Obama's Post-Election Moves Make Some Wonder About "Change"

Judging by the proliferation of capital letters in the e-mail
correspondence I receive, many seem worried that Barack Obama may not
deliver the promised "change we can believe in."

After voters rejected the mantra of free trade and deregulation,
some contacting me say they are upset about Obama hiring so many
free-trading deregulators who birthed today's economic mess.

With the President-elect having touted his opposition to the Iraq
war, some are bothered "that Obama's national-security team will be
dominated by appointees who favored the Iraq invasion and hold hawkish
views," as the Los Angeles Times reports.

Others recall Obama insisting that "change doesn't come from
Washington, change comes to Washington," and say they are dismayed that
his government will be run by Washington insiders. And still others are
confused that Obama championed a progressive platform but, as The
Nation's Chris Hayes notes, "not a single, solitary, actual
dyed-in-the-wool progressive" has been floated for a major Cabinet
position.

To my fearful letter writers, I offer three responses.

First, I counsel not fretting too much yet. While there is truth to
the notion that "personnel is policy," crises can make radicals out of
former Establishmentarians, and the president-elect's initial
declarations imply a boldly progressive agenda. "Remember, Franklin
Roosevelt gave no evidence in his prior career that he would lead the
dramatic sea change in American politics that he led," says historian
Eric Rauchway.

Second, I tell e-mailers they are right to be somewhat distressed,
right to ignore Obama loyalists who want them to shut up, and right to
speak out. When President Clinton rammed George H. W. Bush's NAFTA
through Congress after candidate Clinton pledged not to, he provided
ample reason to now recollect the saying "Fool me once, shame on you;
fool me twice, shame on me."

And voicing concern is critical. As Frederick Douglass said, "Power concedes nothing without demand."

Finally, I ask my pen pals if they are really shocked.

Despite the election's progressive mandate, Obama is not what Ronald
Reagan was to conservatives - he is not as much the product of a
movement as he is a movement unto himself. He figured out that because
many "progressive" institutions are merely Democratic Party appendages
and not ideological movement forces, he could build his own movement.
He succeeded in that endeavor thanks to the nation's Bush-inspired
desire for change, his own skills and a celebrity-obsessed culture.

Though many Obama supporters feel strongly about particular issues,
and though polling shows the country moving left, the Obama movement
undeniably revolves around the president-elect's individual stardom -
and specifically, the faith that he will make good decisions, whatever
those decisions are.

Obama likely feels little obligation to hire staff intimately
involved in non-Obama movements - especially those who might challenge
a Washington ruling class he may not want to antagonize.

This is the mythic "independence" we're supposed to crave - a czar
who doesn't owe anyone. It is the foreseeable result of a Dear
Leader-ism prevalent in foreign autocracies, but never paramount in
America until now - and it will have its benefits and drawbacks.

Wielding his campaign's massive e-mail list, the new president could
mobilize supporters to press Congress for a new New Deal. Or, he could
mobilize that army to blunt pressure on his government for a new New
Deal. The point is that Obama alone gets to choose - that for all the
talk of "bottom-up" politics, his movement's structure grants him a
top-down power that no previous president had.

For better or worse, that leaves us relying more than ever on our
Dear Leader's impulses. Sure, we should be thankful when Dear Leader's
whims serve the people - but also unsurprised when they don't.