In defense of Obama, Congressional Dems and Blue Dogs...

[zaj]

Like everyone else, I'm ecstatic about the apparent change of fortunes for progressive ideas last night all across the country. I hope it's just the beginning of a leftward movement in the Overton Window.

However it gives me motivation to share my generally unspoken, but I think long standing assessment of the failings of progressive politics in the Obama era (and before).

Hopefully this isn't too rambling. As they say, I don't have time to write a shorter version. :)

I've long felt an instinctive defense of Obama since 2008 while simultaneously being disappointed that he hadn't been able to move the Overton Window left like I had hoped as Obama was elected and inaugurated. I'm the guy who blames Congress more than Obama, and in particular Republicans and right-leaning Dems, for not having a big enough stimulus, for not securing a public option (Lieberman), for not letting the Bush tax cuts expire, insufficently strong Wall Street reform, etc.

But with that said, I've always felt a defense of nearly all elected Dems, even the ones who were blocking more progressive (and in my opinion more correct) policies. Because those ConservaDems are trying to get elected and re-elected in red-leaning districts. And even progressives need these ConservaDems to get reelected.

I've long felt that elected Dems were never going to be able to really push the Oveton Window left with a significant reshaping of public opinion and the political narratives that are able to emerge as it moves. Certainly not the purple-Dems.

I've long believed that what we always needed is just what has this summer. Occupy Wall Street, a fiscally progressive grassroots citizen movement, took control of the narrative in a way that no elected official(s) could. They are helping create the political freedom that Dems need to move left. OWS, is playing a part in pushing the Window left.

Historically, it wasn't elected officials of the day, but communism that played the primary leftward force in creating the political space for Social Security, Medicare and the and the rest of the New Deal social safety net to happen. And more recently, it wasn't elected GOP officials, but their obedient and just sufficiently radial voices in conservative media like Limbaugh, Beck, Coulter, fueled by outside actors like the Koch Brothers... along with the collapse of communism as an enduring economic-and political system... that moved the Overton Window right.

Obama, has made mistakes that could have helped shape some of this along the way, but I think we were wrong to think that his election could be that force. I actually think it's all just not realistic to ever expect even a chorus of like minded elected officials to really drive sustainable change in public opinion and media narratives.

The problem(and I'm not pointing fingers here) is that the progressive, populist, middle class frustration didn't emerge on the left in 2008 or 2009. The delay in this movement in finally forming cohesively, and emerging out of the horrible excuse for journalism we have in our modern media... allowed the latent populist anger to be captured by the Koch Brothers and other GOP-operatives that hijacked Ron Paul's "Tea Party" movement and turned it into a GOP-rebranding effort.

But I think the key in my pseudo-analysis is that elected officials, even Obama, aren't positioned to be the actors who really move the Overton window. That has to come from outside, and on the left, that has finally taken shape with OWS, Warren Buffet, Elizabeth Warren, organized labor, and the rest.

Let's hope we can get this to stick.

[gateley]

1. K&R - nt

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

2. You are practical and very thoughtful with this analysis. More important, you understand the

complex nature of politics and governance.

I wish there were more here like you.

K&R!!! :kick::kick::kick:

[zaj]

4. Thanks, I agree...

... I think the people like David Plouffe and other campaign manager-types, on both sides, recognize that these are complex situations, with multiple moving parts. It's a game of chess, taking place over decades. We sometimes get caught up on the results at any given moment.

[RickFromMN]

3. I want to believe President Obama could shape public discourse as Ronald Reagan did.

President Obama, when he was running in 2008, made me believe change was possible.
It was "change we could believe in."

President Obama governed, in my opinion, by letting others set the tone of the debate.
He let others determine what is possible/feasible, and then he stamped it with his name.

I am not saying he didn't get a lot done...but I feel he could have gotten more.
His governing style, to me, was to do things behind the scenes, to seek compromise.
I believe, unfortunately, his governing style made him appear weak to the opposition.

I am a proponent of a single payer national health system, not just health insurance reform.
I can understand what I want may not have been possible in our political climate.
He should have traded what I want away for something in return, specifically a public option.
Instead, he gave both away. For that, to me, he became "The Great Capitulator".

I believe, with his promotion of his jobs program, he is finally setting the tone of the debate.
He is finally setting the agenda. He is finally naming names of those who obstruct his policies.
I will no longer call him "The Great Capitulator". I feel he's found his voice.
I feel he is learning to fight back when the opposition tries to bully him.
He is naming names. He is sending a signal opposing him has a price.

I can only say, it's about time.

We put Elizabeth Warren on a pedestal. If she can move the country left, so too can Obama.
I can only assume President Obama doesn't want to move the country to the left.
I can only assume President Obama likes the Overton window where it is.