NYT: Fill in the Blanks

[babylonsister]

This whole article is worth a read if you have time.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/19/opinion/filling-in-the-blanks.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1&ref=opinion

Fill in the Blanks
By BILL KELLER
Published: September 18, 2011



snip//

Jonathan Chait pointed out in The Times Magazine recently that the liberal repudiation of Obama “wishes away any constraints upon his power.” (See Republican intransigence, above.) It also undervalues some real accomplishments, achieved despite a brutally divided government. Lost in the shouting is the fact that Obama pulled the country back from the brink of depression; signed a health care reform law that expands coverage, preserves choice and creates a mechanism for controlling costs; engineered a fairly stringent financial regulatory reform; and authorized the risky mission that got Osama bin Laden.

To be disillusioned you must first have illusions. Some of those who projected their own agendas onto the slogans and symbols of the Obama campaign were victims of wishful thinking — fed by Obama’s oratory of change. Anyone who paid attention while candidate Obama was helping President Bush pass the 2008 bank bailout should have understood that beneath the rhetorical flourishes Obama has always been at heart a cautious, cool, art-of-the-possible pragmatist. When he sees that he lacks the power to get what he wants, he settles for what he can get.

snip//

Against Obama we have a cast of Republicans who talk about the federal government with a contempt that must have Madison and Hamilton spinning in their coffins. The G.O.P. campaign sounds like a contest for the Barry Goldwater Chair in States’ Rights: neuter the Fed; abolish the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Education and a few other departments; turn Medicare and Social Security into individual 401(k) programs; dismantle national health care and revoke consumer protections. Rick Perry, who likes to rouse Texans by claiming the right to secede from the union, sometimes sounds as if he has expanded his view to encompass the secession of all 50 states. Even Mitt Romney — at heart a Republican technocrat (and the only candidate I’ve ever seen give a campaign speech with PowerPoint) — talks as if the main role of the president is to grant waivers from any kind of mandate upon the states. Such is the power of our new, centrifugal populism.

Do they really believe this, or are they just playing to the Ron Paul libertarian niche? Do you really want to find out?

So let’s get real. Yes, Obama could do better. But we could do a lot worse.

[flpoljunkie]

1. Read and recommend it.

[Bluenorthwest]

2. So again, the Pragmatist song and dance....

Trouble is, the President says he is a faith based Christian, a Bible following Christian. It is not possible to be a Pragmatist and a Christian. It is like being an atheist and a Catholic, mutually exclusive philosophies. It gets old hearing one day all about 'God in the mix, sanctity of marriage is an absolute' then the following day 'hey, I'm a Pragmatist, so whatever works is good, there are no absolutes'. Hypocrisy Show, Act One: In Which the Center Attempts to Have It's Cake And Eat It Too.
The faith based pragmatist! The end result defines the value of an action, unless of course it is an action involving gay people, and then the moral absolutes from Godville are carried over into Pragmaticville and some weird nonsensical hybrid is attempted. 'I'm a Christian, who also believes that the ends justify any means'. I'm fat, and also skinny.
Aside from all of that contradictory bullshit, sure, we could do worse, could do better, what we have is mediocrity posing as excellence, which after all is an American political tradition.

[JoePhilly]

4. So you've given away all your belongings?

Well, clearly not the computer and the internet connection.

[Phx_Dem]

3. K&R!

Many people should pay attention to this part because it is speaking to and about them.

"To be disillusioned you must first have illusions. Some of those who projected their own agendas onto the slogans and symbols of the Obama campaign were victims of wishful thinking — fed by Obama’s oratory of change. Anyone who paid attention while candidate Obama was helping President Bush pass the 2008 bank bailout should have understood that beneath the rhetorical flourishes Obama has always been at heart a cautious, cool, art-of-the-possible pragmatist. When he sees that he lacks the power to get what he wants, he settles for what he can get."