Wednesday, August 18, 2010
It Could Be A Lot Worse!
Barbara Ehrenreich has an article on AlterNet entitled resist the Corpo-Obama-Geithner-Petraeus State. I understand the frustration with the Obama administration. But it's also clear that if progressives don't hang with Obama, we're going to get the Palin/Bachmann State and conditions are going to be a lot worse, a whole lot worse, than they are now.
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Practicality must be a part of serious progressive governance and it seems Ric that you have retained your sense of practicality. We do not have the option of an FDR or an LBJ who can twist arms and line up votes in support of the agenda for which we truly believe to be best. That kind of courage, that kind of party discipline does not exist within the Democratic party at the moment. Individual lawmakers desire these things. Probably more lawmakers than we might imagine would be delighted to be the vanguard of a truly liberal New Deal/Great Society/War On Poverty/Populist movement. I've no doubt that President Obama is such a person. But the ability to attain and then hold the office of the Presidency as well as House and Senate seats has become compromised by a variety of factors ranging from the insidious influence of money in elections, to the abject fear true progressives harbor within their hearts that to take a stand and push for the kind of movements which truly make history and change lives is paralyzing. Progressive incumbents have no clue how voters in their states and their districts would react to a concerted left-leaning, pro-labor, anti-poverty agenda. Would the insane tea-party movement manage to demonize such an agenda to the point that Democrats would suffer even more losses than already anticipated or would voters embrace these lawmakers for their courage? It would be quite a conundrum. I do not envy the position in which Democrats have been placed since 1968. After all, achieving a little good is better than leaving the nation to the less than tender mercies of the rabid right-wing. Irrespective of how well intentioned progressive Democrats might be, they must consider the fact that should they lose their seats not only can they do no good for anyone, they cannot prevent the forces of reaction from wreaking even more havoc than that wrought during the Regan/Bush era and by the Bush/Cheney era. They are sorely needed to protect what is left of the social contract and reign in as well as turn back the excesses of ultra-right ideologues.
All of this is to say that I agree,” if progressives don't hang with Obama, [and Congressional Democrats I would add] we're going to get the Palin/Bachmann State and conditions are going to be a lot worse, a whole lot worse, than they are now."
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