Has Obama Finally Gotten the Message?
Specifically, that the Republicans are a party of extremism and have no interest in compromise even for the sake of America’s basic financial health (as when they held the country hostage over the debt ceiling)?
Maybe. Here’s Ezra Klein (in a must-read post):
The choice, it turned out, wasn’t between winning by making tough choices and hard compromises and winning by running as a populist. It was between losing because he was unable to get Washington to make tough choices and hard compromises and trying something else. So now the White House is trying something else.
The new theory goes something like this: The first-best outcome is still striking a grand bargain with the Republicans, and it’s more likely to happen if the Republicans worry that Democrats have found a clear, popular message that might win them the election. The better Obama looks in the polls, the more interested Republicans will become in a compromise that takes some of the Democrats’ most potent attacks off the table…
That isn’t how the White House would prefer to govern. It’s not how they would prefer to campaign. It is, let’s admit it, politics-as-usual. It’s the triumph of the old way of doing things, an admission that Washington proved too hard to change. But it’s also the only option they have left.
The problem all along with “change we can believe in” has been that change is difficult, if not next to impossible, in Washington, or at least in a Washington in which relentlessly partisan Republicans have the filibuster in the Senate, a majority in the House (since last year), and for the most part a 5-4 majority on the Supreme Court.
Perhaps to his credit (or perhaps not, given his general disregard for progressive policies since he took office), Obama tried to change the way things are done by seeking a middle way, compromise, by being, as we have so often heard, the adult in the room. But, really, where has that gotten him? The GOP is still the party of extremism and obstructionism and he has lost many on the left and center-left who supported him enthusiastically in ’08 — though also, it should be added, because he has embraced pro-Wall Street economic policies, with many of the Clinton-era figures who were part of the problem serving in his administration, along with much of the Bush-Cheney national security state, while steadfastly refusing to use the bully pulpit to advance anything resembling a genuine progressive agenda. Simply put, it’s time to change course.
Now, of course, this is being driven to a great extent by 2012, not just by the realization that the GOP won’t play nice. Obama is already in campaign mode, and drawing clear lines between himself and the other side makes for good campaigning, particularly when he has the public on his side (for example, on sensible tax increases on corporations and the wealthy). He needs to win independents, but he also needs to firm up a base that is nothing if not disgruntled. This is a good way to do it.
Not that he won’t continue to be criticized from the left (rightly / understandably so). Already there are attacks on his proposed cuts to Medicare and Medicaid. But, overall, I see this working. Just consider these headlines after his remarks on deficit reduction yesterday:
– “Obama’s deficit plan revs up Democrats” (CBS News);
– “Progressive groups warm to president over deficit reduction plan” (CNN);
– “Obama Draws New Hard Line on Long-Term Debt Reduction” (New York Times);
– “Obama throws ‘class warfare’ charge back in GOP’s face” (Washington Post);
– “Obama defends new taxes: ‘This is not class warfare, it’s math‘” (The Hill); and
– “Obama links entitlement cuts to tax changes” (Politico).
Obama seems to have gotten the message and that message is now resonating in the media, as well as with Democrats. Because while cuts to key entitlement programs are hardly desirable (even if what he’s proposing isn’t terribly severe), the president is finally challenging Republicans on taxes, backing them into a corner of their own ideological Tea Party extremism, threatening to veto anything that gets passed without those sensible tax increases on those who can afford to pay more or that takes Medicare benefits away from seniors. There’s an awful lot to like in that.
Basically, it’s about time.
(Cross-posted from The Reaction.)
7 Responses to “Has Obama Finally Gotten the Message?”
The problem isn’t that the Republicans are extremists and the Democrats are moderates. Far from it. The problem is that the Democratic extremism is too extreme for even for Republican extremism.
We’re too far off course for moderation to even be an option at this point.
Lol..
Prof tries to camouflage the neo neo-Republican Tea Party that resides within the Bush neo-Republican Party, that killed off the traditional Republican Party with Bob Dole at it’s head, last of the Mohicans good ol’ Bob was.
But not to Prof…nothing ever changed for him. Why it’s the new and improved, out of the woodwork, absolute surprise to everyone wild and crazy uber-liberals popping out everywhere in Washington! The Neo Neo Democrats! Making everything EQUAL to those wacky maniacs called Tea baggers….
Oh please. The Republicans are desperate because their secret and hateful ideology is exposed wide open and now their apologists, like prof here, try to “cover it up” and make it all look Equal-Equal.
Nope…won’t work. Smile a million smiles for me…
Yeah right, Allen.
I’ll point a few (and only a few) of the problems again:
The Fed has granted tremendous power to the financial sector, but with little effective oversight. Democrats approve have only enough to look like they care. Republicans yelled at them for even that.
The Social Security umbrella is growing too fast to fund, and is due to become bigger than all defense and discretionary spending combined. Both parties have fought changes, depending on who suggested them.
The Patriot Act and the drug war are stripping us of all rights and handing over tremendous power (with implicit trust) to various authorities. Both parties support these acts.
The tax code includes several subsidies and market distortions, such as the home mortgage deduction and the employer-based health insurance exemption. These are ruining markets and have played a role in our recent financial crisis. Both parties are behind them.
The GSEs have proven disastrous, but untouchable, other than to bail them out in order to protect their investors and officers. Both parties had solidly approved those measures.
Even the current budget battles have proven that neither can face the true severity of our current financial and political situation.
To attempt to maintain the current set of disasters is suicide, and both parties have proven they don’t have the guts to face it. Your beloved Democrats aren’t spineless, my dear boy, they’re simply too entrenched in the system to want it to change.
“The problem isn’t that the Republicans are extremists and the Democrats are moderates. Far from it. The problem is that the Democratic extremism is too extreme for even for Republican extremism.”
Prof, I know you are a staunch defender of the right, but I’m a little surprised you would go so far out on a limb. It suggests you don’t really grasp the differences that have emerged between D’s and R’s over the past couple decades. Democrats extreme??? You must be joking.
@JSpencer
Yes, Democrats are trying to maintain a number of provably unsustainable lies, which I would call extreme. How anyone can call our current mess “moderate” is beyond me.
Of course the “mess” isn’t moderate (and for reasons you haven’t even touched on) but we are talking about a larger societal problem, not a dem problem. Think bigger.
????
What larger societal problem?
Since this is about the president, it seems the subject would be about government. The Democrats are making proposals that almost completely miss what’s needed, just like the Reps. Seems pretty contained to me.