There is historical precedent for being blinded by a liberal politician's halo. Left-liberals who chose Lyndon Baines Johnson over Barry Goldwater in 1964 (influenced, perhaps, by LBJ's "I won't bring nuclear apocalypse" campaign ) made similar excuses about LBJ's escalation of the Vietnam War. Folksinger Tom Paxton satirized these LBJ Democrats in a way that still resonates today:
'We didn't know,' said the puzzled voter watching the president on TV.'I guess we got to drop those bombs if we're gonna keep South Asia free.
The president's such a peaceful man I guess he's got some kind of plan.
They say we're torturing prisoners of war, but I don't believe that stuff no more.
Torturing prisoners is a communist game and you can bet they're doing the same.
I wish this war was over and through, but what do you expect me to do?'
Savvier progressives have not been as blind to Obama's failures of conscience (or complete lack thereof?) on certain issues. They have no illusions about Obama's complicity with force feeding illegally-detained prisoners of war on hunger strike at GTMO, indefinite detention of potentially anyone anywhere on suspicion of whatever, drone assassinations and " signature strikes ", Appendix M torture , extraordinary renditions , secret dirty wars in dozens of countries worldwide, hounding journalists , exiling and imprisoning whistleblowers, soft-pedaling NSA violations of the 4 th Amendment, etc.
Informed progressives understand that Obama often does non-progressive things. So Obama would wear, at best, a better-than-the-likeliest-Republican-alternative halo in their eyes. Even this tarnished halo, though, could make many progressives queasy about joining hands with Tea Party Republicans--including to do something as naturally progressive as trying to stop a corporate coup disguised as a trade agreement.
Cognitive dissonance
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