In the movies, bold new change is made with grand pronouncements. In many history books, the great achievements are glossed over with statements like "Social security began in the 1930's under Roosevelt".
Both culture and history have us look at the great social changes as we might look at a person through a telephoto lens, with apparent distances flattened out, and much of the scenery, the broad panorama kept out of the picture by the narrowness of the perspective.
As we seek to hold our leaders accountable, we must avoid a potential pitfall: that we become convinced that the artificial impressions we have of how change occur must be the model for how real change occurs.
Real change is much more annoying and tedious than that, and often we don't notice it. Just as the middle class declined almost without noticing it as the Republicans ascended in power, our lives have improved at a slow, but steady pace since Obama was inaugurated.
Of course, we had very high expectations of him. So did I. But I was familiar enough with the difficulties of Washington to realize something: things were going to be really painful.
Policies have inertia in the real world, defenders and promoters, people who have vested interests in things staying a certain way. Folks like them might get shocked into disarray when they screw things up, but they certainly don't stay like that forever.
I've watched politicians for much of my life, and I've found expecting them to keep promises is a dubious thing at best. What's spoken of in conventionalized campaign rhetoric often bears only a little relation to reality, so I've learned to be skeptical of what even the best politicians say. I've learned to notice where politicians simply employ the rhetoric alone, and where they understand the issues. Campaign promises might not pan out, but I can get a sense of what these people are thinking, and what they're capable of doing through what they say, and how they say it.
The issue for Obama is that he's gone ahead and done many of the things he's promised to do, and this has alarmed and disturbed the right, who thinks that anything short of submission to their ideology is treason. So, the right wing hates even his moderate policies.
But those moderate policies have disappointed some voters, and drawing on a rather narrow appreciation of the way politics really works, some have given up on the President, or worse, from our end of things.
For people who do real things and make real progress in the real world, they must deal with the folks who oppose them for doing too much, and those who oppose them for doing too little at the same time.
In the real world, where circumstances often force change to be incremental, this is a dangerous imbalance. It rewards short-term oriented thinking which pushes against change, and punishes those who simply want to achieve practicable change in the shortest amount of time.
Imperfection and dilution are always easier than purism. it may help keep voter morale up higher, but it doesn't get anything done, and that is the critical problem.
Put simply, the Democrats and the American people need to mature somewhat, and realize that in a world where things are easier to mess up than to clean up, that we need to add patience to our drive and determination, and a certain amount of opportunism. I am not suggesting that we not play for the best results we can get, but I am suggesting that we take what we can get, and then continue to apply pressure over time, until opportunities present themselves. Then, we push again, like we've pushed over the two years, and burst past the barriers in our way.
We need to be willing to win a little bit at a time until the opportunity presents itself for us to win more, in no small part because the small, continual wins often set up the opportunity for further victories.
If, however, we react to the real change we got by pulling back in disappointment, the forces against positive change will do their best to roll it back, and may succeed. The real key is not to give ground, but to methodically defend and passionately protect it when the tides of politics wash back against our efforts. In that way, when we're ready, we're not having to make up for what we've lost.
Don't vote your feelings along, vote your intentions. Vote with deliberate purpose not merely when you feel inspired, because the first thing that your opponents will always try to destroy, is your confidence and your morale. Let yourself be ruled by them alone, and you will be defeated quickly.
We Democrats can be tougher than that, harder to knock back and knock down. We just have to recognize progress when we see it, and not undermine it by giving up too soon when disappointed.