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How Progressives Can Move Obama to the Left
After talking about this with a great many progressives on our show, I’ve come to some conclusions. These are so self-evident that they will be viewed as obvious in hindsight.
Does he mean well or does he have bad intentions? Come on, don’t be ridiculous. Of course, he means well. But in his own mind, George Bush thought he meant well too (for the most part). I’m positive that Obama thinks that he is doing the best he can to bring about as much change as he can within the limits of this system.
Is he a true progressive or a corporatist sell out? Well, that depends on what you mean. Has he wound up helping corporate America tremendously through health care "reform," finance "reform," etc.? Well, Wall Street certainly seems to think so (and so do most progressives). Did he do that because he thought, "I can’t wait to help corporate America and screw over the little guy"? No, I’m sure he thought he had to accommodate the powers that be in order to affect any change at all in this system. But the bottom line has been the same, either way – the system has been tweaked but corporate America chugs along with even more government largesse than before.
I’m sure Obama is a progressive that would help the average American if he thought he could. But apparently he thinks he can’t. He can only bring them a small amount of change because of what he thinks the system will allow.
You can criticize him for lack of imagination, duplicity during the campaign, lack of spine and political miscalculation. And you might be right about some or all of that, but all of those aren’t the essence of Obama. The core of Obama is a man who is a cautious politician. That is what he is at his center. He can’t help himself. Asking him to be something else is asking a rock to be a little less hard. He is what he is.
So, what Obama does by his nature is find the middle ground. As an excellent innate politician, he will find the political center of any field and rush to it. That’s where elections are won – the center. So, that’s why he sounded so progressive during the primaries, because that was the center of the left. And why he sounded like such a reformer during the general election because the great majority of Americans desperately wanted change.
So, what happened to that Obama? The country is the same, so why did Obama drop the progressive reformer angle and go toward the right and corporate America? Because his field changed. He went from campaigning all across the country to being in the middle of Washington, DC. The center of Washington is very different than the center of the country.
The Washington bubble leans far more to the right than the rest of the country (poll after poll indicates this). The corporate media in Washington are pros at protecting the status quo and view people who challenge the system as fringe players. A natural politician would naturally move right to accommodate this new environment. Obama can’t help himself. Why does a scorpion sting, why does a horse gallop? Because they were made to. Hoping Obama snaps out of it is hoping against reason and nature.
So, what can we do? Well, showing him data on where the American people actually stand didn’t help at all. Nearly a dozen polls showed overwhelming support for the public option across the country. That didn’t budge him. There are now polls showing 40% of Democrats are not going to show up in the 2010 elections because they are so disenchanted. It hasn’t even made a dent in Obama. The Washington force field is strong.
So, our only hope is to move the island. We have to move his center. If we can move what he perceives to be the center, he will naturally flow to it. In Lost, when they move the island they move across time. In our case, when we move the island we need to move across the political spectrum.
Right now, Obama perceives the center of the country to be somewhere between Dick Cheney and Harry Reid. Do you know where that leaves him? Joe Lieberman. That’s why we’re in the sorry shape we’re in now.
The reality is that Howard Dean is a moderate. Progressives in Vermont were upset with him when he was governor because they thought he was too far right. I just heard from someone who was on a cruise that The Nation organized and that Howard Dean spoke at. The crowd on the cruise nearly booed him when he spoke because they thought he was far too moderate.
If you look at Dean’s policies, they are right down the middle of the country. That’s part of the reason his 50 state strategy worked so well. But the establishment media hate him. Why? Because he points out when they’re doing something wrong – and he winds up being proven right in the end. There’s nothing that irritates the establishment more than that.
As things stand, Howard Dean is perceived to be to the left of all of the Democratic senators in Washington (not because he’s more liberal than Bernie Sanders or Harry Reid; it’s because unlike them, he’s willing to fight for his positions (sorry Bernie, at this point, it’s true)). That’s unconscionable. Washington has shifted so far right that Dean is considered some sort of wild-eyed liberal. We have to move it back if we are to have any hope that Obama will move further left (and much closer to the true center of the country).
So, how do we do this? It’s not pretty, but it’s necessary. We have to attack Obama relentlessly from the left. Right now he is a giant that is unmoved by anything in his left flank, he keeps looking to his right and ducking and worrying and moving to accommodate them. They are so loud and so visible. It’s hard to miss them. We have to make him look left. We have to shake him off his foundation.
Rahm Emanuel gave a wonderfully condescending interview to the Wall Street Journal where he explained that the White House has nothing to worry about from the left. That’s exactly what we have to change. Unfortunately, the only way to capture their attention and make them accommodate us rather than Fox News Channel is to hurt them. When we can put on the same kind of pain and pressure on the Obama White House as Fox does, that’s when they’ll have to move, at least to get out of the way.
You inflict political pain by voting things down. So far progressives have been completely unwilling to do this. They got rolled on healthcare because they had no intention of putting their foot down – and everyone knew it.
The next time Obama pushes a corporate agenda, progressives have to knock him upside the head. Deny him. Or as the kids would say, send his shit. And make a big stink out of it. Draw everyone’s attention to how far right Obama is and how out of whack he is with the American people.
If that scares you and you start to worry about damaging a Democratic president, you’re never going to win at this game. You’re never going to get the policies you want. They don’t listen to reason, they listen to power.
Let’s get real, we already lost the health care fight. But luckily, something even more important is up next. Financial reform. That’s where we know for a fact the American people have our back. We also already know that Obama’s Treasury Department is a joke. Tim Geithner has fought reformers in the House every step of the way. It’s time to take out a couple of lead pipes and a blow torch and go to work on his ass.
If Obama wants to fill the legislation full of loopholes, he should be called out at every turn. We vote no and we point out in no uncertain terms that Obama is pushing that agenda to help corporate interests so that he can fill Democratic coffers.
This has the advantage of being true. If you don’t have the stomach for being this tough on Obama and the Democrats, well then you don’t have the stomach for politics. And you will permanently be the Republican’s bitches.
If you don’t move the island, the rest is futile. You have to shift the ground underneath them. And the only way to do that is to create such a strong and aggressive progressive movement that they cannot help but notice it – and respond to it. Move the center and you’ll move Obama. And he’ll move the country. There is no other choice.
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200 Comments so far
Show AllCenk Uygur nailed it when he wrote that the Health care battle (which was bit more like kabuki) is lost and that where progressives can really hurt those inside the Beltway bubble is on financial reform. What he left unwritten is that this is a great issue with which to cleave the Tea Baggers. The genuine grass roots of that movement are no fans of the big financial institutions, while the GOP astroturf lobbying organizations whom have hijacked Tea Parties for their own ends count the financial industry as one of their corporate clients. Considering their already combustible nature (founders of various local chapters have already turned against the organization when they accepted the like of FreedomWorks into their fold), this would work better than a COINTELPRO FBI-like agent provacateur, as the harm they would do to themselves would be self-inflicted.
Financial reform is step 2 in the change process. Step 1 is contacting your Democratic Party Senators and Congressperson NOW and telling them that you will not vote for them if they support Obamacare.
As long as progressives keep supporting Democrats who are the lesser of two evils, the lesser of two evils will keep getting more evil.
Ray 12:11 I am going to steal your last phrase , with your permssion.
Athough the concept is even older, it was Nader who said, ""If you choose between the lesser of two evils, at the end of the day, you still have evil."
Sounds simple enough "don't vote for Evil" But Isn't there a problem in electing a "non evil" person?
Who are you gonna vote for?
If you are gonna break the winner take all system like you are planning in the elections to come, how are you gonna get everyone else to vote for the same "non evil person" that you decide is not evil who will get most of all the votes and have them counted honestly?
Or lets take a miracle (I am willing) lets say a UFO appeared before the whole world in a cloud of white light and instantly made Ralph Nader President in an attempt to save Museum Earth from planetary suicide.
When you soon found out that nothing was getting done because Nader was secretly waiting for the Super Rich to get on board, at what point would Nader become "Evil"?
The tea party opposition to the bailouts usually goes unnoticed on the left. It's just too easy and emotionally satisfying to demonize the tea partiers. The pro-Obama liberals I've talked to always go out of their way to demonize the tea partiers, despite the fact that in other circumstances (when arguing gay marriage, for instance) they would piuously condemn demonizing "the other."
Nonetheless a cross-ideological temporary alliance on financial reform would be a shock to the corrupt whores who control both parties in DC.
"Nonetheless a cross-ideological temporary alliance on financial reform would be a shock to the corrupt whores who control both parties in DC."
Shock? If that actually happened they would have to find a new street corner!
tea bagger positions are pure limbaugh and hannity, who launder the lobbyists talking points.
they are pure dittoheads- their opposition to the bailouts, as far as their rage went, was directed at democrats/liberals and the fallout relative to political power- who would take responsibility. if this had happened in the middle of the bush regime there would have been no opposition from the tea baggers except re whatever rationale was fed through limbaugh and sons to blame the dems (fanny mae/freddie mac, etc).
They also are averse, to put it lightly, to the idea of more government involvement in anything.
except when they want clean water and food without melamine and lead and firemen and roads and courts and so on.
They aren't smart enough to be demonized. They are idiots. It's been standard operating policy of the U.S. for years that "the enemy of our enemy is our friend". Look how well that's worked out. Aligning with the tea baggers is like voting for the Dems.
NateW
Any Democrat votes for this abortion of a bill at their peril. You cannot oppose a vast majority of the country and go unscathed. Ask the Republicans.
Don't just accept that the Tea Party has beeb co-opted by the GOP or that working with FreedomWorks is a sign of anything. As near as I can tell, its still formulating their leadership and iyt won't be the GOP or any of its old hands. They are apparently as pissed at them as they are at this Congress and President.
the tea baggers are dittoheads, just like palin, and they are the same talk radio base that has always done the citizen work for the GOP by believing every word laundered by the think tanks and lobbyists through limbaugh and hannity and beck and the rest of those liars and hatemongers. now they're pissed at being out of power and a lot are just racists. they should be thanking limbaugh and hanity for purging the moderates from the GOP so it is now doomed. at least before they could be the fringe of a major party.
As I've said in other posts, right-wing populists (the Tea Party Members) are dissatisfied with the existing GOP structure, including Limbaugh, Hannity, and Beck. A good number of them and their sympathizers were the GOP "moderates" or Libertarians who were victimized by Bush and the others.
I don't deny the existence of racists and dittoheads, but I think you're making a blanket statement.
Sell-outs, including Obama, of course, are using tea partiers as scapegoats and distractions from the administration's own dastardly deeds. Don't fall for it - AGAIN.
Of course we need to deny him, but why was there no denial when so many were agitating for single payer?
I can not vote no, only the Congress people and not even Sanders is doing that.
Why does not this author argue to Kill the Bill? That would an easier, more immediate and powerful denial?
How many intimate conversations has this guy had with Obomber to be "sure he is a Progressive"
This guys argument collapses on the poll that 40% of Demo's may not vote ----- that would get any "innate politician" to move left.
One must not just stay home but actively vote third party to send a message of a new dynamic.
This is just a little stronger than hold his feet to the fire, singe his feet.
You know what, rotten corpses do not feel fire.
Sorry not far enough, Obama is already a lost cause, the dynamics need to be altered, no more corporate Duopoly, the Demo's as a whole must know move left or be history.
Vote third party.
All Power to All People !!!
P.S. No mention of this progressive's endless wars of terror.
"P.S. No mention of this progressive's endless wars of terror."
Yes, and killing innocents, many of whom are children, is not mentioned. That is criminal according to international law. Granted, they're Muslim children and were very far away from here.
The last time I checked it was still impossible to turn a donkey into a thoroughbred.
"Well, showing him data on where the American people actually stand didn’t help at all. Nearly a dozen polls showed overwhelming support for the public option across the country. That didn’t budge him. There are now polls showing 40% of Democrats are not going to show up in the 2010 elections because they are so disenchanted. It hasn’t even made a dent in Obama."
If by the authors own words Obama cannot be moved by sheer numbers alone then it must follow that it is the continued support of either of the two parties and not the search for a real alternative that is in fact ridiculous.
Remember? He said to make him do it!!
Apparently only the Devil can make him do it
Do they inform him of the recent polls. Signals from the Democratic voters: He's going to lose the next election, and for very good reasons! If these poll numbers don't move him, what will?
Frankly, I believe that Obama was hired for one term only, then the Rs will have at it again. That gives the empire at least 7 more years to continue the agenda, possibly more.
The simple answer to this is:
You cannot.
You want to Deny Obomber big time ?
And with Repug help?
Kill the Fascist Bill !
Find more than ten intelligent honest people in Congress.
Many are intelligent ... few are honest ... fewer are trustworthy ... fewer still those that put their constituents first ...
Obama is a parasite!!! Rahm Emanuel is a parasite. Joe Biden is a parasite. David Axelrod is a parasite. Kethleen Sebelius is a parasite.
"Don't get Sick" --- If your're old or elderly, "Don't get Sick" under ObamaCare....If you love your parents, or humanity itself, then you would be appalled by this bill!!!
Yes, the teabaggers are crazy on many things but on ObamaCare and the Elderly, they are right.....If people do some actual reading of the ObamaCare Bill soon you'd realize that this bill is not KIND to GRANDMA.... Even the crazy teabaggers are correct on something. I suggest people really delve into the healthcare bill about coverage for the elderly and what they will not receive in terms of healthcare coverage.....It ain't pretty and to think the Dems just "love those seniors."
"Yes, the teabaggers are crazy on many things but on ObamaCare and the Elderly, they are right... (sic)"
The teabaggers started showing their asses long before the healthcare financing "reform" bill ever came close to its final form. They oppose any change whatsoever, whether it's this awful bill or truly meaningful change.
Giving the Teabaggers credit for recognizing the problems with "Obamacare" is absurd. They're simply obstructionists and nothing more.
q
Heartily concur.
Agreed. Nearly all of their hysterically vocal objections are from email chain letters that spread absurd lies about the legislation, which is bad enough without being misrepresented, not to mention their favorite idiot on radio.
Excellent insights, Cenk. The question I have is whether people think our current progressive institutions are adequate for this task of placing unyielding pressure on Congress and the President, or if we need something more - perhaps a democratic-socialist electoral party, for one thing (I know, I know, the Green Party could be that, but as a GP veteran, I feel confident saying it ain't going to happen through the GP). This article is talking about increasing left pressure on Obama, but Bernie Sanders (on the Bernancke nomination), Maria Cantwell (on climate change), and Jame Hamsher (on Rahm and Fannie/Freddie) are showing there is room for left-right collaboration in opposition to the corporate state, as well.
Where do we go with that?
Obama has been governing squarely from the center from the beginning (just like Carter and Clinton) and yet they all call him a socialist.
The first thing the left has to do is take the stigma off that term. We need to make 'socialism' and 'socialist' an acceptable place to be. If we do that, the center will have moved.
There is nothing wrong in being an European style socialist country.
Germany, France, Sweden are countries we need to emulate.
Uygur is correct in his analyses that candidate Obama campaigned on a relatively progressive agenda, but after his election he shifted dramatically to an agenda that favored the big international corporations.
But Uygur's conclusions that Obama can be made to shift his priorities by "moving the island," whever that means, are wrong. The reality of Obama is that he is a consummate con-artist. His relaxed demeanor and easy smile inspire trust in people who want to believe. Obama's loyalties all along have been to the giant corporations like Goldman Sachs and Big Pharma that financed his election.
Unfortunately, there are still people like Uygur, who are so blind and unwilling to see this scam artist for what he is.
Wake up suckers, you've been had.
and you just can't wait to vote for palin
Palin would not be much of a change.
As a poster said :
As long as you vote for the lesser of two evils
The lesser evil will get more evil
No, I don't want to vote for Palin, but the left has to become as radicalized as the likes of Palin are. As long as we settle for wishy-washy candidates that cater to fascist corporate dogma, things will only get worse.
Get real!
as long as the left collectively lazily and stupidly ignores the talk radio monopoly, 1000 radio stations blasting coordinated uncontested repetition, its going to get stuck with a compromise between obama and limbaugh/palin.
The only reason the Tea Partiers are out in front of the progressives in taking to the streets is that thanks to Chaney/Bush they woke up to their betrayal earlier. Since Obama just got into office lately the progressives are only now waking up to theirs.
While on opposite sides of spectrum both sides share one thing in common and that is the need to tear the system down. The question is can they put their differences aside long enough to accomplish it.
Cenk Uygur: "I’m sure Obama is a progressive that would help the average American if he thought he could. But apparently he thinks he can’t. He can only bring them a small amount of change because of what he thinks the system will allow.
Response: Hogwash. Obama gave compromised health care before negotiations started. Obama is following Bush's ripping of the constitution in regards to privacy and protecting those who tortured. Obama didn't have to fight the system for this. Obama is expanding America's war on the world. Obama could stop this as Commander in Chief...
Cenk Uygur: Let’s get real, we already lost the health care fight. But luckily, something even more important is up next. Financial reform.
Response: If you are one of the one's needing health care, going bankrupt because health care... you may disagree. Also, let's put this in perspective and reword Cenk's sentence. It should be: ""Let's get real, we already lost the health care fight, torture fight, Middle East policy fight, eavesdropping fight...""
Cenk Uygur: "So, our only hope is to move the island. We have to move his center"
Response: Hogwash. Democratic leaders don't even fake their disdain of Progressives and lack of will to compromise. Moving to the right (moving to his center) only gives them less reason to compromise.
Cenk Uygur: "...And you will permanently be the Republican’s bitches."
Reponse: Another disguised "Vote for us, we (Democrats) are not as bad as Republicans"
Summary: The only way to get their attention is vote independent.
I agree with your analysis, progressive.
"Does he mean well or does he have bad intentions? Come on, don’t be ridiculous. Of course, he means well."
Uygur knows more than I do here! Actually, of course he doesn't "know" any more than I do. This bit comes off to me as a tad too facile, not to say briskly patronizing. No sale.
It's been nigh upon two score years since I read "The Stranger" in high school, one of many seminal works that emphasized the extent to which each of us unconsciously creates an idiosyncratic interpretation of reality inside our heads, then accepts this subjective reality as "objectively" real in our conscious minds.
I'm no scholar of existentialism, but I presume that this enlightened sensibility has been washed away by the coarse and devolved pragmatic realpolitik in which "inside politics" wonks like Uygur remain immersed.
I have absolutely no idea whether Obama's "intentions" are bad or not. By his fruits do I know him, and those are as bad as the worst of his predecessor's. Unlike Uygur, I tend to draw a negative inference instead of a positive one.
So I don't buy the comforting, but essentially fantastic, judgement that Obama "wants" or "would like" to reverse or even temper his slavish alliance with, and unstinting enabling of, the banksters, tycoons, and generals. My own reading of Obama, as noted, is as much as guess as Uygur's-- but I deem Obama to be the proverbial cold fish, a controlling narcissist with an abiding identity crisis.
I don't buy the attractive notion that Obama would start working just as determinedly "for" ordinary people if the polity aligned itself just right to create an opening for him.
Ironically, Uygur's analysis cries out for the old colloquial "folk" saying that if Mohammed will not go to the mountain, one must bring the mountain to Mohammed. I guess such "Mohammed" references have fallen into disuse.
That said, I approve of Uygur's prescription that Democrats should, in effect, spit the bit. I'm pleased that Jane Hamsher "dared" to attack the corrupt and depraved Rahm Emanuel. If nothing else, it's a welcome change of pace from the die-hard liberal-lite "Nation" crowd still desperately supporting Team Obama and the broken political status quo, and even fence-sitters unable or unwilling to venture beyond limited and incremental criticism.
· Yr Obd't Servant
Good comment. Indeed, "By his fruits do I know him". I don't even care anymore what BO's actual values, beliefs, and philosophies may be; all that really matters is what he did, does, didn't do, won't do, etc. I don't find him to be that skilled a speaker anyway, and actions do speak louder than words.
Actually he's having a hard time with his speeches these days.They lack humor or entertainment unlike Bushes speeches. Bush would have said. We are great Americans and we all need wealthcare,I mean healthcare because we're American and we are great and we need to go kick some butt because we can,so bring em on.
HOW TO DO IT
Back before it became senile & self-destructed, we had a labor party in NYS called the Liberal party, that controlled the swing vote in a few congressional districts...NYS allows fusion voting so the Libs could endorse either dems or repubs......that way they could hold the dems feet to the fire and move the agenda to the left.
This really works....look how the Cuban Americans who control two or three congressional districts have stymied both the industry and farm lobbies who are slavering for all that Cuban business that the Canadians are now enjoying.
I am convinced that the way to move Obama is to join & support
the Working Families party, a union party, founded by SEIU...that has a genuinely progressive agenda and plenty of tactical smarts...and knows how to play hardball...Syracuse councilmen who reneged on living-wage pledges lost their seats because of the WFP....so check it out...
Organization is where our strength lies. As the labor hymn says
When the Union's inspiration thru the workers blood has
There's no power that is greater anywhere beneath the sun!
But what on earth is weaker than the feeble strength of one
Solidarity forever! For the union makes us strong!
Sam Abrams
mas.smarba@gmail.com
LOL ...
Andy Stern is a corporate sell out ...
You'll get nothing but back stabbed by him ...
Join the Green Party ...
I have heard that in too many places about Stern. No, I do not feel comfortable with the SEIU.
Stern just praised the Senate Deal ...
He was there when Single Payer advocates were thrown under the bus in the Senate.
Stern is part and parcel of the "Third Way" fascism being pushed by the neoliberals.
I was a member of SEIU. Forget about them!
mmckini:
You bet!
The fusion thing can go both ways. In 1980, Alfonse D'Amato won the Repub primary against an elderly mainstream liberal named Jacob Javits. The Dem was Liz Holtzman who was and is progressive.
The Liberal Party gave their slot to Javits, thus culling enough votes from Hotzman to put D'Amato in. Of course D'Amato was a corrupt pillar of Reaganism, a complete disaster.
Does Cenk Uygur read minds?
That was what this whole exercise was about ...
Total blather ...
Time for pseudo-progressives to spasm for the greater of the two evils; duh, dat'll fix things.
Here's what's progressive: boot on the neck of the governance class.