THE SATURDAY AFTERNOON POST
Commentary on events and people of the day from a progressive perspective. BY JACK JODELL.
← ON GROUNDS OF SEDITION, OR WHAT?
KEEP YOUR EYES ON THESE SNEAKY GUYS! →
PUT UP YOUR DUKES, OBAMA!
Posted on June 11, 2012	by jackjodell53
June 11, 2012 By Jack Jodell
It pains me a great deal to write this, but I can no longer deny the truth: President Barack Obama is a political wimp who may very well go down to defeat, needlessly, in the November election. After three and a half years on the job, it has proven to be abundantly clear that what we thought we were electing in 2008 simply wasn't there.
In the last election, the country was in an economic tailspin. There were very real and justified fears that we were about to enter into a depression; one that had signs of possibly being far more devastating and widespread than the Great Depression which began in 1929. After 8 long years of a not-too-bright and far-right laissez-faire capitalist George W. Bush (in concert with a cantankerous and defiant ideologue sidekick by the name of DICK Cheney), most of the country was ready for a big change. So, in desperation, they elected what they hoped would be a man of vision who would chart and lead us on a bold, brand new course, and the nation's first African-American President as well, in Barack Obama.
Obama seemed to charge right out of the gate, as we had hoped and expected him to. He immediately signed an Executive Order directing the closure of the notorious detention center/torture chamber at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. He pressed for and narrowly passed a series of Economic Stimulus packages, bailed out the struggling automotive industry (forcing it to make a number of beeded structural changes in the process), and pushed for and narrowly passed a flawed, but much more inclusive health care plan in the Affordable Care Act. Obama seemed to be everywhere doing everything, and all but the reactionary Republicans loved it.
In a dazzling array of accomplishment for his first year and a half in office, the President seemed to bowl over the Republicans. Neither he nor we knew at that time that a number of key GOP operatives had been meeting and plotting in secret, determined to thwart him at every opportunity. This, of course, would ensure that his administration would be a miserable failure so that they could regain control of Congress in 2010 and retake the White House in 2012. In the summer of 2009 and all the way through to the 2010 midterm elections, various groups of seemingly-very-angry-and-concerned voters seemed to spring up all over the country at once. They adopted the name of the Tea Party movement, and the mainstream media, egged on fiercely by the ridiculously far-right Fox News and the Wall Street Journal, began to report on this movement as if it were an honest, legitimate one, which it certainly was NOT in its early days! For the Tea Party was funded from its inception by far-right, shadowy activists like the notorious Koch Brothers and very conservative political action committees set up and run by defiant ultra-rightists like Dick Armey. Busloads of angry, shouting extremists were deliberately bused-in to Democratic congresspersons' local constituent meetings and were equipped with signs and supplied with talking points to harangue the hapless legislators with. This form of anti-democracy disruption was widely reported (as though it were somehow a spontaneous, random occurrence and not something orchestrated), and managed to rile-up a great number of ill-informed voters (especially among the elderly). It succeeded in returning the House back to Republican control. The fact that sinister reactionary forces had managed to usurp control of the once moderate-right Republican Party by infusing it with a huge slate of uncompromising Tea Party fanatics remains badly unreported and misreported by the mainstream media to this very day! This turn of events was largely avoidable, and here is why:
President Obama always believed he was, and tried to be, the President of ALL the American people, not just the Democrats and Independents who elected him. Consequently, in the early days of his presidency, he repeatedly reached out to Republicans, but his efforts fell miserably flat. They were simply going to have none of it, and showed this in their nearly unanimous (and unprecedented) votes against nearly every single initiative he started or declared to be in favor of. He meekly accepted their behavior rather than justifiably castigating them publicly. He never engaged in LBJ-style arm-twisting, and instead allowed the GOP to walk all over him. He has never effectively used his bully pulpit as a bully pulpit. Resultantly, they never grew to respect or fear him, and this has had disastrous consequences. "You lie!", screamed a very disrepectful GOP congressman named Joe Wilson during one of the President's State of the Union addresses. This, of course, was off the charts in terms of rudeness; even at the start of the Civil War in 1861, then-President Abraham Lincoln was never shown such hostility and utter lack of respect!
Time and again, Obama caved-in on stands he had previously taken, compromising when Republicans themselves had refused to do so. A glaring example of this was how he abandoned completely a public option for his health care bill, as well as abandoning his pledge to end the Bush tax cuts for the rich, but the list has been seemingly endless and almost constant. For his stimulus package, he allowed the GOP to pressure him to include a good many tax cuts, many of which were unnecessary and deficit-building. And then, once the tax cuts were added, the Republicans voted against the bill anyway, almost to a person.
By and large, a precedent has been set, partly with Obama's help. He has either made a pitch for something and immediately had to modify it, or he has agreed to something and then the Republicans have pushed him far to the right of what had been agreed upon. In the process, he has angered his base and repeatedly left them demoralized. Stuffy old Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has shown Obama no political deference whatsoever, and has even declared publicly it is the primary focus of Senate Republicans to make certain the President is denied a second term! Obama unfortunately has shown little desire to browbeat such cheekiness, and has even failed to campaign in the recent crucial recall vote in Wisconsin! It makes one marvel at how such a gutless President can even think voters will re-elect him in the fall.
Obama needs to shed this naive notion that by being fair and inclusive, congressional Republicans will support his agenda and not try to derail it. They are currently smelling blood in the water, and he must take drastic steps NOW to ensure it will be THEIR political blood which will be spilled this fall rather than his. He needs to take off the gloves and Harry Truman these stodgy morons immediately and repeatedly, or he WILL definitely be a one-termer!
That, of course, would mean the already far-too-activist corporatist Supreme Court will grow even more reactionary than it has proven to be already; that the nation's tax system will become even more regressive; our indefensible disparity in wealth will increase rather than decrease; and the military / industrial complex will soon involve us in yet another drawn-out and costly conflict.
THE STAKES ARE FAR TOO HIGH THESE DAYS. OBAMA HAD BETTER PUT UP HIS DUKES AND START COMING OUT SWINGING, AND IMMEDIATELY!
About jackjodell53
I am an American Dissident trapped in a country where poor and middle class people are constantly being exploited and lied to by a very rigid and conservative plutocratic elite. I believe in government OF, FOR, and BY the people, not one controlled as it now is by corporations and special interests.
View all posts by jackjodell53 →
This entry was posted in Bush tax cuts for the rich, capitalism, commentary, conservative Republicans, economics, extremists, Fox "News", Politics, reactionary Republicans, taxes, Tea Party, Uncategorized, very activist Supreme Court and tagged Barack Obama, Dick Armey, DICK Cheney, George Q. Bush, Joe Wilson, LBJ arm-twisting, Mitch McConnell, the Great Depression, the Great Recession, The Koch Brothers. Bookmark the permalink.
4 Responses to PUT UP YOUR DUKES, OBAMA!
S.W. Anderson says:
I think when Republicans refused to go along with raising the debt ceiling last summer, Obama's patience finally gave out, or he woke up to the reality, or something like that. He has since been more forceful in calling Republicans out, in questioning their motives and criticizing them. More, but as you suggest, still not enough.
Obama can't win re-election by bringing a pocket comb or even a knife to a gunfight. He can't do it by being cool and aloof. He can't do it by assuming everyone knows what Republicans' game is and has been all along. Like Truman, he needs to go after them hammer and tongs, loudly and relentlessly.
One other thing Obama needs to do is get out there and make the case for voters to elect solid majorities of Democrats to both houses of Congress, to give him the votes to allow him to get the economy up and running, and growing, at long last. If he mostly just campaigns for himself, he'll lose the chance to accomplish much of anything even if he keeps his job. That's no good for him, for the Democratic brand or, most importantly, for the country.
jackjodell53 says:
S.W.,
It is a real mystery to me that Obama has failed to go after Republicans "hammer and tongs" as you say he should. Certainly at this time where a majority clearly see the GOP in a negative way, as obstructionist and unyielding, he ought to be ripping them to shreds out on the campaign trail and persuading voters that only a strong Democratic congressional majority with a progressive bent is the only cure for the nation's ills.But so far, he has treated the campaign as if it were some sort of college classroom experiment. It is maddening to see him piss away this golden opportunity to rebuild Congress in his own image and likeness, and is instead almost enabling the reactionaries.
Jack, Obama would stand a better chance of going into business with Mitch McConnell and John Boehner, after their political careers are over, than he would of "rebuilding Congress in his own image and likeness." If Obama were to have a Democratic-controlled Senate, 65-35, and similarly tilted House, he'd be lucky to get winning support in both chambers 65 percent of the time. Historically, in that situation, Congress starts asserting its independence. Some of the fiercest tug-of-war situations between the White House and the Hill have occurred when a Democrat was president and Democrats controlled both houses of Congress.
You're right, of course, but chaotic Democratic congresses have also had the history of passing a good deal of landmark legislation. Regardless, they are still far preferable to a backward-looking Republican one.
A PROGRESSIVE BREATH OF FRESH AIR!
TIME FOR THE KIDNAPPER-IN-CHIEF TO DO SOME SERIOUS TIME AT HARD LABOR!
Don't Compare Us to Nazis
UTTERLY INHUMAN AND HEARTLESS – THESE JERKS HAVE GOT TO GO!!!
Confessions of a Bigot
"free market" economics
alternative news media
Bozo of the Year
Bush tax cuts for the rich
conservative Republicans
corporatist
DONALD OF THE YEAR AWARD
Extreme Court
Fox "News"
FREE SPEECH TV
hidden corporate tax on the people
LINK TV
Lying TV ads
Mitt Romney'd LIES
Mitt Romney's LIES
Presi-dense Donald Chump
Presi-dunce Donald Chump
President Donald Chump
reactionary CON-servative Republicans
reactionary Republicans
religion – Pope Francis
RESPECTFUL REVOLUTION
Robert Greenwald
Sinclair Broadcast Group (SBG)
Tea Party-infested reactionary Republican Party
Tea Party-infested reactionary Republicans
the 1%
THE MAJORITY 99%
very activist Supreme Court
wealth disparity
Wisconsin workers
(the old) Saturday afternoon post
A New Global Myth
Beggars Can Be Choosers
BRIDGE THE GULF PROJECT.ORG
CITIZEN JOURNALISTS EXCHANGE
Democracy Central
FAIR AND UNBALANCED.COM
JACK PINE RADICALS
jobsanger
LEFT OF THE LOOKING GLASS
Mad Mike's America
Man With the Muckrake
Manifesto Joe's Texas Blues
Max;s Dad
Mike Stimpson
MINDS AND TIMES
PARSLEY'S PICS
Plutocrap
POOR MAGAZINE
POPULAR RESISTANCE.ORG/
PROGRESSIVE ERUPTIONS
ROUNDTREE7
Swiftspeech
The Brain Police
The Immoral Minority
THE PROGRESSIVE PROFESSOR
The Wild Wild Lwft
Tim's Thoughtful Spot
TRUTHOUT.ORG/
Urban Pink
Wat would jack do
Welcome to Pottersville2
Wgere's The Outrage?
Who Hijacked our Country?