Bob Cesca, HuffPo: Progressives, Obamabots and a Realistic Evaluation of the President

[highplainsdem]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-cesca/progressives-obamabots-an_b_1215133.html

I am no one's disciple. However, any attempt at an objective view of both the progressive and broader accomplishments of the Obama administration has been histrionically, unfairly and chronically mislabeled as the blind allegiance of an "Obamabot" or "Obama apologist." Therefore, because I've been attempting to observe the successes and failures of President Obama and peg them according to both historical precedent and modern political reality, I've been accordingly mislabeled.

That said, the goal of this essay isn't to antagonize or kneejerk in reaction to the most caustic anti-Obama attackers, or to acquiesce to their misguided view of the president and his achievements. In fact, I've been struggling recently to come up with a line of reasoning that will facilitate a sort of Progressive Détente. This post is meant to continue and expand that process -- perhaps in futility, perhaps not.

-snip-

I hate to have to preface anything with qualifiers like this, but, likewise, I disagree with the president on a number of things despite firmly believing that his record has been successful within the frame of progressivism as well as within the frame of the average American voter. Since it's mandatory to do so in order to be taken seriously these days in certain progressive circles, I vocally spoke out against the debt deal and cautioned that spending cuts would harm economic growth. I argued against anti-gay preacher Rick Warren delivering the invocation at the inauguration. At every mention, I've opposed the continuation of the war on terror and, with it, indefinite detention. I opposed the president signing the four-year renewal of the USA PATRIOT Act. The expansion of TSA body scanners is an on-going source of disgust. I can't get beyond the fact that Joe Biden supported the Bush-era bankruptcy bill. I have repeatedly spoken out against the president repeating the meme that tax cuts create jobs. I wasn't happy with the signing of the NDAA, though not for all of the reasons anti-Obama critics have (often erroneously) enumerated. Oh, and I once wrote a piece here comparing the president to George McFly, for crying out loud. The fits-nicely-into-140-characters reaction that I'm an Obamabot is, at best, inaccurate.

Since the beginning of the Obama presidency, though, I've been beating the drum for "smart accountability" in the progressive movement -- a path for the movement to maintain its credibility and a means of consistently holding leadership accountable for its actions, while also not shooting the broader movement in the foot by ostracizing and undermining the most progressive-friendly administration in generations with screechy white noise and perpetually dissatisfied griping.

-snip-

Cesca suggests that "progressives should make a case for their position to the friendlier leader without seeming irrational or unreasonable" because "if dissatisfaction isn't modulated and tempered, and, instead, progressives lapse into apoplexy at every headline, their views get lost in a cacophonous blast of nothing."

He concludes, "The central question is this: should we undermine the most progressive-minded president in at least a generation and will his failure to attain a second term help or hurt the progressive cause? Will his failure pave the way for a more progressive president or a less progressive president? At the gate of an election year this is the debate on the left. I hold out hope that it will be a unifying one."

[highplainsdem]

1. Thanks for the recs!

[DevonRex]

7. This post deserves recs.

Very well thought-out article and your comments were spot on.

[Honeycombe8]

2. I agree with the thrust of the article. Generally a successful three years...

considering what the country had to deal with.

[FarLeftFist]

3. This article elevates the discussion in a simple, effective way. by stating this:

"should we undermine the most progressive-minded president in at least a generation and will his failure to attain a second term help or hurt the progressive cause? Will his failure pave the way for a more progressive president or a less progressive president?"

And THAT'S the thing that makes the anti-Obama crowd on the Left look so delusional to the rest of us.

[DevonRex]

4. Excellent article. I listen to Maddow for the

reasons he gives in this piece. The hysterical cacophony? Never. I liked this part:

"Since the beginning of the Obama presidency, though, I've been beating the drum for "smart accountability" in the progressive movement -- a path for the movement to maintain its credibility and a means of consistently holding leadership accountable for its actions, while also not shooting the broader movement in the foot by ostracizing and undermining the most progressive-friendly administration in generations with screechy white noise and perpetually dissatisfied griping."

[renegade000]

5. DING DING DING

"if dissatisfaction isn't modulated and tempered, and, instead, progressives lapse into apoplexy at every headline, their views get lost in a cacophonous blast of nothing"

this is pretty much true of giving any feedback to anyone, if the aim is legitimately to try to influence behavior and not just score points with an audience.

this is not to say one cannot be harsh/passionate about issues and voice this passion... but always and forever having the outrage knob cranked to 11 and never praising good actions is just fatalistically self-defeating.

it's also why I take criticism of Obama from people like Paul Krugman and Juan Cole much more seriously than those that blare maximal opprobrium 24/7 and refuse to praise good actions out of spite...

[DevonRex]

8. That's exactly it. I listen to constructive criticism

but never to people who continually say the sky is falling and we are all doomed. It's just silly and I treat them like I do Limbaugh.

[deacon]

6. K + R

[hfojvt]

9. What boggles my mind

is how somebody can consider a President who goes around "repeating the meme that tax cuts create jobs" to be the "most progressive-minded President in at least a generation."

I am old enough to have lived through two Clinton terms and I was 30 and paying attention when Clinton was first elected. In many ways Obama seems even worse than Clinton, and I detested Clinton so much that I did not vote for him in either election. As far as I could see in 1992, Clinton, Bush Sr., and Perot were all moderate Republicans and I voted for "none of the above". In 1996, Dole was certainly worth defeating, but I was still very unhappy with Clinton. Since Clinton was projected to win in a cakewalk, I felt like I had the luxury of casting a meaningless protest vote to express my disgust with Clinton.

This 2012 business is even more heartbreaking and infuriating because it seemed like we, the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, the Paul Wellstone wing, had at last and finally defeated the DLC wing in the primary. The Clintons and their triangulating had been rejected, by a slim majority, but still rejected.

Then time goes on and we, or at least I, come to see that there was not really a dime's worth of difference between Obama and Hillary. In fact, it seems like Obama is even worse. Instead of triangulating, his strategery is capitulation. Capitu-fucking-lation.

So much for hope and change. So much for 'yes we can'. Yes we can? Yes we can what?

Yes we can unconditionally surrender to the Republicans? Yes we can insert Republican memes into the Democratic platform? Yes we can embrace the mandate and dump the public option?

Sorry, but if this is the best we can do, it is not nearly good enough.

[highplainsdem]

10. I don't think any progressives have "the luxury of casting a meaningless protest vote" now.

The country has been moved too far to the right already, thanks to the vast right-wing conspiracy Hillary Clinton so accurately identified -- the vast network of right-wing media and think tanks and groups like the American Legislative Exchange Council.

Our "meaningless protest vote" is their "thanks for the opportunity, sucker." At both the national and state level.

And that's even more the case now with so many new restrictions on voting, largely orchestrated by ALEC and designed to entrench right-wing corporate rule by disenfranchising Democrats. There's entirely too much of that already, without any Democrats in effect disenfranchising themselves through "meaningless protest votes."

[FarLeftFist]

11. I don't know, Yes WE can, what? What part of that WE did you help? He didn't say Yes I can.

[hfojvt]

12. yeah, that tired old line has never made any sense

What exactly was I supposed to do to get Obama to do the things he promised to do when elected, specifically, reverse the Bush tax cuts for the rich. Considering my meager resources and power, I think that I did quite a bit. Far far more than the caver-in-chief, who by the way has been paid $1.2 million plus benefits for the last three years.

But since the American voter still has no power, let's not hold the guy paid $1 million accountable. No, let's blame the people who voted for him for HIS lack of EFFORT. It's our fault that Obama has decided to promote Republican memes.

With friends like that, do progressives really need enemies?

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

13. Holding a public servant accountable is the responsibility of the people in a democracy.

Unfortunately, some see doing so in the case of Obama as "undermining" said public servant.

Not to mention that he asked us to "hold his feet to the fire".

[Major Hogwash]

14. Obamabots, Obamatrons, syncophants. What else have they got, but namecalling?

When they threw the kitchen sink at Senator Obama in 2008, he didn't duck, he just brushed it off.

BOHICA!!