he said, single-payer Medicare-for-all was off the table." |
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As I said before:
"Single-payer Medicare-for-all" was not Obama's plan so why would he change the narrative to that?
Obama's narrative isn't what anyone want it to be, it is what he wants it to be. He has no reason to change his narrative to what someone else wants it to be. His plan was the health care reform package that passed, albeit without the public option he desired. His plan was not to sacrifice the health care bill because the public option was not included.
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ClassWarrior
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Mon Dec-13-10 06:01 PM
Response to Reply #3 |
6. "Obama's narrative isn't what anyone want it to be, it is what he wants it to be..." |
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"...He has no reason to change his narrative to what someone else wants it to be."
Sort of like a dictator?
NGU.
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EFerrari
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Mon Dec-13-10 06:10 PM
Response to Reply #3 |
10. Which tosses out all that rhetoric about being responsive. That's right. n/t |
ProSense
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Mon Dec-13-10 06:14 PM
Response to Reply #10 |
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is not kneejerk. This health care bill was supported by everyone from Al Franken to Russ Feingold to John Kerry to Bernie Sanders, and many of it's provisions were supported by the majority of Americans. The majority did not want to see the bill scrapped. The majority did not expect the President to change his narrative to single-payer.
Responsive is not do what a few want regardless of his better judgment. That is not how it works.
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whathehell
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Mon Dec-13-10 06:21 PM
Response to Reply #11 |
13. The vast majority of Americans were in favor of a public option..Sorry. |
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The democrats you mentioned only voted for it because it was all he would offer or fight for.
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Recursion
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Mon Dec-13-10 06:33 PM
Response to Reply #13 |
16. And providers were basically unanimously against it |
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Including the ones who were for single payer. And, yes, hospitals' and doctors' opinions did carry a lot of weight in this debate.
A public option without a dedicated revenue source was a horrible idea, and we need to get over it.
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EFerrari
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Mon Dec-13-10 06:38 PM
Response to Reply #16 |
19. The "revenue source" was handed over to the insurance companies |
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and there is no denying that.
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Recursion
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Mon Dec-13-10 06:39 PM
Response to Reply #19 |
20. Name me one plan -- ANY plan... |
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... that had a public option with a dedicated, untouchable revenue source. The "dalit source", as I call it.
Without that, a public option condemns us all to Medicaid.
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EFerrari
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Mon Dec-13-10 06:41 PM
Response to Reply #20 |
22. And we can't all be condemned to Medicaid. That would be bad. |
Recursion
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Mon Dec-13-10 06:42 PM
Response to Reply #22 |
23. No, we really cant. The providers would all go bankrupt. |
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Have you read the OP about people being denied transplants and other shenanigans on Medicaid? This really isn't the model we want our health care to follow.
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EFerrari
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Mon Dec-13-10 06:43 PM
Response to Reply #23 |
25. The model is fine. The oversight sucks. |
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You're throwing out the baby with the bathwater.
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Recursion
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Mon Dec-13-10 06:47 PM
Response to Reply #25 |
29. No, Medicaid's model is not "fine" at all. It's absolutely fundamentally broken |
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In several ways, the worst being that it's paid for out of general revenues. If they can cut it, they will cut it.
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EFerrari
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Mon Dec-13-10 06:49 PM
Response to Reply #29 |
30. And that is true of the predation on any of our social programs. |
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That doesn't make Medicaid special, that makes our government predatory.
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Recursion
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Mon Dec-13-10 06:52 PM
Response to Reply #30 |
31. Ding ding ding ding ding! Now, why do you pretend that's not true? |
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Medicaid is the reason that the people who are nervous about government involvement in healthcare are nervous.
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displacedvermoter
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Tue Dec-14-10 04:22 PM
Response to Reply #31 |
49. People are nervous about government involvement in |
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healthcare because of constant attack from people screaming "socialism" on TV talk shows across the land. People like me, who have been in the military, understand the concept of 'socialized" medicine very well, know it works when properly run and overseen, and are not nervous. But I guess if you call the medical system used by our armed forces socialist, lots of people would deny it, mainly people never so covered.
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whathehell
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Mon Dec-13-10 08:39 PM
Response to Reply #16 |
36. So why bother with public opinion at all?....Just let corporations decide..Oh wait... |
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That, especially with the citizens united ruling, it what's happening anyway.
May as well just forget voting at all.:puke:
You "get over it"...Some of us don't care for a One Party Corporatocracy.
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EFerrari
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Mon Dec-13-10 06:39 PM
Response to Reply #11 |
21. And of course you know that most Americans wanted the public option and more. |
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That's not "a few". You can't redefine the majority into a few "knee jerks" and retain any cred whatsoever.
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Recursion
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Mon Dec-13-10 06:43 PM
Response to Reply #21 |
24. The vast majority of Americans don't know what the hell a "public option" is |
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Let's be more realistic here.
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EFerrari
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Mon Dec-13-10 06:44 PM
Response to Reply #24 |
26. Do a search. The majority of Americans wanted this bill to go further |
mtnsnake
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Mon Dec-13-10 05:57 PM
Response to Original message |
Blue Owl
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Mon Dec-13-10 05:58 PM
Response to Original message |
5. Instead of extending the Bu$h tax plan |
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How about creating the Obama tax plan?
Does anyone really think that Obama can't come up with a better plan than Bu$h?
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Recursion
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Mon Dec-13-10 06:37 PM
Response to Reply #5 |
18. He articulated the Obama tax plan very well, and fought for it |
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1. Keep the tax cuts for individuals earning less than $200,000, and families earning less than $250,000
2. Extend the MWP tax credit
3. Expand the EITC
4. Drop the tax cuts for individuals earning more than $200,000, and families earning more than $250,000
5. Extend the college tuition tax credit.
That was his plan. He was very, very clear about it. You can't in honesty deny that.
That plan wasn't going to pass. So he negotiated one that kept #1 and #5, waffled on #3, lost #2 and #4, and added unemployment extensions.
Does anyone really think that Obama can't come up with a better plan than Bu$h?
OK, I really have trouble accepting your sincerity here. I know you actually haven't forgotten that Obama wanted the tax plan I outlined above, right?
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midnight
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Mon Dec-13-10 06:01 PM
Response to Original message |
7. The power elite all thrive off of Regan economics and that is the connection. |
EFerrari
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Mon Dec-13-10 06:09 PM
Response to Original message |
9. Maybe he doesn't because he doesn't want to. |
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He seems perfectly comfortable speaking in their terms.
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ClassWarrior
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Mon Dec-13-10 06:19 PM
Response to Reply #9 |
EFerrari
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Mon Dec-13-10 06:37 PM
Response to Reply #12 |
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Edited on Mon Dec-13-10 06:37 PM by EFerrari
I agree that speaking in the default terms (because that's what they become, between the opposition and their hold on our media) shouldn't be a basis to ding anyone. That's our national vernacular, isn't it?
But it isn't as if Obama is using their terms to get his point across, as far as I can tell. He usually agrees with their point or with some version of it. It's like he wants to be a less toxic Republican.
Maybe that's all a mainstream national Democrat can do right now. That's the rub for me, anyway, right there.
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ClassWarrior
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Mon Dec-13-10 08:40 PM
Response to Reply #17 |
37. I hear ya, my friend. But whatever Obama's intent, the good guys still need... |
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...to learn better messaging. So it's a message worth repeating.
NGU.
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EFerrari
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Mon Dec-13-10 09:31 PM
Response to Reply #37 |
whathehell
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Mon Dec-13-10 06:23 PM
Response to Reply #9 |
14. You are correct. I speak for many in saying he's been a huge disappointment so far. n/t |
villager
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Mon Dec-13-10 06:24 PM
Response to Original message |
15. that's very well put. For all his "articulation," he hasn't articulated a new vision, or future |
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or, in its baldest, most-reductionist, "All-American" terminology, enunciated a "new way of doing business."
Hence his being rhetorically checkmated by the far right at every turn...
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vi5
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Mon Dec-13-10 06:44 PM
Response to Original message |
27. Excellent summation.... |
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I've said the same thing all along. Every trope that has been dished out by the right about what is "true" and "correct" about the country has been accepted as gospel truth and as the starting point for everything Obama has done.
Private sector>public Social security is in trouble and needs to be rescued. Strength means the use of military power Free Market works best Tax cuts stimulate growth
and on and on and on.
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ClassWarrior
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Tue Dec-14-10 12:14 PM
Response to Reply #27 |
48. They've been working on that for close to 50 years. It's time we start. |
NorthCarolina
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Mon Dec-13-10 06:45 PM
Response to Original message |
28. He wouldn't start with the 'premises of the RW power elite' if he wasn't with them. nt |
ClassWarrior
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Mon Dec-13-10 07:02 PM
Response to Reply #28 |
32. Are you familiar with "framing," as articulated by George Lakoff? See... |
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...post #8.
And like I said, nonetheless, it looks awful damning.
NGU.
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BlueIris
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Mon Dec-13-10 08:10 PM
Response to Original message |
34. He lives with many failures. Not attempting to change the narrative is a cosmetic one. |
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The rest, like, say, clearly not making a plan to govern this nation before he was elected to, you know, lead it, are much more serious.
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ClassWarrior
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Mon Dec-13-10 09:05 PM
Response to Reply #34 |
40. Clearly making a plan, leading and developing the message frames to support it should all... |
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...be one and the same in this media-intensive day and age.
Don't you agree?
NGU.
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Mon Dec-13-10 08:10 PM
Response to Original message |
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Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.
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EmeraldCityGrl
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Mon Dec-13-10 08:46 PM
Response to Original message |
38. This article published in Harpers |
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back in June 2009, is more relevant today, almost a year and a half later. Barack Hoover Obama: The best and the brightest blow it again. http://harpers.org/archive/2009/07/0082562
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WiffenPoof
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Mon Dec-13-10 08:55 PM
Response to Original message |
39. Well...I agree with your assessment. |
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In addition...I've heard people say here before that Obama is not a dictator and can't act unilaterally. He may not be a dictator but he seems to act unilaterally when negotiating policy. I'm speaking of his inability or unwillingness to keep the Speaker or others in his party in the loop.
-PLA
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ClassWarrior
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Mon Dec-13-10 10:03 PM
Response to Reply #39 |
42. Check post #3 to see that attitude in action... |
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"Obama's narrative isn't what anyone want it to be, it is what he wants it to be. He has no reason to change his narrative to what someone else wants it to be."
Whahhhhhhh??? :wow:
NGU.
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DainBramaged
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Tue Dec-14-10 09:31 AM
Response to Original message |
44. What debate? There is no debate, the tax cuts are sealed in stone. |
ClassWarrior
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Tue Dec-14-10 10:08 AM
Response to Reply #44 |
46. There's always a debate. And the sooner we start shaping it... |
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...the sooner we'll end nonsense like the Billionaire Bailout.
NGU.
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