Obama Winter and How to Combat It

[unhappycamper]

Obama Winter and How to Combat It
Andrew Levine
Author of "Political Keywords" and "The American Ideology"
Posted: December 17, 2010 04:45 PM

The rapidity with which the post-election Obama presidency has gone from awful to god-awful has been breathtaking. So is the ease with which he has brought briefly rebellious congressional Democrats along. So is mounting evidence of the totalitarian streak in the Obama administration: witness the machinations against Julian Assange and WikiLeaks, the despicable treatment of Bradley Manning (along with countless others held in solitary confinement); the threats to freedom of the press implicit in the Justice Department's efforts to find crimes with which to retaliate against them and against others guilty only of embarrassing American diplomacy and exposing the haplessness of our military leadership. And then there is the increasing use of entrapment in "terror" cases and a host of other infringements of the rule of law, some of them surpassing Bush-Cheney levels of egregiousness.

The Obama winter gets worse with each passing day. Today it's the "light at the end of the tunnel" in Afghanistan report; as transparently meretricious as its Vietnam era counterparts. And, of course, there's last night's Congressional capitulation ("compromise") to the Obama-Republican Redistribute Wealth Upwards Act, aka the Bush era tax cuts. It's likely to get worse still next year, now that the spirit of capitulation has taken root. In a few months time, after yet more Clinton-style "triangulation," we may well find ourselves looking back longingly on the days when Obama was just a feckless "bipartisan" wannabe. After all, there are worse things to lose than an unprecedented opportunity for "change" -- social security and Medicare, for example.

To be sure, Democrats are still the lesser evil and Obama is still less awful than any likely Republican rival; there are even lower circles of hell. In the Republican netherworld, post-election developments have been equally breathtaking. The GOP has long been the home for the greediest and most myopic capitalists' useful idiots. Now the useful idiots' useful idiots, the Tea Partiers, are running the show, at least in the Senate where the corrupt old guard appears to have unconditionally surrendered. How odd that in the Home of the Brave, political skills vary inversely with moral and intellectual capacities! In the race to the bottom that Obama's weakness and cluelessness about governance has unleashed, the more idiotic one is, the more power one has.

Real winters are followed inevitably by spring. But Obama winter will not pass just with the passage of time. Remember when Obamamaniacs pushed the line that Obama is really "with us," and that all he needs to launch a new New Deal is a bit of pressure from his base. Does anybody still believe that? Even if it wasn't clear enough back when he assembled his "team of rivals" and welcomed Wall Street into his administration, it has been absolutely clear at least since he capitulated to "counterinsurgent" generals and their civilian enablers, and to health care profiteers, that, whatever he may think and feel "inside," Obama is not one of the "good guys." After the events of the past several weeks, only the most willfully blind could fail to agree.

Unfortunately, the Democratic Party is where the willfully blind congregate. Liberal Democrats might do some good by launching a primary challenge, but then they are sure to cave, Pelosi style, and come together, well before the 2012 convention, in a big kumbaya moment. For that reason, a Nader-style independent candidacy would be a better idea. But there is no one to lead it -- thanks to a decade of liberal calumny Nader no longer can -- and even if the unthinkable happened, it's now clear that the entire party duopoly system, not just its Republican wing, would conspire to make governance impossible. Yes, an independent candidacy -- or even a primary challenge -- might push Obama's rhetoric back into a more 'populist' frame. But can anybody still trust him to do more than talk the talk?

[PuraVidaDreamin]

1. Feels more like the Obama Ice Age

my silk long underwear and woolies are going to be quite
worn and tattered before its over.

[unhappycamper]

2. Better get out a rubber raft.

You guys will be underwater in while, as will parts of Boston.

[whattheidonot]

5. do not participate, revolt.

Obama talked of hostages but did nothing to storm the building. It was his moment but he caved. he is tied up in the whole devaluation of labor. The American public took this deal like spoiled kids. In a few years they will wonder what happened when they are still in debt, working for less with no real wages. The fact that working class people voted for Republicans shows the blindness. Obama is done as a democratic period. He is just in too deep. The last time we had a situation like this the Great depression hit. America has now started on the way to third world status. wake up. I have been unemployed for 3 years. the whole process begins to look like a ruse when one is out there that long. This tax cut is another stop gap deal. Obama has clearly missed his moment. When he campaigns on how bad things are well who is to blame.

[SpiralHawk]

3. "the useful idiots' useful idiots" - that has the smack of truth to it

[Nite Owl]

4. "But can anybody still trust him to do more than talk the talk? "

That is the crux of the matter.
Even if he makes promises during the election season to try to 'win back the base' who is going to trust him anymore? Trust is something that is easy to lose and near impossible to regain. He may win because the GOP is that bad and scary but but without his base it will be difficult, the new voters are now cynical to elected officials and likely to stay home, the base (the working base) will vote but that's it and the mushy middle isn't going to do anything as they decide on the way over to the polls.