Tis the season: the season where reluctant progressives disenchanted with the Democratic Party and a Democratic president get barraged with attacks, entreaties, cajolements, analysis and more.
Consider this my all-wrapped-in-one entry. First, let me tell you where I stand with regard to President Obama’s term so far: he’s been a decent president who missed a chance to be great. His misreading of the politics and political bargaining, his reluctance to reshape the financial system, and his tardiness on fighting for fairness, meant that the real chances for transformative change were missed. Moreover, as is the wont of most presidents, he found a new “perspective” on executive power once it was his to wield. As David Leonhardt writes:
Ideologically, however, [Obama] has largely followed Mr. Clinton’s left-center playbook, preferring a mix of market-based and government solutions (like health-insurance exchanges) to a more radical approach (like Medicare for all). “The Obama presidency is not one in which the Democratic Party has been transformed,” said Julian E. Zelizer, a Princeton historian. “Instead, it has been four and maybe eight years in which the path of the ’90s was solidified.”
I can’t claim to be disappointed. I argued that this was in essence what Obama promised in his 2008 campaign. I thought he could do better as president, especially after the September 2008 financial meltdown. But that’s looking back. Let’s look forward. But let’s abandon the Obama-centric approach and focus instead on the issues. Let’s look forward to how progressives can forward their issue positions in the coming election and beyond. How will supporting President Obama’s reelection help? This is a focus I have forwarded often in the past:
Yes, they are all pols. And they do what they do. Do not fight for pols. Fight for the issues you care about. That often means fighting for a pol of course. But remember, you are fighting for the issues. Not the pols.
What I suggest then is an appraisal of the upcoming election from the perspective of what is at stake, in the short and medium term, for the issues progressives care about. I’ll engage in this exercise below the fold.
