I originally posted this as an update to my Diary "How the Media Turns the Left Against Democrats" - as a way to acknowledge the simple truth that the Media isn't alone in exploiting this rift. Sometimes we do it to ourselves.
There is a clear and obvious Reality Gap between what we would like as progressives on many issues and what Obama is willing and able to deliver. We have to remember that he didn't run as the President of the Left, or even as a Progressive - he ran to be President of the United States. He ran to try an bridge the gaps splitting the nation on many different fronts. If anything his tendency on policy issues Is not to automatically charge hard for the most radical leftist position no matter what Gingrich and his ilk might say about his "Kenyan Anti-Colonialism being the most predictive measure of his policies".
We have to realize that he is President Goldilox. He'll never go too far to the Left, but neither will he go all that far to the Right. He'll almost always go Right Down the Middle because his goal is to stitch this country back together, unfortunately what he risks is ultimately uniting both the extremes of the far Right and the far Left - against him.
And that's a tragedy we can't let happen.
First my update:
Sun Jun 26, 2011 at 8:39 AM PT: Ok, I've read some of the various comments both pro and con and I'd like to address the issue of whether "The Media Made (some of us) Hate Obama" or not.
No, clearly for many of us they didn't.
What I would say is they don't help much because they are more interested in the fight and conflict than the solution and resolution. Peace and Harmony doesn't make great news copy. Nor do I think they have a specific "agenda" to drive a wedge between elected Dems and their constituents - however if a sliver of daylight appears they're more than willing to grab a crowbar and start yanking.
No, I don't blame the Media for every area where Libs or the left are disappointed in Obama. I've been disappointed too. In fact, I wrote my own diary about it way back in 2008. It was called Disappointed. In my case I was unhappy that Obama tossed Reverend Wright under the Bus after he had been unjusted and viciously Smeared and Swiftboated by ABC News. But that split ultimately, was as much personal as politcal. Wright ultimately gave him no choice.
No, he hasn't tried to prosecute Bush and Co for War Crimes and Torture (largely because under the Military Commissions Act - what Bush did isn't a crime anymore), but his special prosecutor has convened a Grand Jury to potentially Prosecute a CIA Torturer(s).. Perfect? No. Better? Yes.
I get that he's not the Great Dark Savior of the Democratic Party. He's not Dumbledore. He's not going to wipe away 30 years of Conservative/Republican framing of the issues in one, or even two terms.
He won't solve every problem and he might not even solve most of them.
But what he will do, and what he has done - is move us in the right direction inch by inch, step by step, little by little. Disappointed in how he's handled Wall Street? Well, look over here - the U.S. happens to be sueing Deusch Bank for Fraud in the Mortgage Crisis. They've also sued JP Morgan Chase and Royal Bank of Scotland.
Obama hasn't done enough about Oil Prices? Maybe, but the CFTB CFTC has charged OIl Speculators with Market Manipulation and he has opened the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
Frustrated about No Public Option in Health Reform? Yeah, ok. Well, Vermont now has Single Payer. The Feds have Cut Health Care Costs for Pre-Existing Condition Plans by 40%, and established limits for private plan premium increases to 10% max. California's Blue Cross/Blue Shield has Cut their rates and is Offerring Rebates after years of raising premiums by 40-50%
One could blow off every positive achievement as not being enough. Of being too little, too late, too small, too timid. I understand we're dealing with President Goldilocks here, whose always looking for something that's neither too hot, nor too cold. He almost always goes for what's "Just right" between the Left and the Right. Sure, you could also say his initiatives should be bigger, bolder, more dynamic. That they should steam the curtains and make us all fresh julian fries for lunch except for the fact that that shit aint gonna happen!. That's not who this President ever claimed to be.
We all have a right, even a duty, to complain about where we see this administration - or any administration - as failing. But let's not lose perspective. Let's not give in to hopelessness, bitterness and despair because Obama isn't nearly as progressive as some of us are. On the whole, things are moving in the right direction., our arguments with Obama here are really about how fast and how far he's willing and able to go, not about which way we should be going.
To me, I accept that he's President Goldilocks, and that his Presidency is the Start of a journey away from the crimes of the Neo-Cons, it's not a destination. There's always going to be more that needs to be done, more that needs to be fixed. The question I have for those who've reach the point of giving up on Obama is "What's your alternative?"
Who is your better choice?
And I don't ask this for 2012, I'm asking about 2016 because being able to get that better choice in place and to fully implement even more progressive goals than Obama has so far or ever will - we need his Presidency to be a Success on balance. We need to be thinking and planning about the President after Obama, and the one after that -- and the one after that. If any of us are Serious about implementing all our progressives goals in full - it's going to take that long, if not longer.
I never expected magic from Obama, IMO none of us should have. If you feel that the magic is gone now, you were destined to be bitterly disappointed in any case and the media has nothing to do with it.
I still believe that bitterness over the loss of the Public Option was a big reason for our enthusiasm gap in 2010, and consequently the Republicans taking back the House.
Yes, of course the Tea Party and their big money benefactors helped with the resurgence of the GOP. But they didn't do it alone.
There's a lesson in that I think and it's one we should heed.
As I look at this diary by David Mizner which essentially calls the President "Mediocre" and at Kalli Joy Gray's FP diary that essentially bitches the President out for abandoning women - I think they bring up legitimate and serious issues, but what I also see is a mistake.
If we want better from this Administration, there has to be another way to achieve it than sowing the seeds of disappointment over and over again.
I think there are many many good areas to criticize the President on, but we also need to learn to appreciate the good while we note the bad. I think we can and should both expect and demand for better results and better outcomes, but we also need to do so with an fair understanding of the realities and difficulties in doing so.
Where I think some of us fail, is where we belittle EVERY achievement then refuse to acknowledge those difficulties - the result of which is rather like telling the guy whose already trying to push a locomotive uphill by hand He's Not Pushing Fast Enough! Sometimes the guy who already exhausted from the front lines of the battle is not going to be the best recipient to endless heckling from people on his own side.
This is where we get griping and grumbling coming out of the White House about the "Professional Left". As I said long ago "Robert Gibbs is not the Enemy". Still we've been wounded by these slights. Deeply. These squabbles have distracted us from the simple fact that we are indeed, on the same side and going the same direction.
If we want them to go faster, we need to get out and PUSH as we have in Wisconsin and now in New York State.
I think that falling into these personality spats takes our eyes off the prize as one excellent comment pointed out.
What the Corporate Plutocracy wants most of all is to make sure that Progressives and Liberal and leaners say "fuck it" about Obama and politics in general. They want us to be so disgusted that we don't even try. They want us all to stay home.
Bingo!
As Admiral Ackbar would say: "It's a Trap!" Don't fall for it.
We need to move on from feeling personally betrayed or disappointed and get back into the fight.
It's obvious that a large proportion of posters here have wallowed that approach hook, line and sinker. They're being reeled in the same way that the Tea Partiers have been. Everyone here who has given up has the same litany of failures thatthe non-Obama-haters do: he failed x, he failed y, he didn't do this, he didn't say that, he didn't fight, he made deals, etc, etc. We all know what he did and didn't do.
Guess what? This isn't about him. It's about the rest of us.
....
The only way to fix this debacle is to stop whining about Obama and the Congress and what they did or didn't do, and get to work. How many of us are willing to do that? How many of us are willing to work to primary DINOs, to drive the Corporate Democrats and Republicans out of office? We can't do it with ads or money. We only have one power: there are more of us than there are of them.
We have to start organizing meetings right after Labor Day, in which we identify people who will run on the Democratic ticket as a Progressive in the primaries. Then we have to gather the signatures to put them on there. THEN we have to work for them
We have to actually seize the structure and the money of the Democratic Party from the ground up. We have to stay on their asses, too, to make sure they are true to their principles. Did you really believe that electing Obama and a Democratic Congress in 2008 was going to solve everything? Obama told you himself: YOU have to power this change. He didn't mean wait for him to do it all, and sit on dKos, writing furious posts when he didn't accomplish it fast enough.
Are we ready to actually do the work to make a movement happen? Not for Obama, or the Corporate Democrats - but for ourselves?
It's a false choice to argue that you either have to "Clap Louder" or "Scream Bloody Murder". We have to be critical, but constructive. Be honest with the Administration, but also Fair.
If you're frustrated with something in the Obama Administration or Congress - the very first question should be Ok, What are you gonna do about it?
Followed by "How are you gonna make it better?"
We didn't get the Public Option this time? Well then we have to get ourselves into a position to get it NEXT TIME.
To do that we need more Democrats. We need better Democrats. Yes, better than Obama. (Simply grumbling that "Obama is mediocre" is not going generate any enthusiasm or get the job done - it's fatalism) Getting Better means thinking about the long terms goals, building and taking over the party from the inside out. Pushing relentlessly for what we want while also celebrating what we have achieved so far. We have to stop obsessing with personality and take the long view.
Obama is not the solution to all our problems, he is a means to an end.
What we don't need is to become a pack of dejected fatalistic whiners (Sorry Guys, I gotta call it how I see it for a few of us) because that is a pack of Losers. I plan to WIN in 2012, and 2016 and 2020 because that will be how we get National Single Payer and National Marriage Equality, it's how we finally get Torture genuinely banned and restore American Dignity and Honor, it's how we get control of our country back from the Corporate Oligarchy.
We have to STOP expecting instant success or gratification - that path leads to cynicism and ultimately failure. If we want better, we're going to have to fight for it, battle for it, grind it out, day after day, month after month, year after year. Retain the Presidency. Take back the House. Get 60 plus votes in the Senate. And even after that we'll still have an uphill battle. Sometimes those we fight against will be Republicans, sometimes it will be Democrats, even the President - but in the end that makes no difference, we have to keep our eye on the goal and not let up.
Ever.
Vyan
12:19 PM PT: Ok, If there are any more minor edits - I'll have to get to them later, heading out to try and buy decent groceries with chickenfeed again. Will take a few hours as we try and get the best use out of every coupon we have.