No matter what Obama does, these people have convinced himselves that the people will never support what he is doing, because America is not a center-left country.One school of thought suggests that Obama is deep down a far-left ideologue and would rather achieve his agenda than build a lasting coalition. He has to hurry to beat the clock to the 2010 election and wants to do everything he can to tick off the items on the liberal wish list. In this scenario, his moderate language and bipartisan themes, as central as they were to his campaign, were essentially deceptive. He’s not a centrist and has no interest in governing as one.
Another school of thought suggests that he hasn’t figured out how to set the agenda and put Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid in their place as supporting players. They crafted the stimulus and insisted on the earmark-stuffed omnibus spending bill. He passively went along because he lacked the fortitude or skill to cut them off at the pass. The problem with that theory is that his budget — crafted by him, not Pelosi or Reid — was extreme, vastly increasing the size of government, raising taxes, embracing cap-and-trade (and with it a huge energy tax), and setting up a healthcare slush fund for which the fine print would be filled in later.
When you look at his actions it is hard to conclude that Obama is anything but a committed ultra-liberal who sees himself as revolutionizing the relationship between citizens and government. And when you throw in his “can’t we all get along” diplomacy and his unwillingness to assert America’s unique role in the world, one gets the sense we elected a throwback to the 1970s, not a groundbreaker. (More George McGovern and less Bill Clinton than many imagined.) That’s bound to be divisive since a large majority of the electorate isn’t ultra-liberal. It remains to be seen whether it is also a losing formula, both economically and politically.
Despite his 66% approval rating.
It will never be a mandate for them. Ever. Obama will always be Jimmy Carter making Bill Clinton's mistakes.
I actually think Obama may be close to ultra-liberal but part of that is likely a reaction to the ultra-right agenda that has been foisted on the American people for much of the past 20 years. Even Clinton stayed in the middle and, thus, was not an antidote. Working class people still champion the Republican values (i.e., angry about the Democrats making an issue regarding the exec's bonuses) even though these working class people stand to gain essentially nothing from the ultra-right agenda. One argument would be that Obama is moving to the left - even past his own comfort zone - to equally the damage that has been done.
ReplyDeleteThat's actually a pretty fair argument, but it doesn't mean he's brutally divisive, either.
ReplyDeleteIt would be different if he had a 30% approval rating right now doing what he's trying to do. He doesn't. He has a large majority behind him. Now, that doesn't automatically mean what he's doing is good (Bush after all had an approval rating of upwards of 80% after 9/11 when the PATRIOT Act was rammed through) but it does mean the people support him, and in a democracy (or in our case, a representative republic) that's vitally important.