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Tuesday, December 07, 2010

Core Principles



Obama's argument here is of course very much in line with the arguments I was making prior to the mid-terms, when the sorts of calculations he is talking about really could yield best reforms in the direction of better ideals. I think the circumstances after the mid-terms are different, frankly, and that the nature of the takeover of the GOP by Movement Republican ideologues demands less of this sort of thing and more skepticism about whether "results" obtained in the face of no-longer circumventable Republican obstructionism and anti-governmentality really do enable longer-term reformist goals in any substantial sense from here on out.

Obama seems to believe or is pretending to believe that the greater hand in actual governance dealt the GOP by their mid-term victories will force them to be more pragmatic in ways that will compensate in some small measure for the fragile verging on fictive Democratic super-majority he needed for the real but imperfect accomplishments of his first two years and has now lost. Given the scope and ferocity of Movement Conservative fundraising, organization, and deception/progapanda operations, I personally think Obama is not only wrong to believe this (if he does), but also wrong to think the pretense that he believes it will facilitate governance or progressive reform.

Declarations of core principles tend to be foregrounded in opposition more than in the compromised mess of governance, but I think such conventional wisdom really is unequal to the unprecedented nature of GOP obstructionism and deception. Since little will be accomplished over the next two years that will satisfy those on whom Obama and Democrats more generally depend for election, it will be all the more important to make a spectacle of Core Principles, even at the cost of best effective governance, to highlight differences and energize the Base. That Obama misjudged this need for the mid-terms and may not have learned the lesson of the mid-terms yet does not bode especially well for 2012.

As many will be disappointed to see, however, I am still far from regarding Obama as a stealth Republican or otherwise diabolical figure whatever my disappointments and disagreements (which, I fear, are multiplying) with him. I still consider him the most progressive President since FDR. That this observation is rather sad is as true as the observation itself.

4 comments:

jollyspaniard said...

He got a better deal than I thought he would. Now if only he can do something about military spending.

Dale Carrico said...

I get a "save the hostages" vibe from The Deal -- which makes sense only when followed by "get the hostage takers." Principled Disagreement with the hostage takers is not the same thing as "get the hostage takers."

jollyspaniard said...

The fact that Obama could make a deal where he got what he needed (extension of UI and some stimulus) in the current climate is very encouraging. The world can't afford for the US government to be stuck in sanctimonious paralysis right now.

I wonder how the redneck Tea Party base feels about being thrown under the bus.

Dale Carrico said...

They don't know, or they will be be told the opposite and believe it. Also, they could know and even care, but they won't remember, no-one will remind them, and Obama is black.