Harold's Left:
Even in my sickest and wildest dreams I did not foresee myself saying something like this. Okay, i'm just gonna say it; Barack Obama needs to be a little more like W. Not the deficit ballooning, big-business loving, false wars George Bush. More like the "You may not always agree with me but at least you'll know where I stand" George Bush. The guy who, although he was by most standards an unsuccessful president, his backbone and grit were rarely in question. If you followed the 2008 campaign last year like I did you remember the JibJab video entitled "Time for Some Campaignin". In it the caricatures of Hillary, McCain and Obama are portrayed. Hillary was tenacious and forthright, kicking her husband out of the picture. McCain's character was tough and overly aggressive, highlighting his military record. Obama's character was jumping boyishly through a cartoon forest riding a unicorn with birds and deer following him proclaiming "and the change we must change to the change we hold dear, I really like change have I made myself clear". At the time I brushed it off, so enamored in Obama's rhetoric, I thought the characterization of Obama was more comical than truthful. Now I'm starting to second guess that.
Passing a major domestic reform bill like this one is extremely rare. Clinton could not do it. Bush could not pass his social security privatization bill, and Carter could not pass much of anything. Yet, we did not elect Obama to be an average president; we elected him to be exceptional. In the same breath as Lincoln, Kennedy, and FDR. We elected him with a mandate for change as convincing as any in history. Now that he is in office, he seems more interested in riding a unicorn of bipartisan agreement than actually force-feeding progressive policy. We didn't elect him for some half-decent fix to health care (which it could be debated that the public option is, we should have started with a single payer option).
A closer look at his record in the Illinois State Legislature and the U.S. Senate shows this same trend. Even his colleagues at Harvard Law School when Obama was president of the Harvard Law Review commented that he had an uncanny way of bringing the progressives and conservatives together in compromise. He believes that he can truly get everyone on one accord. I suspect he feels this is what has always made him special, and to some extent this is true. However, now that he is president Republicans have revealed that they are not interested in compromise. As I have said before, if anyone is like the Joker from The Dark Knight, it is the Republicans in the Senate. They are not there to compromise or discuss issues. They are not behaving like statesmen. They are on a one-track mission to derail a Democratic president by any means necessary. They don't care about health care reform or the millions of uninsured. This is about destroying Obama. Obama needs to take heed and realize you cannot reason with maniacs. If they are going to bring pistols to the ideological fight, we need to bring assault rifles, tanks and attack helicopters.
Many times progressives get lulled into thinking that our truthful, articulate, and sensible arguments will win out over conservative fear mongering. History shows otherwise. Ask Harvey Gantt, former Charlotte mayor and Senatorial candidate in the 90's who lost because of Jesse Helms' fear campaign. Tell that to John Kerry, who lost because he thought a campaign to paint his impressive war record as "chicken" would not work. Tell that to Michael Dukakis, who fell to the deplorable Willie Horton ads. Bill Maher will tell you straight up, many people are just too stupid to be governed. They will believe the Republican spin machine. This is why when the Republicans call you a socialist, you call them a lunatic. You don't only hope that your high-minded arguments will win out.
Bush supported his actions in Iraq until the day he left office. Obama needs a little more of that sort of fight in him too.
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