I’m sorry, but this is Presidential Politics 101. Ninety percent of the power presidents have is the bully pulpit and their capacity for agenda management. This is basic. And, whatever Obama’s more expected disappointments ideologically and in terms of boldness of action, I’m pretty shocked that he and his team couldn’t handle this part of the gig. How do you get to the White House – one of the world’s most difficult mountains to climb – and then blow the most basic part of being president? This is the equivalent of casually proving Fermat’s last theorem while simultaneously being unable to handle long division.
What’s even worse is that the vacuum the president has left behind in his absence from the stage has not only damaged his agenda, but has been an absolutely astonishing unexpected gift to the radical right. There they were, about to drown in their own bile and stupidity, and what does Obama do? He gives them the opportunity to control the agenda of public discourse on the stimulus bill, his central legislative program. Not only do they leap into that void, they partially resuscitate themselves in the process. A moribund movement of horrid ideas and the meanest of political styles thus snatches life from the jaws of death, and they can thank the sharp new leader of the other party for the opportunity. Brilliant.
For a good sense of how this should have been done, think of the Bush team selling a war in Iraq that the public didn’t want. Or Reagan pitching tax cuts. They were relentless, they were clever, they were bold, they were aggressive, and they were successful. Unfortunately – disastrously – they were also selling nefarious policies of the most destructive sort.
Barack Obama? He’s looking about the same right now. Although, as the week came to a close, it appeared that the administration was starting maybe to get it. The president changed his rhetoric to something more aggressive, held a press conference, and traveled to a few hard-hit places in the country to sell his program. He still seems clueless that there needs to be a major speech (or several) to build a platform by laying out the threat, the agenda for dealing with that threat, why the alternatives proposed by the Regressive Society for the Criminally Insane won’t work, and what Americans need to do to aid in their own rescue. (A press conference is nowhere near the platform called for right now.)
Instead, Obama let incredibly creepy recidivist malefactors like Limbaugh, Boehner, McCain and now Steele roll him. And as the country stands on the edge of a precipice these predators themselves created, with many of us already now well over the edge, in the entirety of Congress there were all of three Republican votes for the stimulus plan.
What’s even more amazing is how Obama continues to allow the party of Satan to dictate the national agenda, despite its having been crushed twice in a row in the last two national referenda on its program. So now we have the stimulus plan as envisioned by ‘moderate’ Republicans like Arlen Specter, as complete a toady to power as imaginable, even on his best days.
And what is most amazing of all is that Obama, having now seen the GOP play its hand, didn’t go back to the starting point and write the bill he actually wanted, and that would actually work, rather than the one reflecting all the compromises to corporate ideology he crafted in order to get Republican votes that never came. I mean, even if all he cares about in the world is getting a second term, it would be smart as hell for him to use diminishing fiscal resources as carefully as possible in the hopes that this thing actually works. Why, therefore, once the GOP is not only opting out, but slapping away the open hand he offered it, why piss away $200 billion so that regressives can continue to worship the tax cut god, when you know from economic studies that that money would have far more stimulative impact if it was used in other ways? Why walk away from aid to states and localities and education just because Arlen Specter wants his party not to hate him quite so much?
The obvious answer is that you need those three votes in the Senate to kill a filibuster by the minority, which would block consideration of the bill. But, in fact, that solution is obvious only to cowardly Democrats (pardon the redundancy) who have spent thirty years capitulating to Wall Street bullies dressed up like conservative politicians.
Here’s another, and far better, scenario: Let the GOP filibuster. Make them actually physically do it, as senators used to have to. Then go to the country with this message: “You’re hurting, and if we don’t do something right now, it’s gonna get lots worse. A majority of the House of Representatives has passed a rescue bill. I will sign that bill immediately when it comes to my desk. A majority of the Senate wants to vote for the bill as well. But it is being held up by the Republican minority who are using Senate procedural rules to block it from even being voted on. These are the same people who got us into this mess. They have been defeated in two elections in a row, where you, the voters, said you wanted change. Now they stand in-between us and our rescue from a grave threat to our way of life. They say they are worried about the national debt, but they just doubled the size of it during the time they were in control. They say they are worried about deficits, but they want to pass more tax cuts for the wealthy that would add another three trillion dollars to the pile. America, we are about to plunge over an economic cliff. Don’t you, the American people, deserve the right to have your government, that you’ve chosen, be allowed to vote yes or no on a rescue plan? Haven’t these people done enough damage, already?”
I suspect that if Obama had the guts to do that, he would crush the GOP, or else completely marginalize it. He has the public on his side, especially now, as he begins his presidency. He has a crisis in which people want government action to save the country. Heck, he more or less even has Republican governors on his side. All that remains in opposition are the gargoyles of greed on Wall Street, and their marionettes in Congress.
I’m constantly amazed at how brazen the regressive right can be, but I say play chicken with them now and get it over with. I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t want to be one of the handful of people standing between an angry mob of 300 million people and a rescue for their middle class standard of living. If the GOP wants that gig, that’s fine by me. I’ll even be happy to clean up the mess afterwards.
And then there’s the side benefit of furthering the destruction of the American cancer known as conservatism. Either way the GOP goes on this, they would take a massive body blow, thus further diminishing the party and its failed ideology. This is crucial since they have the capacity to rise to power again, and because – remarkably, even with no control over any institutions of American government – they still continue to exert power through the one remaining tool they can use, based on the one or two Senate votes they have over the magic number necessary for a minority to block consideration of legislation.
I guess they just didn’t get the message. Okay, fine, if they need to be defeated not only twice, but thrice, so be it. If they need not only to be defeated, but crushed, terrific – make it so. It can only do the country good. Enough of this monstrosity, finally.
When will Democrats ever learn and end this incessant coddling?
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