With campaign season here, Obama is taking up a more progressive posture. And I like the sound of it. But if you consider the political reality, and the investment (or lack of) in political capital, you see the bald-faced sloganeering that is happening. And you become even more disenchanted with the lack of a pro-family, pro-worker (forget pro-gressive) agenda, and see how the White House is pro-CEO.
First Example: Immigration
This, for the Dems is a flat out winner. Latino voters went 70+ percent for Obama in 2008. And although they potentially share some social issues with Republicans, the immigration issue has them running from the GOP. The Tea Party-fueled GOP agenda continues to say to Latino voters: "we hate you, get the fuck out of our country." This is a golden opportunity to grab the fastest growing national demographic for at least a generation. All they (the Dems) had to do was fight for the DREAM Act.
The DREAM Act lets the kids of illegal immigrants, who have been here most of their lives, who have been in school, and acculturated to become good Americans; go to college or to the military and become citizens. The Republicans said "hell no!" The Dems brought it up, but did not fight for it. They let the dream die.
Man, even if you couldn't ultimately pass it, you should fight like hell for it. President Obama should have made it a point to bring it up a month before November of 2010 and speak about it daily. They should have run ads in Texas, Florida, Arizona, New Mexico especially, but all through the south and the midwest. And here's why: a HUGE chunk of eligible Latino voters sat out the election in 2010. They knew they couldn't vote GOP, but they were also completely uninspired to vote for the Dems. They are the fastest growing demographic in the nation, they would have made a difference.
But nope...Obama and the Dems were afraid of pissing off white voters in the swing states in the midwest. Especially economically hard-hit states like Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin and Indiana - so they didn't fight hard for the Dream Act. They even made sure that NO immigrants, even if their guts were hanging out, would get any health care. And what did that brilliant strategy get them? Loathsome Republican governors and a Republican House, who are now attacking organized labor and all social services. Nice going. Hopefully, a smart guy like Obama can learn from his mistakes.
Second Example: Big Oil
Oops...I guess we didn't learn. Today's Huffpo headline was (and I'm paraphrasing) "Obama Strokes Big Oil." The President is speeding up environmental reviews that will open up more oil leases for oil companies to drill. He says this is his reaction to the high oil prices, to reassure Americans who are stressed by high prices at the pump. Sigh...
Goddammit! In the same goddam article he admits that this won't help lower gas prices. It does nothing to put American on a sustainable energy path, or to help the average American in any way. There's no evidence that it will even create oil drilling jobs in the short run. It only increases the profits of the oil companies, and the salaries of their executives.
Now, Obama, and some Democrats, are making noise about the four BILLION dollar annual subsidies that we give the big oil companies. They have even threatened to take away half of it (how very, very bold to take away half of a subsidy for an industry that has made over 30 billion in PROFIT - this quarter!). Yes, they have made noise - but they haven't done shit.
They can, and to a small degree have, beaten the Republicans with this issue. But not substantively. They aren't swinging with a club like they did on the Medicare issue. They should be making it seem as if individual swing-district Republicans are standing next to the pump, with a black mask and a pistol, emptying your wallet every time you fill up.
Worse, two Dem senators, Landrieu and the dude from Alaska, are defending the oil companies. This, in the DC media parlance makes it a bipartisan defense of big oil. They will be called "moderate" Democrats, and it will be insinuated that representatives who don't want their constituents to give four billion dollars of their hard earned tax money EVERY YEAR to the most profitable corporations in the world, are radical leftists. Now, if you say "well, what can Obama do...the Democratic Party is a big tent..." then I say remember the health care debate. When big pharma CEOs wanted drug reimportation stopped, Obama rounded up Democratic senators and kicked their asses into line to make sure those CEOs got paid. He can do it if he wants, so I guess he doesn't. He just wants to make sound bites to excite the "base," while he makes CEOs a little richer. Which means he thinks we are stupid.
Even worse, Obama is once again validating the Republican position - this time on energy. By speeding up domestic drilling, he is in essence agreeing with Sarah Palin, and her rallying cry of "drill baby drill!" He is not laying out a clear alternative of renewable energy, even as EU nations are buying up swaths of the Mojave desert to build solar power plants. They will develop the technology, and sell the power to us, taking the innovation and profits back home to Europe - while we soil our beaches and continue to pay high prices to destroy our planet. This is bad for America, and we either realize this now, or will soon. And instead of laying all this damage at the feet of the Republicans, they can say "hey, it was the President's idea, so don't blame us." And they will be right.
Most Americans are NOT in favor of giving billions of tax dollars to big oil companies. Almost EVERY Latino voter in America is in favor of the DREAM Act. These two issues could have put the Republicans in terrible positions. Forcing them to defend big oil when gas is over four bucks per gallon, and forcing them to continue to make speeches that rile up the rising juggernaut of a Latino voting block all but guarantees Democratic victory. Unless - the Dems are so inept that they can't hit these easy pitches.
Or, perhaps they are throwing the game. Look, 2010 was a debacle for the Democratic Party, and fair or not, President Obama must take the lion's share of the blame. He failed to fight for low and middle-income Americans. On economic issues, like tax cuts for the rich, he failed to make that an issue before the election, and failed to fight when he could have damaged the opposition greatly. On social issues, like abortion (which is in reality, women's rights and women's health care) he gave too much ground. He was pandering to Fox so-called News and to midwest soccer moms, and many of the folks who were excited in 2008 sat the election out.
The only energy was coming from the Tea Party, and they were energizing the folks who don't even think Obama is an American. And those knuckle-draggers won! We thought we elected the smart guy in 2008, and I think we did (although we also thought we elected the more progressive of the democratic candidates, and it turns out we didn't). Why does the President and the Democratic leadership seem to watch the pitch float by without a swing so often?
Because they love corporate cash just as much as Republicans do. Look what got accomplished right after 2010 - DADT. Was DADT done away with because it was the most burning issue affecting the most Americans? Was it because it was the biggest way to score political points and excite the Democratic base? No, it was because giving gay Americans the right to serve their country in the military did not affect the bonus package of even one corporate CEO.
Now, if you're paying attention, you might say that Obama and the Democrats have fought hard on the Medicare issue, and beat the shit out of Republicans on it, so I should shut the fuck up. And you would be half right! Only half right because this is the ruse, the smoke-screen to distract us from the even bigger robbery - Social Security. Yes, corporate overlords would love to get their hands on Medicare cash, as Paul Ryan's plan called for. But they want Social Security even more. They want the government to default on trillions in government bonds that are held for the American people, so they can continue to enjoy historically low taxes and withholdings. This will cost the average working American about 50,000 dollars! They are gonna say "look, we got those sons o' bitches, we saved Medicare. But now we have to be adults and make sacrifices to save Social Security." And the Republicans, who want more than anything to take away your SS, will get to say "don't look at us, the Democrats did it." And they will be right.
And guess what that will do to voter turnout...2010 all over again. A swing and a miss, but three strikes and WE'RE out. Primary everybody, primary now!
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