ROBERT REICH: Obama & Dems--DON'T move right after election

[yurbud]

Coming from someone who worked in the Clinton cabinet, this is pretty extraordinary. It also fits with http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_world_liberal_opportunists_made_20101025/">Chris Hedges' very depressing analysis of the liberal governing class.

He also said that Democratic voters are more easily discouraged, but and become fractured after loss, but I suspect that has more to do with candidates that they worked hard to get elected ''moving to the center'' once in office, carrying water for corporations, and then pissing on their base and telling them it's raining.

Also, as we saw with Obama, Dems not only move to the ''center'' when they lose, they do it when they WIN--even when they win a supermajority. They let it appear like the handful of openly corporate Democrats are somehow coercing the progressive majority to do their will yet do not use any of the means at their disposal to move those miscreants to the left on crucial issues.

The reason they do so is no mystery: further right is where the corporate money is for donations now and fat paying jobs as lobbyists, CEOs, and do-nothing board members when they leave office.

Washington might think they can play this game of ''right and righter'' forever, but eventually the public is going to figure out how to throw a monkey wrench in the machine.

Why are Democratic presidents so much more easily intimidated by the "move to the center" rhetoric after midterm losses than Republican presidents?

Because Democrats think in terms of programs, policies, and particular pieces of legislation. It's easy to reverse course by compromising more and giving up on legislative goals. Bill Clinton never mentioned the words "health care reform" after the 1994 midterms.

Republicans think in terms of simple ideas, themes, and movements. It's far harder to reverse course on these (look what happened to the first George Bush when he raised taxes), and easier to keep them alive: Republican presidents just continue looking for opportunities to implement them.

***

Message to Obama: Whatever happens November 2, don't move to the center. Push even harder for what you believe in. Message to Democrats: Whatever happens, keep the courage of your conviction and get even more active.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-reich/after-the-midterms-why-de_b_773672.html

[butterfly77]

1. That's right!

recommended and kick..

[whathehell]

2. K & R

[Fearless]

3. At this point I'd welcome a move to center... As in back to the left a bit.

:eyes:

[Enthusiast]

7. No shit.

I'm with you. This looking forward, coddle the oil industry and MIC criminals doesn't get it.

[T Wolf]

4. I think it can be asked, "What does Obama believe in?" His actions have been to slow or stop

any policies that are "liberal" in any fashion while actively moving to the right on many others.

Relying on him to hold back the regression after the election is foolish. He did shit with majorities in both houses and will do even less when faced with a rethug House and Senate.

He will take the election results as an excuse to go even further right than he already has.

[emilyg]

14. I'm afraid you're right.

[KoKo]

5. Republicans govern by ideology...Democrats by...?

I don't even know what Dems govern by. If it was ideology then Democratic Leaders in House and Senate would penalize those Dems who don't vote with majority by stripping them of Committee Appointments and Chairs. They could withdraw the money support ...and they could use the tools that Repugs use whether they are in the majority or minority. But, doing that would mean you had support and confiction by a guiding set of principles that the Dem Party and constituents would demand.

Our Dem Party seems to try to put up Charismatic Presidents who appeal to "the masses" and seem very populist in general..but none of them are confined by a particular ideology that would hold them accountable the way Republican Movements and Themes with support from Conservative groups and the RW Think Tanks do.

By now I would have thought we would have a movement by now..sadly.

[yurbud]

8. Since FDR, Dems have been ''Third Way'' between socialism & unregulated capitalism. The problem:

GOP moves to the right, and instead of calling the GOP extremist, the Dems call their own previous positions extremist and move to a middle that is farther right, so that today, someone who governed like Nixon or Eisenhower would be to the left of the Democrats.

[KoKo]

9. Yes...but WHY have we not been able to build a Democratic Movement!

With all we've been through these years? Think of the Dem Assassinations, the push against Carter where there's enough evidence that the Hostage Crises that brought him down was minipulated by Repugs and then through Reagan and Poppy Bush who was so ineffectual that he was brought down...to Clinton, Monica Lewinsky (What was Clinton Thinking?) and then onto Bush II (Back to the Old Regime) and then Kerry (Lack of Charisma and his VP turns out to be prone to women problems) then to Obama (Change We Can Believe In!/"The Audacity of Hope) and here we are again. LOSERS....

What happened to MOVEMENT BUILDING? WHY DO OUR DEMS TAKE THIS SHIT? BECAUSE we DO NOT HAVE A MOVEMENT!

[southernyankeebelle]

6. I voted for a democrat but he has 2 yrs and if the democrats don't really do what their

center left want then I WILL stay home. Why bother voting if we are voting for republican lite.

[KoKo]

10. I think he has maybe a year..if that. No reform...Dems discouraged...

Remember Campaign 2012 starts after the Mid-Terms for the Mainstream Media! So, if there's No Reform ...Repugs join in even if they get what they want. Reading the Financial Sites it's going to be a hard, long slog for our country and it's citizens no matter whether the Repugs or Dems Control Congress. What Bush and Obama gave away...is setting the scenario for the future. And, the future is grim no matter who wins.

And, to try to put a challenger in to Obama for Progressive Left will be met with huge opposition. Where would such a challenger come from? Nader/Kucinich/Gravel are all out. Others who could have been strong are dead like Wellstone and there's no MOVEMENT that can AGREE on any kind of PROGRESSIVE PATH...because we are waiting on our PRESIDENT...(Hope and Change) to have TWO YEARS TO PULL RABBITS OUT OF HAT!

What do we do? We have to hope that the Pollsters and Media are reading this Mid-Term all wrong. That Dems will HOLD with few losses ...therby giving a SURPRISE to the REPUGS/CORPORATISTS/WALL STREET.

If we all get out there and VOTE then we COULD MAKE A DIFFERENCE. But, if we lose then there is so much work to get done...and WHO WILL BE LEFT...LEFT enough to do it? Or, do we drift off into a morass with another Repug President elected in 2012 and he's a Place Holder during a REVOLUTION...because the country is such a mess that it cannot be held back anymore.

If Obama and Democrats don't change course...I fear Obama is a One Termer. I'm an older politico...and these are my thoughts for what they are. My first vote was cast for JFK. I've seen a lot throught the years ..and always been a Democrat. But, these are "Times that Try Men's (women's) SOULS and REAL CHANGE MUST COME. I really don't want to live through the terrible times I see coming..but it might HAVE TO COME...

We have an Open Book and the Blank Pages are yet to be written in it as to how it could go. History however does provide clues. And Past Performance should be some part of evaluating which strategy should be used to Move Forward when "THE COMPANY" is in deep trouble and there is "UNREST" in the LAND (or Corporate Community) as things are these days with WHO REALLY RUNS AMERICAN GOVERNMENT.

[jonthebru]

11. Please, don't back away.

I always figure his field is so much bigger than what we know about and proceed to give him the benefit of the doubt.
We as individuals must participate and make decisions along the way. Don't leave it to the other side. That is exactly what they want us to do, that in fact is the only way the right wins, by driving off Progressives with negativity and force.
You wonder how some people can sleep at night but I'll bet Karl Rove and his henchmen sleep like babies...

[northernlights]

12. they don't need to move right.

they're already there. They'd practically have to move left to be on the right. At this point, they're one step behind the rightwing nutcases falling of the edge of the earth. :(

[Lorien]

13. Exactly. nt

[elleng]

15. People here STILL don't understand difficulty of governing,

even after Daily Show interview?

FOLKS, OPEN YOUR EYES. GOVERNING MEANS COMPROMISE, and even when that occurrs, HUGE THINGS have been accomplished.

[Liberal Insights]

16. Obama compromised BEFORE negotiation began!

The trouble with Obama was that he compromised BEFORE the negotiation began.
We didn't end up wih a lousy health care reform because he couldn't get anything better. He never fought for single payer, never tried to get the insurance profits out of helath care, never fought to force the drug companies to lower costs by COMPETING. As a result we have "insurance" that "pays" outrageous prices to drug companies and then presents outrageous bills to the government (i.e. us tax-payers.
E.g. my wife is about to enter the "donut" hole, which means she will have to pay the whole cost of medicines for the rest of the year. That happened because the drug companies charge $ 140 for 30 Plavix tablets. Canadians can get SIX TIMES that many generic Plavix for that same price! But Obama made a deal with the drug companies to KEEP the most outrageous features of Bush's "medicare Part D" scam, before negotations on his health care reform had even begun.

It's NOT what Obama couldn't accomplish that bothers informed liberals; it's what he COULD have accomplished, by ddin't even TRY to accomplish.

[depakid]

18. That preemptive compromise on oil drilling was a doozy too, eh?

Not that the administration wasn't already approving a record number of offshore leases even before the ill timed and ill fated "compromise"

[Skittles]

21. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

you're the one who needs to open your eyes

[docvet]

17. SAD!

The problem with obama is that he caters to his corporate overlords and could care less about we the sheeple. Boggles the mind that in this day and age people still want to believe in politicians as saviours. Deluded!

[tylerinthe206]

19. amen to that! Keep moving Mr President!

we will have 2 more years of GOP gridlock, it looks like.

[denpat1]

20. I refuse to get depressed

But its very hard

[Doctor_J]

22. Too late. Prez is already "considering" extending Bush's top-heavy tax cuts

afraid the ship has sailed.