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Angry Left to Obama: Stop Caving on Agenda
Liberals furious with a White House they view as constantly telegraphing compromise with Republicans are pressuring President Obama to get tougher, arguing that is the only way he will win both progressives and independents in 2012.
"It's not liberals that Obama is having a clash with, it's reality," Jane Hamsher, founder of the liberal blog Firedoglake.com said. "And anyone who thinks his problems are just with the base is not paying attention. (photo by Flickr user firedoglakedotcom) Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) and an outspoken critic of the White House, said liberal anger has less to do with fears of a Clintonian move to the middle by Obama and more with a misreading of the election results by the administration.
"It's less ‘Oh no, they're triangulating,' and more ‘Boy, their political instincts are really stupid,' " said Green, who along with other liberals has blasted the White House for suggesting it would compromise with Republicans on expiring tax cuts.
The White House "fundamentally" doesn't get that "the only way to get Republicans to deal in good faith is to fight them, crush them and teach a lesson that if Republicans are on the wrong side of an issue there will be consequences ... so it makes sense to negotiate," Green said.
"Right now, every time Republicans are on the opposite side of an issue from the public, it's the Democrats who cave and talk about ‘compromise.' It's ridiculous."
While the White House declined to comment for this story, Obama's remarks since the election indicate that pursuing compromise with Republicans, including on the tax issue, will be one of his top priorities moving forward.
It's also clear the White House is concerned about the migration of independent voters.
Obama won a majority of independent voters in 2008 when he was elected, but those voters abandoned Democrats two weeks ago. According to a poll by Resurgent Republic and Democracy Corps, 56 percent of independents voted for Republican candidates in 2010, compared to 38 percent for Democrats.
There's some evidence that independent voters want the White House to work with Republicans. According to a recent Pew Research Center survey, 57 percent of independent voters want GOP leaders to cooperate with Obama, and 59 percent want the president to work with Republican leaders.
Jane Hamsher, founder of the liberal blog Firedoglake.com, points to recent polling in arguing there is little evidence that much of what Obama views as areas of compromise - cutting the deficit, bending on tax cuts - would appeal to independents, who she says are fixated on jobs.
Hamsher noted Obama has given signals that he wants to move a free-trade deal with South Korea even though many voters question the wisdom of free-trade policies.
She also said there is support for ending tax breaks for the wealthy and protecting Social Security from reforms, despite the changes recommended by the chairmen of Obama's debt commission last week.
"It's not liberals that Obama is having a clash with, it's reality," Hamsher said. "And anyone who thinks his problems are just with the base is not paying attention.
"No reasonable person could look at the data and say that the center has support for Obama's priorities right now: cutting Social Security, passing Korea free trade and ballooning the deficit by $700 billion with tax breaks for millionaires.
"So can we please stop with this fiction that Obama is attempting to woo independents?" Hamsher said. "The things he is doing are not any more popular with independents than they are with the base. Just because something annoys the base does not axiomatically mean it is popular with independents."
Green said independents who voted Republican in the midterms would move back to Obama if he supported "progressive change."
"It would be a complete misreading of this election to think that independents who voted for Obama suddenly voted en masse for Republicans," Green said. "In truth, the independents who showed up in 2010 were McCain-voting independents - and the way to ‘win back' independents in 2012 is to fight harder for popular progressive change that inspires Obama-voting independents to return to the polls. Caving to Republicans on Social Security and tax cuts for the wealthy is the worst way to do that."
Talk of compromise rankles liberals even more when they hear Republicans like Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) saying their top priority is to prevent Obama from winning a second term even as the White House talks of a compromise.
"That contrast bothers the left," said Peter Daou, a Democratic strategist and adviser to Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign.
Of Obama's strategy over the last two years of trying to work with the GOP, Daou says: "We all know how that turned out."
The anger from the left is nothing new to those who watched President Clinton tack to the right following huge Democratic losses in 1994.
Dee Dee Myers, Clinton's press secretary at the time, said liberals were "definitely mad" at Clinton after he pledged in 1995 that the "era of big government is over."
"It was a real tug-of-war throughout 1995," Myers said. "And I think it will be an equally long, emotional, difficult path forward for Obama."
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97 Comments so far
Show AllWake up and realize what so many of us did long ago: Obama is a Trojan Horse for the Corporatist-Militarist Ruling Class running both major political parties and all three branches of the federal government.
By the time enough people, including both Tea Partiers and liberals, realize this, it will be too late.
In fact, it is already too late, especially for reversing catastrophic climate chaos.
Yes, Team Obama did not "misread the election results", they have understood from the beginning that their actions during the past two years would lead to their base staying home on November 2, resulting in Republicans taking control of at least the House of Representatives and possibly the Senate.
Did you notice how excited Obama was on November 3 when he announced that he would be compromising with Republicans ?
Regime change, change that you can believe in. Yes we can and will vote Obama out of office in 2012.
I doubt it. Afterall, Bush stole 2 elections. They can do it again. Only if all of us don't vote will that work. But the teabaggers want him out. No easy solutions. I for one will no longer vote. Doesn't matter who is in.
Yep. The fix is in. The bankers and the corporatists don't give a rip about us, and they own ALL the governments, AND THERE IS NOTHING WE CAN DO ABOUT IT.
"Oh, but godistwaddle, we elected Obama!!!!!"
Yes, you elected another corporate tool. Grab your ankles.
It wouldn't be a long, emotional, difficult path forward for Obama if the guy had any principles.
Any evidence of "a long, emotional, difficult path forward for Obama" will be nothing more than an added dose of political theatre.
Obama has principles...to continue to gun for the wealthiest 2% at the expense of the other 98%. How many times does Obama need to demonstrate his principles before Americans acknowledge Obama's regressive agenda ?
Other things Obama is missing: A spine, balls, human empathy, etc. etc. etc. ad nauseam...
He is done. I doubt he even wants it.
There just are no real consequences for ignoring the needs of the populace anymore. As was noted by ED, everything is run by the "Corporatist-Militarist Ruling Class" and the so-called consequences of Obama's betrayals, are to hand over control to the same bunch under another name with the end result being more bend over for us and more wealth for them. Apparently we are so stupid that they think we can't see their over-flowing riches and bling as they tell us how broke the country is to do anything for us and we just have to sacrifice more. If there is a Christian God, hellfire and brimstone awaits these rich a**holes. Unfortunately it is coming in the form of climate change which is hurting and will hurt more of us than them.
Wake up liberals. "The fix is in". My guru, George Carlin, made that statement in 1972 and stuck to it til his death 2 years ago. The corporations control and if Obombma strays he will be gone.
I can't take this analysis seriously because the analysis does talk at any length about the occupations. What a crock.
Angry left to Obama: Stop caving on agenda. Please! What a naive headline. Obama is the agenda and the con is that he is caving in. Man, how can so many people on the left, still be drinking Obama's Kool Aid; is beyond me!
EXACTLY the fact is obama went along w/ Larry Summers to stop implementation of the Volker Rule while EVERYONE else in his cabinet pushed for it - even Geitner!
Obama has shown courage - too bad it's in his attacks on labor and traditional democratic values like Social Security!@
Obama WILL cut Social Security and these idiot talking heads will be surprised....
Jane Hamsher was one of the few bloggers who clearly laid out in late 2009 terrific talking points,--myths and the reality,--exposing the health care industry giveaways rendered unto Big Pharma, HMOs, hospitals, to boost profits even more when Obama's sellout Health Care Bill was "passed."
(Ain't Endless Moaning and Carping about u know who just a waste of time)?
Go back to sleep, America!
Just curious if it is possible for a president to switch parties mid-stream. At least such a "Lieberman switch" would remove some of the confusion regarding where the administration heart and soul really rests.
As far as the capitulation by the so called leaders of the Democratic party, I am reluctant to label them as stupid as much as dishonest as to what they truly stand for and against and who owns them as their actions rarely serve the greater public good.
Overall (with a few exceptions), the Democrats roll over like a a bunch of abused puppies and then run away with their collect "tails" tucked between their legs if spoken to in a slightly threatening voice. The so called "liberal left" now moves closer to where the extreme right once stood and the extreme right has moved into an alternate universe.
Whether what is perceived on political horizon is called a plutocracy or a theocracy (the wettest of dreams by the extreme right)it sure as hell is nowhere near a democracy and the erosion of our Constitution and Bill of Rights continues unabated.
At the rate Obama is pushing Republican legislation through , the Republicans will probably run Bob Dole against Obama in 2012 to assure that Obama will be re-elected and keep the Republican agenda moving forward.
As a Democrat, Obama is achieving far more for the Republicans than he could if he was a Republican because Obamabots, most of whom identify with the Democrats, have given him a license to steal with no expiration date.
STOP CAVING ON AGENDA?
WHAT AGENDA?
edweg
Obama's agenda is a regressive agenda that he has been rapidly fullfilling.
The author is wrong.
Obama lost me a well over a year ago.
Nothing he does now will get me back.
And what makes you think he's caving?
He's not caving to the right. He's one of them.
I thought everyone knew that by now.
It's the only explanation that makes any sense.
The only other explanation would be that he's the absolute hugest wimp that ever lived.
I've moved beyond Obama and beyond Washington. They are corrupt beyond reason.
What makes you think that compromise is not Obama's agenda? He only used the rhetoric of the progressives to get elected. Progressives need to wake up to this fact and quit thinking he is not following the agenda. He is following HIS agenda. Scream all we want - he will follow his agenda and doesn't really care what the agenda of progressives is. He is and always has been a corporatist. Look at his senate voting record.....nothing liberal there. We think he needs to get a backbone.....he really is a jelly fish.
yes, Obama is most certainly following his own agenda.
my question is: what is our agenda / vision? and what can we do (within our immediate surroundings) to make our vision become reality?
Seems some people are still having a hard time spotting the lying liar who's lying.
The Obama believers can keep waiting for him to "stop caving" (what a laugh), I'll continue to wait for him to say anything truthful.
You are so right!
Paul Revere, mtdon and Wandering Wolverine nailed it. Why else would Obama fill his deficit commission with people who have a history of wanting to destroy Social Security? And like single payer health care, lifting the income cap isn't even on the table. And consider how much has fallen off the table. EFCA, Elizabeth Warren... well, as long as Obama is in office, that list will be endless. I don't care what Obama says he "wants", it's what he's willing to fight for that counts. And the score on that so far is ZERO.
Obama begins every negotiation with the right wing with a compromise and ends with a capitulation. He begins every negotiation with the left wing with a beat down and ends by walking away. Sounds like the definition of a schoolyard bully to me. Ralph Nader called him a conciliatory personality but I think there's more to it than that. I think he is submissive to dominant personalities. He has surrounded himself with them in the White House (they could be viewed as his bodyguards) and Republicans love to elect them.
I really miss Paul Wellstone.
When the people fear their government there is tyranny,
when the government fears the people there is liberty.
~ Thomas Jefferson
I think, more simply, that he is a con man, and a corporatist who likes their company, no pun intended.
The banks will be made whole again - with our savings, pensions, 401k's & social security.
We will never retire.
wasn't jefferson a slave owner?
and now anti-government democracy lover
edweg
I was soo excited about the Presidential election. I stood under a County Fair tent in Indiana and worked to get him elected. I should have been a Hillary voter as I am over 60 and a woman, but NO!
Sigh....He can certainly talk the talk but does not walk the walk. I voted for him for Single Payer health care. That dropped off the edge.I wanted Wall Street reform and that is doubtful....Now he is rolling over and giving the Rich anything that they want, watch that Tax Break be extended.
Once Upon a Time my young son was a Fighter. I told him that it was wrong. Then he let himself be beat up by a Bully. I told him that sometimes you have to protect yourself, and that is different than Bullying others. The President is just walking into those left hooks and apologizing to the Bully. So sad that such an opportunity has been lost for the American People.
Absolutely.
I keep thinking that the plan to win more 'progressives' would contain more emphasis on getting more 'progressives' into the fold in the first place. Obviously, pretending that there is a gigantic, seemingly latent potential of a progressive groundswell in the US runs counter to the facts on the ground.
Democrats have always killed majority calls for progressive reform. FDR did delayed and then stopped the New Deal in its tracks, LBJ killed the Great Society.
For the last two years, with control of congress and the White House, Dems have nothing but excuses. This is their plan.
http://counterpunch.org/connolly10292010.html
Options:
Vote for a Democrat - same old elitist agenda;
Don't vote - throwing vote away;
Vote for third-party - throwing vote away;
Vote Republican - throw the fake liberals out (you get the same elitist agenda).
Democrats will do noting for liberals until you show them that you will not vote for them.
That was a great article, thanks for the link.
yeah, that really WAS helpful. Good post.
Yes, a useful and trenchant analysis.
I daresay that CD editors ought to consider giving Richard Anderson-Connolly the visiting political-science professor chair long occupied by David Michael Green.
Lately, poor DMG has mostly been just spinning around in it like a conflicted dervish.
Jane Hamsher and Adam Green are so right....
the Presidency is not the pinnacle of a career...
recent holders are still heavy players, even if no longer the Prez...Obama will either continue to be Prez, or not, but will continue to be a playa, and probably wealthy, regardless...
the United States Presidency is but one of several important mid-level positions 'influenced' to maintain control, not the only...
Carroll Quigley has a book for you to read.
A better headline... Angry Left To Obama: F*** You and the Donkey You Rode In On!
"Dee Dee Myers, Clinton's press secretary at the time, said liberals were "definitely mad" at Clinton after he pledged in 1995 that the "era of big government is over."
"It was a real tug-of-war throughout 1995," Myers said. "And I think it will be an equally long, emotional, difficult path forward for Obama.""
Understanding this kind of remark is like trying to treat a deep, badly healed, infected injury. First there is the outer scab - The idea that a vacuous, infotainment "personality" like Dee Dee Myers has anything informative to say just because she worked in the Clinton White House.
That's just the first layer. Under that is her statement, which manages to change the subject from the issues on which Clinton and the base were divided to pointless speculations on the "anger" and "emotional turbulence" inside and outside the Clinton White House. Who cares? Does anybody really think you can occupy the White House without emotional wear and tear?
The third layer of poorly healed tissue - Clinton's patently dishonest statement that "the era of big government is over". First of all, nobody believed it at the time, not Clinton and not the Repubs who gave him a standing ovation during that part of his SOU address. Second, it was politically stupid and won Clinton no support (except the 1 minute standing ovation). Third, it was another dreary exercise in Clintonian base-slapping, a lot like his "sistah Souljah" moment. Fourth, what Clinton promised here never happened. "Government" went right on getting "bigger", just in a manner more favorable to the Tory/Confederate wing of the ruling elite and their pack of snarling guard dogs in Congress.
So, we have vapid, off-topic, soap opera emotionalism, standing in for political insight and providing cover for rank rhetorical dishonesty and pandering, posing as political leadership.
Is there any bottom to this pit? Is there any hope of recovering from these nasty, untreated and unhealed wounds?
What does it all mean for Obama and us? More of the same? Whatever Obama's real "agenda" or strategy (per the comments here), there is nothing wrong with pointing out that his self-proclaimed agenda has been a failure. To make that observation only requires an understanding of the statements and subsequent events. It does not require agreeing with or being naive about the real or stated agenda. You can't blame Jane Hamsher for taking Obama at his word. That's just civil discourse. You can blame Obama though for not taking his own word seriously, which is the point here.
Boy, thanks for reminder of why I never, ever watch corporate tv again. Entertainingly well said...
I would be pleased if the left wing leaders listened to you Jill, but I don't expect it to happen. We are a tribal species. People need to identify strongly with a group for the physical and psychological security it provides.
It gets lonely listening to one's own voice.
There are no people more naive than the small band of progressive democrats who cling to the ridiculous notion that their president is just mmaking mistakes when in fact he is following the same script we have seen over and over again. They are like catholics who think the massive protection plans offered to child molesters all over the world were just mistakes.
Mistakes made by the proverbial "few bad apples" who at worst were set up to "err" because seminaries unfortunately did not provide adequate instruction and guidance in sexual matters.
Besides, the thousands and thousands of victims who "waited" for decades to complain are probably just in it for the money.
Cognitive dissonance is a many-splendored thing.
Don't get me started!
Thank you.
President Pinata has on many occasions expressed his desire to "reform entitlements". The word reform used to mean improve but in true Orwellian fashion now means abolish. I'm sick of anyone use the word entitlement to describe Social Security and Medicare as if its some unearned goodie that people feel should be given to them. I paid for this shit and damned if some DemocRAT or RepubliCON is going to steal this from me without a fight. I'm permanently disabled, what do I have to lose? Disabled doesn't necessarily mean disarmed.
"...what do I have to lose?" - Eagle Bill
This is the key question. When a substantial portion of the population realises their answer to this question is "Nothing", maybe then something will change.
"People crushed by law have no hope but from power. If laws are their enemies, they will be enemies to laws; and those who have much to hope and nothing to lose will always be dangerous..." - Edmund Burke
"According to a recent Pew Research Center survey, 57 percent of independent voters want GOP leaders to cooperate with Obama, and 59 percent want the president to work with Republican leaders."
The 59% of independents must have been asleep for the last two years. He has been working with them. He has given them nearly everything they want.