For the past couple of days, I have attended some townhalls and tomorrow I am hosting some folks at my house to discuss health care reform. I came on to KOS this afternoon looking to be re-energized. I was hoping to read a TON of diaries from other organizers sharing their stories about having come back from knocking on 10,000 doors today. Alas, that was not to be.
Instead the diary that has risen to the top of the rec list is titled: "Obama is losing the trust of progressives." Well how about this... I am losing trust in progressives. People, come on now. It's time to stop the handwringing and the CONSTANT carping and complaining. It's also time to focus on the actual targets that we need to organize against. For God's sake, stop this unhealthy fixation on Obama and the White House. Progressives we need to focus on pushing our SENATORS to support a public option and a progressive health reform bill. The Congress is writing the legislation. Pressure needs to be brought to bear on the LEGISLATIVE BRANCH and with the QUICKNESS.
So this brings me to Mark Halperin who has a caption on the Page that reads: "Bob Herbert Goes Wee-Wee." But it is the photo that had me laughing out loud.
http://thepage.time.com/...
I know that I should be offended by the picture of a black man in a diaper. My black nationalist past self would be ashamed by the fact that I find this so funny. But it cannot be helped because when I read Herbert's column this morning all I could think about was that he sounded like a HWBW (handwringing bed wetter).
During the Obama campaign, I worked as a team leader. Within the campaign, it became a source of infinite stress relief to use the HWBW term. We had to break it out often as folks CONSISTENTLY whined and offered advice about what the campaign needed to do or risk being sunk. It's not a nice term. I do concede that. But honestly, how are these words by Herbert remotely constructive to the debate at this point in time:
Their biggest worry is that Mr. Obama is soft, that he is unwilling or incapable of fighting hard enough to counter the forces responsible for the sorry state the country is in.
More and more the president is being seen by his own supporters as someone who would like to please everybody, who is naïve about the prospects for bipartisanship, who believes that his strongest supporters will stay with him because they have nowhere else to go, and who will retreat whenever the Republicans and the corporate crowd come after him.
http://www.nytimes.com/...
So now progressives are helpfully furthering the right-wing meme that Obama is a wimp???? Come on people. This really needs to stop and with the quickness. It's insulting and pathetic.
Over at Huff Post, Gara LaMarche offers some helpful comments:
Some call the President naïve for thinking he could ever rise above partisanship and bitter division, and want him to be more fiery, leading progressive forces into intense battle with enemies to whom no quarter should be given. This criticism dogged Obama during the campaign, and he ignored it, going steadily on his way. When things are looking good it is muted. Not so much at times like the last few weeks. In addition, whatever their personal admiration for the President, many influential voices on the left have never seen him as a sufficiently ideological figure, and since his inauguration have been lamenting his failure to seize the Rooseveltian moment to forge transformational change, particularly with respect to the financial system. Paul Krugman's op-ed in today's New York Times is the quintessential expression of this concern (though outrageously framed in terms of whether Obama can be "trusted," raising to the level of a character issue what is a legitimate set of differences on strategy, if not ideology).
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
I have been reading Krugman a lot over the past couple of years. He has never found Obama sufficiently "progressive" enough. This is not new. Yet I am with LaMarche in being sickened by his attempt to frame Friday's column in terms of whether Obama can be "trusted." What is this about? For real? Obama is who he is and has always said that he was. He is progressive in some areas and not in others. Folks who didn't see that from the start can only blame themselves for that. Take out the mirror and look yourself in the face instead of lashing out with vitriol and hyperbole.
Here LaMarche captures why I started laughing when I saw the picture of Herbert on the Page:
Unfortunately, few progressives have as wide a frame as Obama, or as steady a constitution. When things get rough, as they inevitably have with health care - was anyone naïve enough at the start of this to think the increasingly base-bound Republican Party would lie down and play dead? That Max Baucus and Ben Nelson and Kent Conrad and the like would simply take marching orders from the White House? That the 24-7 gladiatorial media culture would not break out in a frenzy at signs of conflict? -- progressives too often start pointing fingers at one another, badmouthing their allies, and second-guessing their leaders. If that behavior, of which we've seen too much in the last difficult days, does not change, we won't deserve to get health care reform, though it won't be Beltway denizens and the blogosphere that will pay the price, it will be millions of Americans praying not to be plunged into bankruptcy by sudden illness or unemployment.
I would like all of us to please keep our eyes on the prize. Please take LOCAL action in your community. Organize a forum about health reform with your neighbors. EDUCATE them about what's at stake. Write blog posts pointing out actual facts about health reform that organizers can use while door-knocking. Do what countless people here at KOS have done by "rewarding good behavior" through contributing to progressive legislators and others who are willing to support a more progressive health care bill.
I will end with the conclusion of LaMarche's post:
We have have only a matter of months, maybe weeks, to determine the fate of health care reform and with it, any chance of success on other hard battles like immigration and tax reform. We can spend our time working to win support for a positive vision of change, creating a stronger climate for President Obama and potential allies in Congress to rise to their best, or we can complain and attack. The choice is ours. There won't be another opportunity, I am fairly certain.
I too am fairly certain that this is our only chance for any meaningful health reform for the next decade. Please stop complaining and re-engage in organizing.
Update: Oh my... Look what I have caused? I posted this diary and then stepped out for a bit. Now I return to see that my diary is at the top of the rec list. Imagine that!
Update #2: I am loving this comment by Eyz:
But in my opinion one of the absolute, utter worst things that we can do as progressives is rip and slam Obama making him appear weak and unpopular. Do you think that helps his position? Do you think that helps the rest of us go forward with energy and purpose? No, it undermines him, it undermines us all as progressives and it is strategic suicide. It's one thing to pressure him and our elected representatives to keep solid and strong and it's another to turn your back and give the Right the ammunition they need.
Tell the TRUTH!
Update #3: Another piece of a terrific comment by larkspurlane:
Are we maybe so in love with being angry (as we've been for 8 long years - it's habit-forming you know) that we can't tolerate NOT being able to shout from the rooftops and get that instant gratification - that "I'll tell 'em" chest-thumping ego rush?
I think it is time to do a bit of self-reflection here. Obama has done or said absolutely NOTHING which should rattle us; in fact, when he appeared to be middle-roading it with the "with or without a public option" comment, we got it.
But how far have we taken this now?
Have we exceeded any useful positive process with this level of anger?
There's always a tightrope walk between agression and assertion.....have we fallen off the rope entirely?
I have to say that I agree with this diary.
What the hell do we want on the progressive left?
We've signalled that what squelched the Clinton healthcare initiative was Clinton's meddling into the job of Congress. Well, hell Lucille! Do we really want Obama to do the same and then be accused of tampering with Congress? No we don't.
How can we expect him to comment and support something in a bill which still does not exist in a bill? It's insanity.
Besides, I've seen wayyyy too many Republicans out there trying to push and prod Obama to come out and tell the country what he wants - yesterday was a learning moment for me as Pat Buchanan kept egging him on and that lightbulb went on for me.
Of course, they'd love nothing more than to bait Obama to come forward with what "he wants" even before Congress does and they'll eviscerate him with tampering with the job of Congress.
We didn't elect this man because he could see Russia from his porch, folks.
We elected him because we believed in his - his peaceful way....his incredible intellect. Let's not second guess and misjudge him before he's even had an opportunity to support something.
Right now nothing exists - it's all rumor and hyperbole.
Keep the pressure on so he knows that the progressive left has his back. But let's not confuse pressure with destruction any more.
Final Update: Thanks for the "mostly" constructive and very interesting dialogue from commenters. I am headed off to bed now as I have to wake up early to prepare for my healthcare event tomorrow. Peace and Appreciation to all.
Well the meme has really gone mainstream now -- Jim Hogaland of the Washington Post's column today -- Is Obama Weak?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
Here is the coup de gras:
Shortly after the Group of 20 summit concluded in London in April, Nicolas Sarkozy blurted out to a small group of advisers a question that weighed on him as he watched President Obama glad-hand his way through the gathering: "Est-il faible?" (Is he weak?)
Someone like Hogaland who is a RIGHT WING TOOL -- is now conflating healthcare, using the Left itself against Obama, and adding foreign policy to the mix. This is NOT going to end well at all.