( … to the letter I posted yesterday)
You remember that Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell pronouncement, at the very start of the Obama presidency, to the effect that the top priority of Republicans must be to get rid of him?
It seemed like an outrageous statement at the time, only hours into the new President's tenure, but his party has remained faithful to the literal word of that injunction. Since then, they have proved adamantly obstructive to every initiative and every nomination that the President has made. They have embraced every procedural trick in the Congressional rule book to thwart his legislative agenda. They have voted virtually unanimously, as a bloc, against his every proposal, no matter how inconsequential. They have perverted the political process. They have not hesitated to stoop to personal insult, loudly and in public. They have not been ashamed to accept the chilling embrace of hatred or the fanaticism of extremists when it served their cause in diminishing his power and rendering him vulnerable to attack. They have maligned his every idea with distortions and lies. They have been openly rude, un-generous to a fault, and intolerant. They have gone out of their way to ridicule him personally—and have not even spared his wife. They have been relentless in their attacks on his character as well as on the policies and goals for which he was elected.
In their eagerness to get rid of him, they have maliciously misrepresented him to voters. They won the mid-term elections with promises they have not attempted to fulfill, relying instead on their ability to foment still greater dissatisfaction and distrust among their followers. They have on multiple occasions arrogantly spurned the genuinely friendly hand held out to them, preferring instead to humble with their disdain the man who generously held it out.
In all this, Obama has managed to retain his dignity and poise. He has been consistently statesman-like in both speech and action. He has declined all opportunities to descend to the level of those attacking him, and has been unfailingly respectful of even the hostile and opinionated views of others. He has invited the opinion of opponents and has been willing—some would say too willing—to find grounds for compromise. He has for the most part brushed aside insult with quiet humor and politeness. Accused of weakness, he has shown strength, decisiveness, and remarkable courage. Accused of remaining silent on important issues, he has wisely demonstrated the value of biding his time and speaking forcefully at the right moment. He has shown infinite patience with detractors to left and right. He frankly admits to his mistakes and acknowledges—indeed, shares—the disappointments and frustration of many of those who supported him.
Given his ability to negotiate obstacles placed in his way, I am astounded that he has managed to achieve as much as he has done thus far. I support his re-election not out of resignation that the other side only offers worse, but because I believe that he still has the vision that most nearly reflects my own, along with the determination to do everything in his power to make it happen. I am encouraged by yesterday’s news about the extraordinarily successful initial fund-raising for his campaign—a success that will undoubtedly be used to denigrate him further, and sadly by both political opponents and many of my friends on the left. I am hearted to know, in view of dire predictions that he has alienated his political base, that his campaign has managed to attract hundreds of thousands of new supporters, and that the modesty of the majority of donations suggests a groundswell of grass roots support that will confound accepted political wisdom.
I believe, in short, that there is a new "silent majority" of Americans who share my view of Obama and who will come out to vote for him. Republicans may believe that they can fool enough of the people enough of the time to achieve McConnell's goal. I myself believe that they are only just now beginning to reap the bitter harvest that is ripening from the rotten seeds they have sown.
2 comments:
Peter, you're such a thoughtful guy, which makes it curious why you don't seem to appreciate why there's so much disappointment around Obama. It's as if his politeness, his dignity, his equanimity should be valued over all other things.
Yes, Obama managed to get some things done, among them, health care reform, but he failed to make the arguments for sweeping change that was supported by the majority of Americans, and for which he was elected. His compromises are a deep knee bending to the right. He's never led with a progressive idea and battled his way to compromise; he's always caved from the beginning. There's no real moral leadership in it.
And what about Wall St.? He's flat out surrendered to them. He's surrounded himself with the very men who helped to create the economic crisis, and has made no effort to make them, or Wall St. accountable. Why? Because he can't alienate Wall St., and expect them to fill the coffers for his next campaign.
Obama may like to think he's a man of the people, and his heart is most certainly in a better place than those who oppose him, but he's a politician like any other picking his way through his best options for re-election, the country be damned. He's as much afraid, and captive of the system as any of them, and he makes no attempt to change it, despite his election promises.
We progressives were hoping for a man who understood the times he was in and what was required of him. These times demand a man of almost heroic dimensions, one who is willing to take the heat, big time, articulate the big ideas and hold the Right and Left, both, responsible for their venality, destructiveness, and cowardice. Obama is not that man. He plays it safe, all the time. It may not be fair to blame him for being an ordinary man who happens to have extraordinary rhetorical skills, but he made his own bed. He promised change; he got our hopes up, and he has delivered little.
Yes, we are at fault for imagining that he'd do otherwise. Our anger at Obama is anger out ourselves for failing to see him clearly from the beginning. It has to be a nightmare for someone like him, who sees himself as such a good guy and is a good guy, as problematic for so many of his supporters. What he doesn't appear to see is that it's not a good guy, or a nice guy, who we need. We need a leader. We need someone who knows how to fight. This is not Obama's natural gift, and we didn't know this about him. This is why we are so disappointed. So much is at stake, and talented as he is, he's not the best, even the right man for the job.
As one of those progressives who is deeply disappointed by Obama, however, there's no question that I will vote for him in the next election. What other choice is there?
We need clear, unsentimental thinkers in this war, Peter, and it is a war whose outcome will define who we are for the next generation. What we do affects the world. We don't need apologists to gloss over Obama's shortcomings. He needs to get the message that his good guy persona is standing in the way of desperately needed change.
Obama, like Clinton, lacks a clear moral center and is incapable of greatness. He is first and foremost a back-room Chicago pol. He's all speech and no do.
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