Obama Ditches the Centrists: How a Break From Neoliberalism Boosted His Popularity

[Hissyspit]

http://www.salon.com/2015/01/17/obama_ditches_the_centrists_how_a_break_from_neoliberalism_boosted_his_populariy

SATURDAY, JAN 17, 2015 08:00 AM EST

Obama ditches the centrists: How a break from neoliberalism boosted his popularity

The president's more popular than he's been in nearly two years. Here's why that should have neoliberals scared

ELIAS ISQUITH

All that said, both Wang’s data and an anecdotal impression of recent (not-conservative) media will tell you that Obama’s ascending popularity kicked off sometime between late November and mid-December. Not incidentally, this was also the period when the president began not only acting more aggressively in terms of using his power unilaterally, which he’s actually been doing in some form or another since last year, if not earlier, but also supporting policies that could be easily characterized as typically liberal. In November, he announced a major change in how the federal government handled undocumented immigrants, which predictably cost him support from working-class whites but further established his party as the pluralist, multicultural alternative to the overwhelmingly white GOP. And in December, he not only spoke more frankly about his blackness than he had at any point in his presidency, but also announced a break from a half-century-plus-old policy by taking steps to normalize relations with Cuba.

Having walked head-on toward what have historically been two of the Republicans’ most effective attacks on Democrats — the party’s association with nonwhites and its “softness” in the realm of foreign policy, especially regarding communists — Obama went even further in January by unveiling a plan to offer millions of Americans a college education for free. He did this despite the fact that the policy would easily be described by conservatives as promoting “big government” (as indeed it was), and despite the fact that the plan’s funding would be unapologetically redistributionist. Much more than the Affordable Care Act, which also relied on using high-end taxes to provide health insurance for the working class and the poor but did so through an embrace of subsidies and by relying on market incentives, Obama’s college plan represented a straightforward argument for having government do what a broken market could not. This was not a DLC, neoliberal-style proposal to encourage the market to act, through outsourcing and tax incentives. This was simply using government.

To many, that probably seems like a distinction without a difference. But that would only be true if the neoliberal model of deregulation, outsourcing, privatization and free trade that was made Democratic Party orthodoxy by Bill Clinton (and Labour Party orthodoxy by Tony Blair) could actually reach traditional liberal ends through traditionally conservative means. You’ll certainly be able to find those who disagree, but I believe the verdict is in, and it is negative. That doesn’t mean the era of neoliberal government is over, of course; there are still plenty of high-profile “New Democrats,” like Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo or the woman who is likely to be the party’s next presidential nominee. For that matter, Obama’s recent “My Brother’s Keeper” initiative and his continued support for the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade proposal show that he himself has hardly made a clean break from the “third way.”

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[Tierra_y_Libertad]

2. Neo-liberalism is to Liberalism what Botulism is to nutrition.

[whereisjustice]

7. +1

[n2doc]

3. Until he ditches the TPP I won't believe it.

And Common Core.

[Populist_Prole]

11. +1

Populist is, as populist does.

[malaise]

4. He should have ditched them from day one

Neo-liberalism is a worse failure than communism.

[Vattel]

5. He has improved! And his DOJ is now ditching civil forfeiture. More progress.

[JDPriestly]

6. Neo-Liberalism has failed.

[WillyT]

8. K & R !!!

[Martin Eden]

9. Who is the real Obama?

The one who catered to centrists the first 6 years of his presidency, or the one who ditched them after it was pretty much too late to get meaningful legislation passed?

[zeemike]

10. It's nice but too late.

Now that we have the GOP in the congress nothing will or can be done about what he says.
So what he says means nothing, it is just to make us feel good...and perhaps sucker us into a Trojan horse.

[KG]

12. heh. um, no.

[muriel_volestrangler]

13. Looking at the Gallup presidential approval figures:

http://www.gallup.com/poll/124922/Presidential-Job-Approval-Center.aspx

The upswing is stronger for older age groups (65+: +6% in the last 4 weeks, 50-64 +2%, 30-49 +3%, 18-29 -2%);
Midwest +4%, South +3%, East and West unchanged;
White +4%, Black -4%, Hispanic -5%;
College graduates +6%, non-graduates +1%;
Liberals +1%, Moderates +6%, Conservatives -2%
Married +6%, unmarried no change.

So it looks like it's moderates that he's appealing more to now (moderate Democrats +4%, liberal/moderate Republicans +3%, liberal Democrats +2%, conservative Democrats +2%, conservative Republicans -1%, 'pure independents' -7%).

[whatchamacallit]

14. Too little, too late

If ya ask me.

[wyldwolf]

15. eh

Here's a dose of Political reality. Obama doesn't have another election to win. Democrats have already lost Congress. He can throw red meat to Progressives now without worrying about congressional battles. Just make a lot of noise, throw in a few executive orders and let the next batch of candidates defend or run from them as they will. Obama will never have to.

Where were all these lofty promises when Dems controlled all three branches?

The comments on the piece are much more insightful than the actual article.

Since Obama's record has been uniformly neoliberal; he now has no hope of getting liberal legislation through Congress, making the community college initiative purely symbolic; he's still pushing the utterly neoliberal "free trade" agreements; and the utterly neoliberal Ms. Clinton is slated to be the party's next nominee - I think Mr. Isquith has succumbed to a sudden onslaught of wishful thinking.

"Obama’s clearly begun to reverse the rightward drift his party has experienced over the past generation."

That's bold assertion based on a month or two of slightly tweaked policy prescriptions with no hope of being passed into law.

If/when the Democratic party legislators also start fighting for real liberal solutions and passing them when they have the opportunity to do so, then such a statement would be appropriate.

[bbgrunt]

17. +1

[navarth]

16. As the Jimmy Rushing recording would say...

'Sent For You Yesterday, Here You Come Today'

(He recorded it with the Count Basie Orchestra. Check it out. You won't be sorry.)

[DerekG]

18. Far too late for Mr. Hope n' Change

Had he used his '09 mandate to prosecute the banksters, he'd be as popular as FDR. As it is, he's left scrambling for a legacy.

[Unknown Beatle]

20. He has a couple of years

left with both houses controlled by repugs, so it's just smoke he's blowing in our faces.

He pushed hard for the provision that dismantled part of Dodd-Frank. Yeah, that's breaking from Neoliberalism alright.