General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: The imminent backlash of the Democratic Left. [View all]cheapdate
(3,811 posts)The progressive movement has existed for more than a century. It's brought lasting change for the good; for a more just and humane society. I say "lasting change" rather than "permanent change" because what's been won can also be lost. The right is always there and always ready to take back what progressives have won. Right-wing populism fanned by the likes of Pat Buchannon or Tom Tancredo could easily sweep away hard won achievements of the progressive century.
FDR was our greatest progressive president and yet he stubbornly resisted expanding the civil rights of African Americans and he egregiously violated the rights of Japanese Americans in the name of national security. Lyndon Johnson probably did more to reduce poverty than any president before or since, and yet he fabricated the Gulf of Tonkin incident in order to expand our deadly and brutal war in southeast Asia.
President Obama has presided over many controversial policies and initiatives. His stance on matters of national security and counter-terrorism raises serious moral and ethical questions that deserve to be debated with the utmost urgency. Many other policy areas raise similar serious questions and warrant the urgent attention of all concerned Americans.
President Obama has also presided over the greatest assault from the right against American's voting rights since the Jim Crow era. These attacks, fueled by the right and spearheaded by the anti-democratic ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council), have exploded across the country in state after state. The administration and the Department of Justice have vigorously defended voting rights and have aggressively challenged these infringements. They have been successful in many of these cases. The Obama administration has stood firm in opposition to these many anti-democratic attempts by the right to restrict and dilute the ability of all Americans to exercise their right to vote. The issue went to the Supreme Court where unfortunately, the right wing Roberts court nullified important sections of the voting rights act. The administration and the Department of Justice continue to use every tool at their disposal to challenge this extremely troubling assault on the basic idea of government by the people.
The prominence of Elizabeth Warren is in part a direct result of the president's nominating her to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The fierceness with which the right opposes this president is due in no small part to the myriad unsung battles taking place in the federal bureaucracy as the administration wades through the long task of undoing the work that Bush administration spent eight long years of furious and deliberate effort accomplishing.
I won't go into any more long specifics. But, though you may disagree, I believe that history will remember the Obama presidency as the period when this country's unprecedented 30-year swing to the right finally began to reverse.