How to Push Obama

[BrklynLiberal]

SUPERB ARTICLE

<snip>

After he secured the delegates required to claim the Democratic nomination, Obama found himself at a town hall meeting in suburban Atlanta, where he was grilled about whether-having run as a primary-season progressive-he was now shifting to the center.

The Senator was clearly offended by the suggestion. "Let me talk about the broader issue, this whole notion that I am shifting to the center or that I'm flip-flopping or this or that or the other," he began. "You know, the people who say this apparently haven't been listening to me."

Obama continued: "I am somebody who is no doubt progressive. I believe in a tax code that we need to make more fair. I believe in universal health care. I believe in making college affordable. I believe in paying our teachers more money. I believe in early childhood education. I believe in a whole lot of things that make me progressive."

<snip>

The way to influence Obama and his Administration is to speak not so much to him as to America. Get out ahead of the new President, and of his spin-drive communications team. Highlight the right appointees and the right responses to deal with the challenges that matter most. Don't just critique, but rather propose. Advance big ideas and organize on their behalf; identify allies in federal agencies, especially in Congress, and work with them to dial up the pressure for progress. Don't expect Obama or his aides to do the left thing. Indeed, take a lesson from rightwing pressure groups in their dealings with Republican administrations and recognize that it is always better to build the bandwagon than to jump on board one that is crafted with the tools of compromise.

Smart groups and individuals are already at it. The United Steelworkers union has been way ahead of the curve in critiquing the financial services bailout and in working with Congressional allies such as Ohioans Marcy Kaptur and Dennis Kucinich to challenge the basic assumptions of a top-down bailout. The Laborers union has been promoting a fully developed infrastructure-investment plan that represents a smart stimulus. The American Civil Liberties Union is already prodding Obama to keep a series of promises he made during the campaign with regard to civil liberties and abuses of executive power, and providing concrete examples of how he can do so. The ACLU and other groups will be working with members of the Senate Judiciary Committee such as Feingold to assure that Obama's Justice Department nominees are asked the right questions.

Perhaps most impressive are the moves made by the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, Physicians for a National Health Program, and Progressive Democrats of America to ensure that the option of single-payer is not forgotten as Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi establish their domestic policy priorities. To that end, sixty activists from these and allied groups met one week after Election Day at the AFL-CIO headquarters in Washington with Michigan Congressman John Conyers, an early Obama backer and the chief House proponent of real reform, to forge a Single-Payer Healthcare Alliance and plot specific strategies for influencing the new Administration and Congress.

<snip>

Since then, Democrats have taken back the House, the Senate, and the White House. The man who set those prerequisites in 2003 will sit in the Oval Office in 2009. But change didn't just come to Washington. It came to Barack Obama. His statements, his strategies, and his appointments evidence a caution born of the political and structural pressures faced by Presidential contenders and Presidents-elect. Whether the previous, more progressive Obama still exists within the man who will take the oath of office on January 20 remains to be seen. But the only way to determine if Obama really is the progressive he claimed as recently as last summer to be is to push not just Obama but the public.

Franklin Roosevelt's example is useful here. After his election in 1932, FDR met with Sidney Hillman and other labor leaders, many of them active Socialists with whom he had worked over the past decade or more. Hillman and his allies arrived with plans they wanted the new President to implement. Roosevelt told them: "I agree with you, I want to do it, now make me do it."

<snip>

It is equally reasonable for progressives to assume that Barack Obama wants to do the right thing. But it is necessary for progressives to understand that, as with Roosevelt, they will have to make Obama do it.

more at...
http://www.progressive.org/mag/nichols0109.html

[nightrain]

1. I used to think that it was possible to "move" Obama, as in "make me do it". Well, if

this health care issue has said anything at all to me, it's that he avoids conflict like the plague, and is turning more toward corporatizing public programs and services. We'll need to watch this trend like a hawk.

[OHdem10]

2. Absolutely, Progressives have to organize, and get out and make

noise.

Ally with real Progressives and Liberals on the Hill. Gert your
ideas out in the countryside.

[RainDog]

3. only donate to progressive (real, actual progressive) candidates, not the nat'l party

the democrats will hear that loud and clear.

[ProgressOnTheMove]

4. Yes, definitely the way to go lead the parade than join one. What do we want progress when do we ..

want it now.

[me b zola]

5. Recommended

You know, I have been disappointed with some of Obama's decisions on both policy and appointments. But I knew when I supported Obama during the election that there would be disappointments because I knew that a) I never agree with someone 100% of the time, and b) the very nature of the job of president is so complex (politically & practically) that there would be disappointments regardless of how progressive and outspoken our candidate was ie Kucinich or Sanders.

I strongly believe that President Obama is doing the best job that he can do for US given all of the circumstances he is facing. It's not just the mountains of elephant dung left to him by bush* and the republicans, but it is also the foul political climate that he must operate within. I believe that it is counter productive to the outcomes that most progressives desire to attack Obama in such a manner that weakens him. I feel strongly that we do need to push him, but ffs if we destroy him we certainly won't get better results. And I most assuredly agree with this statement from the article, "It is equally reasonable for progressives to assume that Barack Obama wants to do the right thing."


Just my 2cents. Thanks for the article.

[BrklynLiberal]

6. Thanks....that is a great post.