Dear America,
There's no use complaining about the decision that the American people made on Tuesday. But I can't help wondering why they did it. The last time we had a Republican legislature on the national level they passed bills, and a Republican president signed them, that enabled an accretion of wealth at the top levels of our society that is deleterious to the economic progress of the rest of us as individuals, and surely, America, you remember that because the effects are still with us. And for the eight years since--during which the Republicans have had and exercised a veto power over everything that the Democrats have tried to do except for the Affordable Care Act that was passed into law during the few months of the lame duck session of 2010--we have experienced a putatively Democratic-in-name-only legislature, and then a putatively Democratic Senate with a definitely Republican House of Representatives, that has had no function but to thwart President Obama...not the Democrats, but President specifically. The result of this de facto Republican hegemony has been an economic disaster from which all but the very rich have not really recovered and perhaps never will, two wars that have lasted almost a decade and a half in one case, and a level of acrimony and pure spitefulness that has never been seen before. Now, we have given the Republicans control of the legislature again, though their control of The Senate is also only putative if the Democrats decide to reciprocate for the Republicans' recalcitrance over the past six years. The sniping has already begun just one day after the election; Mitch McConnell has warned that The President's statement of his intention to amend immigration policy with executive orders if the congress doesn't act portends to be a "red flag to a bull." But at the same time, both sides are professing a renewed intention to cooperate across party lines. My guess is that it isn't going to happen, and recent history certainly supports my presumption.
I don't like being a pessimist, but in this instance, I can't help myself. President Obama held a news conference on the day after the election...during the business day. I only know about the news conference because as I was cruising through the vapid channels on my television that night, I happened across it on C-span. No one watches C-span who isn't a part of the government itself, and even they don't watch it at night. What that suggests is that President Obama will continue in his diffident, if not pusillanimous, way for the next two years by refusing to present his ideas to the American electorate at a time--prime time on television--and at a place--the White House in either speeches or press conferences--at which he can make a significant impression on the electorate. Frankly, I consider the Obama administration to be the worst thing that has happened to progressives since FDR died, and not because of opposition to the progressive platform. Obama is a progressive, but he has pursued progressive goals with such reticence and innocuousness that I can only conclude that at heart, he is nothing but a political poltroon rather than the night errant that he purported to be when he ran for office in 2008. There is no point in saying that I am disappointed; who cares whether I am disappointed. I don't even care. But the damage done to the progressive movement has been profound. The majority of the American people have now been inoculated against it by the half-hearted exposure they have had to it since Barrack Obama took office. It's going to take something profound to reverse the inuring of a nation to what is best for it and most reflective of who we are.
But there is still time. If The President will "screw [his] courage to the sticking place," as Lady MacBeth counseled her husband, "...we will not fail." Obama must confront the policies and practices of the Republican Party by going to "The People," and not at noon time in a factory in Ohio. That just allows the news media, including Fox and CNN, to cherry pick his remarks for the most provocative words and phrases without putting them in context. The President must present his case live in prime-time on the major networks so that no one is free to characterize what he says or repeat it elliptically so as to turn it on its head. It is not the nation that needs him most. It is his political creed, and if he doesn't buck up and do his job--which is as much to stand powerfully for what he believes as it is to just articulate it--he will be a failure despite "Obamacare," which in spite of Republican characterization is a success, though far short of the single payer system we need. Barrack Obama is destined to go down in history right above George W. Bush and Herbert Hoover on the list of effective presidents, and that is at the bottom of the list no matter who is making it. If I could gain Obama's ear, I would say, we progressives are your choir, Mr. President. Speak to us, and everyone will hear you. That's the only way to change your fate.
Your friend,
Mike
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